GP 1st Individual Research PaperPham Thi Gia Han IGCSE2

Communication

Social Network

IGCSE

Global Perspective
1st Individual Research Paper
Language/ Communication
Do the disadvantages of social networks outweigh the benefits?

Singapore International School@DaNang

GP 1st Individual Research PaperPham Thi Gia Han IGCSE2

Social Network

INTRODUCTION
According to Mark Zuckerberg, If Facebook were a country, it would be the sixth most
populated country in the world (Academia, 2013). This is saying that there are lots of people
around the world that see social networks as an important tool in their daily life. The benefits like
helping people to stay in touch and support people in diversifying interactions for different
purposes are very useful. However, there are disadvantages such as loss of privacy that leads to
crimes, cyber bullying and harassment, out-of-control pornography, improper languages, and
unhappiness. They can make our social life a mess. The disadvantages of social networks
outweigh the benefits.
ANALYZE AND PRESENT
A social network is defined in many ways, one of them is, A dedicated website or other
application which enables users to communicate with each other by posting or sharing their life
through comments, messages, or images (Oxford Dictionaries). Some of the trending social
networks are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Foursquare and Vimeo. Research shows
that 29% of the worlds population is present on social networks, which accounts for 2,078
billion users (Kemp, 2015). It is undeniable that social networks have changed peoples lives
positively in some aspects. Those platforms facilitate us in many ways such as communicating,
shopping, eating, reading or running a business. Reality has proven many examples of those lives
changed forever thanks to social networking. As examples, there is Michelle Phan a beauty
vlogger, video blogger, and YouTube millionaire. Also Evan Spiegel Snapchat founder, whose
company is valued at $537.6 million and reached over 200 million users in 2015, is the world
youngest billionaire (Picker & Frier, 2015). Therefore, social networks did enter our lives with

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Social Network

good intention. However, social networks also bring many disadvantages along with the
positives.
The most direct disadvantage is the loss of privacy that leads to an increase in the number
of crimes. By having an account on a social network, peoples profiles are online and visible to
the public. Many people include criminals are accessible to the information people post on social
networks:
Complaints to police about alleged crimes linked to the use of Facebook and Twitter
have increased by 780% in four years, resulting in about 650 people being charged last
year. The situation in 2008 was not as severe as in 2012. According to the statistics
released by 29 police forces in England, Scotland and Wales under the Freedom of
Information Act, in 2012 there were 4,908 reports in which the two sites were a factor.
(Theguardian, 2012)
This is a very significant number that proves the sharp and continuous increase in cyber crimes
due to social networks.
These days, nearly every mobile devices are integrated with video cameras. Sometimes the
offenders even upload the clips themselves. One British study found that a high percentage of
the burglars they interviewed admitted to using social media sites when choosing their targets
(SourceSouth). Since the accessibility to peoples profiles on social networks is easy, the burglars
therefore can use the information they found to plan in advance when they will try to break into
houses. This obviously gives the burglars advantages as they can think of all possibilities of what
can go wrong and prevent it.
The second problem caused by social networks is cyber-bullying. It is repeat virtual
harassment. The cyber-bully uses social networks to disturb peoples life in a deliberate manner:
Cyber-bullying is the use of cell phones, instant messaging, e-mail, chat rooms or social
networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to harass, threaten or intimidate someone.
Cyber-bullying is often done by children, who have increasingly early access to these
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technologies. The problem is compounded by the fact that a bully can hide behind an
electronic veil, disguising his or her true identity.
(Rouse, 2010)
As their power of sharing, social networks add fuel to the fire by spreading information,
especially rumors, or scandals, widely that can hurt a lot of people. Every week, there is news
about suicides of schoolgirls whose nude photos to their boyfriends were distributed for bullying
purposes or of some LGBT people whose genders are offended online by bullies. The case of
Ryan Halligan (1989 2003) is a typical story. In 5th and 6th grade, Ryan fought with a person
who bullied him at school. After that, the person went online and started a rumor that Ryan was
gay. Some girl he considered his new girlfriend followed that cyber-bully and made Ryan share
more personally embarrassing materials that she copied and pasted into AIM exchanges with her
friends. Being offended by so many friends, Ryan lost his belief. They found he hung himself in
the bathroom in late October 2013 (NoBullying, 2015). The suicide of Ryan was shaking news at
that moment in late 2013. Since then, social networks have been seen as a shelter of crime,
especially cyber-bullying.
The third disadvantage is accessing uncensored adult sites. Nowadays, kids get their first
mobile phones at very young age and find its too easy to log onto 18+ sites. They may have
been sucked into one of the fastest growing enticement in the digital age, Internet pornography
addiction. While some cannot realize themselves addicted to the adult sites by visiting the sites
on a weekly basis, they are often unaware of just how much long-term effects those graphic
videos and images have because they might be over obsessive to those sites. This is really
dangerous to growing kids. Pornography might steal kids interest in real life, makes them skip
healthy activities that fit their ages, instead, wasting time on black sites.

