The digitalization process is constantly affecting today’s childhood: Facebook is becoming an increasingly common form of leisure and social development for children. Imagine a young child who turned on the computer and immediately plunged into a boundless and insecure virtual world. One immediately became interested in the unknown and ready to scoop more and more information from social networks. However, for some children, Facebook is a way to communicate or develop creativity; for others, it is an opportunity to learn new, forbidden, through videos and various groups or communities. The latter poses a considerable risk for children in difficult situations, as the creators of such groups often have anti-social goals. Facebook carries certain risks, but its proper use can positively affect children’s social development.
This paragraph will focus on the positive aspects of Facebook’s impact on the social aspect of a child’s life. Identity is inextricably linked to independence, and only autonomous subjects can realize themselves as a whole. On social networks, it is possible to try new behaviors that differ from those accepted in the family (D’Arienzo et al., 2019). Facebook has its values and established rules of communication. In this way, children can compare social patterns from family and school with something unique. It is an important stage of growing up and socialization, which is realized in different spheres of life, one of which can be Internet communication. Facebook can be an additional platform for the implementation and improvement of skills, and it is undoubtedly crucial for social development (Frison & Eggermont, 2020). At the same time, it is essential to note that every topic has a second point of view and its consideration is equally important.
This paragraph will focus on the opposite view of Facebook’s effect on a child’s social development. Children can practice live communication skills only in real life. In contrast, social networking and active virtual life put a child in a situation where these skills are not used and, as a result, are not developed and atrophied. Under an unfavorable set of circumstances, a sociophonetic personality can form, not adapted to real life. Another potential risk of overly active social media behavior is what doctors call Facebook depression (Beamish et al., 2019). