Final – Writing to respond

Dear Ms Samantha Taylor,

I have recently read your view on teenagers and their interactions in the digital world and I strongly agree. As a teenager myself I believe we don’t all depend on social media. In your article you mentioned how people think teenagers are unable to socialise face to face and how teenagers leave themselves prone to attack over social networking. Although I believe this to some extent I am writing this letter in response to your article and hopefully you will see things from my point of view.

In your article Johnathan Franzen said that we teenagers spend countless hours glued to Facebook and it has turned us into screen – enslaved social inadequates”. I believe that this description of us is cruel and harsh because even though we might text a lot on our mobile phones or spend hours on social media, we are still able to have physical relationships with others around us. This view is supported by Shira Lee Katz who stated that “Teenagers feel that social media has a more positive than negative impact on their social and emotional lives. It helps their friendships, makes them more outgoing and boosts their confidence.” A research study consisting of more than 1000 teenagers (13-17 year olds) showed that 28% believed that’s social networking made them feel more outgoing vs the 5% who made them feel less so. It also showed that 29% believed that it made them feel less shy vs the 3% who believed it made them feel more introverted. When it comes to relationships with friends, more than half (52%) of teens said social media has made them better versus just 4% who said it has negatively affected those relationships. However I do agree with the fact that us teenagers use social networking religiously; that can be seen as a positive as well as a negative because it will mean that we would be able to meet new people and expand our friendship groups. If anything I believe that teenagers spending a lot of time enables them to strengthen their more important relationships instead of weakening them as they will be able to keep in touch and speak even when they aren’t together.

In your article you mentioned that Jonathan Franzen said social media was creating a “uniquely shallow and trivial culture”. Shallow is defined as being superficial and not capable of serious thoughts. Trivial is defined as being of little value or importance. From these definitions it can be seen that you perceived teenagers relationships to not be deep and meaningful also that the relationships that social media is creating is of little value. I disagree with this because if you are far away from someone social media helps you stay connected with them meaning your relationship won’t weaken.and this is supported by a research that was conducted with teens whereby nearly 9/10 teens say social networking helps them keep in touch with friends they can’t see regularly. About half of all teens believe that it helps them stay more connected with  family and friends. 57% of teens have said that it has connected them with new people with whom they share a common interest or hobby. On a whole although it can be seen that teenagers can spend an endless amount of time on social media, the overall impact of social networking outweighs the negatives impacts.

Empathy is the capacity to share or recognise emotions experienced by another person or fictional being. In your article you said some parents fear that giving their teenagers mobile phones would stop them from developing empathy. Others believe that giving teenagers mobile phones could lead to the raising of a hedonistic generation who live only in the thrill of the computer generated moment and are in distinct danger of detaching themselves from what the rest of the world would consider the real world. By this I mean that teenagers who enjoy the thrill created on social media would

I believe that these statements are incorrect as social networking is part of the real world and in fact it actually benefits the real world on a huge scale also social networking actually improves empathy to some extent as you can tell the way someone is feeling by the way they text or by the emoticon they send. But equally you can say that a teenager wouldn’t be able to tell how someone is feeling by their facial expression but I believe that’s not true as this is a skill you grow up with and won’t be able to lose, no matter how much you text.

As you know already there are negatives to social networking such as cyber bullying and the underdevelopment of relationships, however research has shown that there are many positives such as teens being able to stay  touch with relatives e.g. cousins or siblings in a different country or friends who have changed school also it has allowed teens to meet with people who have the same interests as them which builds on their confidence.In my opinion I believe the pros outweigh the cons and i hope you can see this too.

Yours Sincerely,

David Ndanema