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Jessica Brown

Professor Kretzer

English 1101

29 November 2018

Banning Social Media

Social Media has made a big impact on our daily lives. From generation to

generation, the use seems to escalate, with the development of different platforms. My

essay will be answering whether social media should be banned or not. Every day,

millions of people go on their phones, and right to social media. Common social media

platforms include Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest. I will

also be explaining and expressing how life without social networking would be much

better and healthier for humans. Social networking should be banned because it

develops bad habits, limits the time for daily tasks, and puts us at risk everyday.

Social media can develop bad habits for young children, at an early age. In

Thomas Lasley’s article, Character Education will likely fail, he states that “American

culture, at least as presented in the media, tends to emphasize the worst, not the best,

in human beings.” This quote emphasizes that social media can display more negative

content, rather than positive. When young viewers see these behaviors contributed to

social media, they will often want to repeat or try this on their own. Negative behaviors

include smoking, drinking, gambling, using drugs, and many more. Other than social
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media, different platforms can also contribute to negative content such as television

shows, or even radio broadcasts talking about inappropriate matters. Commercials

during television shows or breaks, can influence viewers to do the wrong thing, or they

can get the wrong idea. Unwanted advertisements on social media can also incorporate

to negative behavior.

Aside from the mental aspect of social media, spending too much time on it can

reduce the amount of time needed to do daily tasks, leaving one being unproductive.

David Harsanyi expressed in his magazine article that Twitter has left him unproductive

and wasting a lot of time at work. “One recent study suggests that the average

Twitterer uses 2.6 hours of his work time each day accessing social media--killing

around 13 percent of total productivity at the workplace.” (David Harsanyi “Twitter

Quitter”). If companies need a strong appeal for marketing, they can use other forms of

advertisement rather than Twitter. The average person has a 8.5 hour work day. Now,

taking the 2.6 hours of access to social media, that means over a fourth of your time at

work is spent on social media, leaving around 5.9 hours of the work day left. With the

younger generation, the use of social media has escalated -- and for the worse.

Finally, social media puts at risk everyday for online predators. Predators often

will create fake social media accounts to draw younger children in, and ask for access

to their home address, cell phone numbers, or other personal information.

“Cybercriminals may also gain access to personal information from users’ social media
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accounts, making users vulnerable to identity theft and other crimes.” (Social Media.”)

This quote explains that anyone is vulnerable to being attacked online by criminals.

Social media has limited privacy options, and somewhere out there, criminals are

gaining personal information linked through social media accounts. Through different

platforms such as Facebook, there is a “about yourself” section where you can add

where you are from, what school you attend, and when your birthday is. Cybercriminals

can easily access this information to lure you into a trap, by creating fake profiles or

messaging you about your information. Online users must beware the risks involved

with social media, because once you post something, you cannot get it back.

All in all, I believe social media should be banned from our society today because

of the detrimental risks such as an invasion of privacy, unproductivity, and bad

character representation. Some may argue that social media can postiviley be used for

long distance communication, there is just too many risks that are involved in the

process. If a wipeout of social media occurs, there will be an improved structure in our

generation, and more people will be able to get things accomplished, without the

distraction of social media.