'Mental risk' of Facebook teens

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

'Mental risk' of Facebook teens


Social networking sites may be harmful, an expert says

Children growing up alongside the rise of social networking websites may have a "potentially dangerous" view of the world, says a leading psychiatrist.

Dr Himanshu Tyagi said sites such as Facebook and MySpace may be harmful.

He told the Royal College of Psychiatrists annual meeting people with active online identities might place less value on their real lives. And the West London Mental Health NHS Trust expert added this could raise the risk of impulsive acts or even suicide.

Dr Tyagi said that people born after 1990 did not know a world without the widespread use of the internet. He warned that the current crop of psychiatrists were perhaps not fully prepared to help young people with internet-related problems. While social networking sites offered great benefits, he said, there were potential pitfalls.

'Unstimulating'

"It's a world where everything moves fast and changes all the time, where relationships are quickly disposed at the click of a mouse, where you can delete your profile if you don't like it, and swap an unacceptable identity in the blink of an eye for one that is more acceptable."

He said: "People used to the quick pace of online social networking may soon find the real world boring and unstimulating.
"It may be possible that young people who have no experience of a world without online societies put less value on their real world identities and can therefore be at risk in their real lives, perhaps more vulnerable to impulsive behaviour or even suicide."

He called for more investigation and research into the issue.

However, Graham Jones, a psychologist with an interest in the impact of the internet, said that while over-use of social networking sites could lead to problems, the risks posed by them had been overplayed.

He said: "For every new generation, the experience they have of the world is a different one. "When the printing press was first invented, I am sure there were crowds of people saying it was a bad thing. "In my experience, the people who tend to be most active on sites such as Facebook or Bebo are those who are most socially active anyway - it is just an extension of what they are already doing."

[source]

[Strengthandhonour]

Interesting article and I would say I agree with it.
I see people of all ages spending countless hours on social networking sites. The most interesting part is that when they go out and be social they constantly make videos and take pictures with the site i mind.

[Cirrus]

Did they mention the Stirpes forum ?

[Musaka]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Did they mention the Stirpes forum ?

Everything is about Stirpes..God first made Earth,then Stirpes and then everything else

[Susi]

Originally Posted by Strengthandhonour

The most interesting part is that when they go out and be social they constantly make videos and take pictures with the site i mind.

I find it very annoying. I don't mind taking a few photos when I go out... but my friends do it to excess and if I take a photo they'll say "you're posting this right?" ._. it's ridiculous. I just want to go out and have fun and they want to sit around taking photos o_O

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

I see people hanging for hours on FaceBook and similar "social networking websites", exchanging photos and writing idiocies. I wonder how come they haven't yet gotten annoyed thereby. I presume the eventually will. Or they will end up in asylum.

[Susi]

The only reason I have an account on facebook is otherwise it's impossible to contact some of my friends. o_O I think one should only use it once or twice a day for about 5 minutes at a time. Then I think it's an effective means of talking to friends and finding out what they're doing (albeit slightly creepishly) as it will probably be difficult to talk to them directly (either by phone or in person) or more indirectly but without the aid of facebook (either by email, by IM or by SMS).

I think it's a large problem that is faced at least in some social groups -- but they don't really see it as a problem. .-. Some I don't think will "quit"... maybe there will be a new social networking site (i.e. the perceived transition I've observed from myspace to facebook) that people use but I doubt that social networking on a whole will disappear despite its massive flaws.

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

LOL...idiots...

Facebook 'stabbing' game removed

Mark Sweney
guardian.co.uk,
Monday July 28 2008

A Facebook game that lets users 'shank' each other - street slang for stabbing - has been removed following complaints from anti-knife crime campaigners.

The virtual "shank" appears as an icon within the Facebook Superpoke! application.

Superpoke! allows users to send virtual actions to other users such as smile, wink, take part in the Tour de France or send a bouquet.

Although the application consists of mostly humorous actions, some of the options, such as smack, slap and shank, have darker connotations.

When the knife icon is sent to a Facebook friend they receive a message saying that they have been "shanked".

The application, made by US firm Slide for Facebook users, has now been removed from the social networking website.

Superpoke! and Facebook came in for criticism in today's Sun. The uncle of Rob Knox, the Harry Potter actor who died after being stabbed in May, told the paper that the application "incited violence".

Anti-knife campaign group Urban Concepts condemned the shank application, branding it "appalling".

"The story refers to an application called Superpoke! made by Slide," said a spokeswoman for Facebook. "Slide have actually removed the 'shank' option from Superpoke!."

[source]

[melgalan]

When I was a younger teenager..I was totally guilty of sitting on the sites for hours on end. I would send tons of mind numbing comments to my friends. It got to the point I didn't feel alive unless I checked my myspace. Nowadays , I check my myspace once a week if that. It was like a seperate life outside my own. I guess It was the norm for 15 year olds at the time.

[Haraxvat]

haha so true...