GP 1st Individual Research PaperPham Thi Gia Han IGCSE2

Social Network

The fourth side effect of social networks is improper languages. Peoples thoughts are
interpreted through slang, informal abbreviations, impolite addressing, curses, and more. That
ruins the structure of a particular language. For example, students perform poorly in formal
language tests because they are out of practice when it comes to use it. Saying 'yeah' in lieu of
'yes' is a common problem and one which is never tolerated in the classroom or in tests/exams
(Debatewise). Some slang words are new and older persons, who may not know them, can
greatly inhibit conversations. Therefore, the language gap resulting from slang usage can
manifest a block between people of different generations.
Last but not least, people involved in social networks may think less of their own lives.
Posts on social networks present an idealized version of what should happen, what something
should look like and what people should do in certain periods of their life. If things are going
particularly well for people in someones newsfeed and they themselves are having a rough day,
of course this will likely affect their mood negatively. In fact, in 2012 a team of researchers in
the UK surveyed users and discovered that, 53% of those whom said social networks had
changed their behavior; 51% said it was negative behavior because of decline in confidence they
felt due to unfair comparisons to others(Degreed Atom, 2015). This numbers shows that there
are a lot of people around the world who are unhappy and feel uncomfortable while using social
networks.
From a global perspective, many celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Amber
Heard, and more are victims of social networks, especially cyber-bullying. Bullies took their
leaked naked photos as hostage to disturb their personal lives. An organization, which aims for
Internet safety, called Enough is Enough, conducted a survey and found, 95% of teenagers

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Social Network

who use social networks have witnessed cyber bullying, and 33% have been victims themselves
(Degreed Atom, 2015).
Over the past few years, the global e-criminals employ more sophisticated technology and
greater knowledge of cyber security. Malware, spam emails, hacking into corporate sites and
other attacks of this nature were mostly those criminals:
In 2010, the global spam rate increased 1.4 percent year-on-year (y-o-y), to 89.1 percent,
most of which involved botnets, according to a Symantec report. The average rate of
malware in email traffic was 1 in 284.2 emails, almost the same as that in 2009. However,
the average rate of emails blocked as phishing attacks improved from 1 in 325.2 in 2009 to 1
in 444.5 in 2010. The average number of blocked malicious websites rose from 2,465 per
day in 2009 to 3,188.
(Herhalt, 2011)
This shows that there are hardly an effective solution to spamming and phishing as long as
malicious websites.
From the national perspective, social networks significantly leverage Vietnam. Some
people use social networks against the government. By making fake accounts as government
authorities, the reactionaries posted incorrect information or made up stories about Partys
Policies and call upon many Vietnamese to oppose the Party. The situation got worse in 2010, so
the government decided to prohibit the access to Facebook for a while:
Many Internet users in Viet Nam have expressed their resentment at several online social
websites being taken advantage of in disseminating information against the State of the
Socialist Republic of Viet Nam that violate Vietnams laws, threaten information security,
and adversely affect Internet users.
(Ngo, 2009)
Beside the problem caused by the reactionaries, there is also problem caused by cyber-fakers.
They create fake accounts of Vietnamese celebrities, posting photoshopped pictures, shocking
statements to ruin the reputation of these well-known people. The fakers even use celebrities
prestige to make illegal money. For example, there was a fan page to call upon the fans of singer
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Wanbi Tuan Anh to donate money for debt repayment of the singer. Many people were trapped
and the hackers pocketed all the money of the donators (Ngo, 2014). The government is
struggling to find a way to control the situation.
From the authors view, social networks make life unhappy, and far from each other. The
Sheeps Effect, which is following or agreeing with the opinion of the majority without having
a personal perspective, makes virtual discussions hurtful because it is very easy for people to stay
with their keyboard and say bad things about others. People are interested in being keyboard
heroes because no one will be able to figure out who they are in real life. Offending others
without being detected makes people motivated to do it over and over again. There were a lot of
victims in Vietnam, for example, a beauty guru, Mie Nguyen who confesses she has a really hard
time going through hurtful comments people leave at her videos. Also a Vietnamese video
blogger, whose channel quickly reached one and a half million subscribers after just 3 years,
called JVevermind even stopped doing his job for a while because he cannot stand offensive and
compromising comments on his YouTube channel. Also, these days, the social networks users are
rabidly sharing news from an electronic tabloid about a close friend of a famous couple turned
out to be the husband-stealer (noitieng.net, 2015). The sensitive conversation between the girl
friend and the man in the couple published by this tabloid is not verified, but the readers got very
angry and gave many critics that put unbearable pressure on the poor girl. She has just written a
note explaining everything on Facebook, but she also implied her intention of suicide. Nobody
knows what these kinds of news will lead a persons life to, but from several proofs, it is visible
that social networks, as a center of information spreading, are ruining the confidence and selfbelief of many young people in Vietnam.

