Social media’s dark side



Closed Doors

© Jane Kirby

I cry myself to sleep at night
Just wishing it would stop
Maybe tomorrow it will cease
Then again, maybe not

You push me and you poke me
You call me hurtful name
To me it's like a prison
To you it's fun and games

Your heart is made of ice
But it doesn't even deserve that
Mine was once a rainbow
But you have moulded it to darkest black

I hate you, I hate everyone
There is no one I can trust
Are you proud of what you've done?
You've turned my soul into dust

If there was a door I could open
A simple path I could tread
I don't want to be stuck here forever
In this endless spiral of dread.

http://www.bestteenpoems.com/poem/escape-from-bullying-closed-doors

What a terrible but necessary topic to be covering for our blog this week. The less friendly side of social media seems to be becoming a real issue for people to be aware of for the sake of our futures. Online bullying, heightened risk of sexual predator grooming, and potential for extremist’s exposure and growth are only three of the problems we will be facing as an entire planet, not just individual countries.

            The above poem I have included screams of teenage pain, you want to reach out and hold this child, and tell her that everything will be ok one day. But will it? One study has shown that in the UK 8 out of 10 university staff members has experienced bullying from co workers in the last 6 months (http://news.discovery.com/tech/workplace-cyber-bullies-are-worse-121103.htm). That’s 80%! That is quite a strong number to be going up against. Particularly for teachers, who are helping monitor and guide our children into the people they will be for the rest of their lives. How are we supposed to tell our children that they bullying they are experiencing through high school will eventually go away when everyone ‘grow’s up’. And this is just one of the problems social media presents us with.

            As a mother, the potential for child grooming online terrifies me! The thought that my innocent child could be exposed to a child predator as easily as turning on the computer is an alarming situation. I found some statistics on child predator activity online that was core shaking. 1 in 33 youth received an invitation to meet up with a child predator online within the last 12 months, and 75% of the children interviewed were willing to share personal information with a stranger online (http://www.sentrypc.com/statistics.htm). Wow, maybe I shouldn’t have read that, my kids are banned from computers for the rest of their lives (I am joking of course). But it is one of the many reasons we need to be careful with what our children are exposed to online, and also what they are exposing the world to about themselves, our families and our private lives.

            Lastly the potential for exposure to extremist groups online is quite worrying too! In America, 1018 known extremist or hate groups are displaying information to the public (http://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do/hate-and-extremism). The potential for reach online is immeasurable, and has the potential to expand a hate group rather than let its influence wane. Hate groups shouldn’t be promoted online, they should be quashed! But then there comes the question of free speech, where does it begin and end? I’m not sure, but the more I read the more I worry about the future for my children in this world that is so consumed by social media.