The Dark Side of Social Media

Reading through Social Media literature such as Social Media Today, Social Media Explorer and the TopRank blog aren't the only ways you can find about the latest social media tips and occurrences.  In fact, it's important to see how journalists of print, broadcast and online are portraying the world of social media.

To find about the latest news, you can browse through your local or national papers (which is something I like to do) and/or you can have Google Alerts sent to you.  In case you don't know it, Google Alerts is an effective way to have the kind of news you care about sent right to your email's inbox.

In my case, I care about everything social media, so I set up an alert that gives me any news anywhere around the world that has anything to do with social media.

So in my inbox this morning,  I checked the latest social media alert, opened the email and saw at the top was an alert that read, "Social media can harm kids."  My first reaction was objection.  How can any journalist, or better yet, anyone just alert the public and make a statement like that?

A canadian publication called The Province posted an article with that exact title.  The article was written yesterday and talks about a new phenomenon called "Facebook depression."  This is defined by the American Academy of Pediatrics as causing "a risk for social isolation, anxiety or depression."

They cite a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics when saying, "The report says these sites (Facebook, Twitter and virtual worlds such as Sims) and other technology can be useful to kids for staying in touch, socializing, entertainment and even doing homework...They can also lead to cyberbullying, depression and exposure to inappropriate content."


The article also displays this photo in the article:

From The Province in the article, "Social media can harm kids"

The picture above is worth noting.  If you ask ten people on the street if they think this girl looks either depressed or too busy to care about anything else in life, it would not be surprising if all ten said yes to that question.

The point here is that the American Academy of Pediatrics and The Province are trying to make a point: Parents...make sure you watch your kids' daily social media intake.

Though I have read through the report and The Province's article and like the balance it makes between positive and negative aspects of social media for kids and teenagers and I have all the respect in the world for an institution like the American Academy of Pediatrics, I still can't help but overlook the point the report attempts to make.    

Yes, as mentioned, it is a good study and well worth a read (at least download it here first), but it leads to another set of questions:

Is this news?

Or is it something we have heard before?