GP 1st Individual Research PaperPham Thi Gia Han IGCSE2

Social Network

Moreover, posts on social networks create an ideal life of what should happen, what
something should look like, what people should do. It leads users to constantly think less about
their own life, instead, just look at all the versions on social networks. For example, when people
had a rough day, and others on Facebook had a good day, they may feel sad and lonely. Another
example, girls might feel inferior about their appearances when looking at other beautiful girls
pictures on Instagram. This slowly will steal confidence of individuals, at the same time create
stereotypes and make people forget about who they are or who they want to be, which is a really
bad side of social networks.
POSSIBLE SCENARIOS/FUTURES
If these problems continue, the effects may become very hopeless. Fans of social
networking will make friends with technology devices. Virtual networks will be much bigger
while the links will be fragile, and the relationships between people and their significant ones
will be therefore easily breakable. The reason is because people became more inactive, they care
too much about their own Internet life. Communicating, making friends, and talking, will be all
done online. Above all, these platforms will leave permanent flaws on growing generations as
they are doing whatever they want on the Internet without restriction and ethical guidelines. They
can log in to bad sites and follow mindless content that makes their lives worse.
At the same time, real crimes due to virtual spaces continue to escalate:
In the UK, the annual cost resulting from cyber crime is estimated at GBP27 billion (US$43
billion). A major portion of that is the result of intellectual property (IP) theft, which is
expected to account for an annual total of GBP9.2 billion (US$14 billion).
(Herhalt, 2011)
Despite the effort of preventing cyber crime, challenges still and will continue to exist because
within cyberspace it is difficult to determine political borders and culprits. Also, the continuous
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evolution of criminals makes it harder for governments and companies to keep up with everchanging techniques.
In a life with limited access to social networks, people will be present, with mindfulness
and care. People will be grateful for nature instead of taking photos and writing emotionless
feeling on social networks hoping others will understand. In a life with no Facebook or
Instagram, friends can be real friends, they will show up when people need them, people will get
lost together for a while to enjoy real moments. In a life with reasonable amount of time and
effort spent on social networks, people will have more energy to care for their beloveds instead
of strangers, and receive the love their surrounded ones instead of reading virtual compliments.
People will feel fulfilled and happier in the reality.
COURSES OF ACTION
Since social networks cause many bad problems for people around the world, there are a lot
of solutions built. However, there are just some solutions that are impacting because people have
gotten used to social networks already. The three most significant are the 30-Day Social Media
Detox, Disconnect to Connect, and #NgungSongAo. These campaigns have changed and
helped many people to live a healthier and happier life.
Firstly, people can challenge themselves in the 30-Day Social Media Detox. This is a type
of challenge where people give up on social media for 30 days. Instead of being stuck on social
networks all day, people will spend more time with their friends, family and people around them
to build stronger relationships. Participants will only use social networks for a few times during
the challenge if needed. In the first couple of days, most of the participants still miss the social
networks, but will get used to it within days. With a mind free to wander and explore, people will
start to create things, to make moves, and are encouraged to read books and do sports rather than
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get stuck to a never-ending stream of information. This will help the participants to fall in line
with their life and people around them, not always be on the Internet.
The Disconnect to Connect campaign contains a bunch of YouTube videos about the
excess of using social networks. Many people from all over the world makes different videos in
different languages. All those videos have the same message is that Life is what happens while
you are looking at your smart phone! In the videos of the campaign, there are many examples of
social networks addicts such as using social networks while working, studying, going to the
restroom, and even in accidents. The examples are shocking but relatable. The common message
spoke out the situation of a lot people who stuck their life to social networks.
#NgungSongAo is a campaign in Vietnam that means, Stop Being a Social Network
Fake. Like the Disconnect to Connect campaign, this one also delivers the message that
encourage people to pay more attention to real life instead of spending too much time on social
networks. This is a very famous campaign in Vietnam and has been widely spread in the
community. It also motivated people to live a life with less social networking. As the result, the
campaign has helped a lot of people to go through their time being driven by social networks to
have a happy life.
Cyber bullying is a hard problem to fix as it happens really often to all kinds of people. For
kids and teens to protect themselves, it is necessary to educate them on how to secure their online
accounts by not sharing passwords or use app/services to block the person. They should save all
the evidence of them being cyber bullied in case things escalate. It is also recommended that
children will find someone, like a friend, relative or maybe an adult that they trust, to help
process what is going on and work through the situation together.

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When letting children use social networks, parents should have accounts and be your
childrens virtual friends on those social networks. At least, being active on social networks can
get parents updated with the situation and potential risks of their children. Then, clear
communication between parents and kids is the prerequisite step. Parents need to advise children
on making responsible decisions about who to add on the friend list, what to follow, which
virtual groups to join, or not to disclose any real personal information to strangers. Make friends
with your childrens online friends and then monitor their virtual friendships, because certain
levels of control are necessary. When cyber-bullying happens to children, help them speak their
voice out by reporting the case. To save your children, parents need to equip children with
knowledge about cyber-bullying and get involved in relevant topics at their school or local
district.
For social network companies, users privacy management must be set as a top priority. A
family filter function to censor adults documents and clips are highly recommended. In fact, big
social network companies have agreed on using a tool to remove hurtful content or picture or
materials in 48-hours of being notified. Otherwise, childrens mind will be perverse through
time.
The courses of action above are really useful and easy to apply and a lot of people are
already successful. If people want to be successful, they need to have their self-awareness and
their own perspective to not get addicted to social networks and live a healthy life.
PERSONAL RESPONSE
Through this essay, I am more aware of the pros and cons of using social networks and
the solutions to minimize the disadvantages. As a user, I was addicted to social networks, living
in my own imagined life and did not communicate at all. I remembered that I was very lonely
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living in my own world. That feeling was very bad. However, I am now able to control my
accessibility: I use it for searching information or for class work. I listen to music and watch
movies when I am bored. I no longer abuse it like I did before.
It appears that problems about social networks are easily solvable. However, when
writing this essay I realized that those issues could not be solved overnight because for too many
people it has become a habit. They are missing many healthy and happy activities around them to
play on social networks and electric devices all day. It will not be enough to help them make real
friends. I think the consequences that social networks abuse brings to us can be really dangerous
so people need to try their best to let go of the feeling of missing the newsfeed use it with limits.
It is better to make social networks a tool to facilitate our life to enhance our daily
productivity. Setting social networks as reminders for birthdays of our relatives, or channels of
business communication in emergency cases when offline meetings cannot occur, is a great
suggestion. Also, if we choose to make friends with good and inspiring people on social
networks, they can be our motivation. I figured out that there are many ways people can use
social networks, not necessarily letting it become a slave.
CONCLUSION
The disadvantages of social networks outweigh its benefit. However, social networks will
exist anyway. These platforms can still be useful if people know how to control it. The attitude of
the users can contribute greatly to the safety of social networks. Together with appropriate
control policies of different social networks companies and government, it is expected that
people will be able to live in peace with social networks.

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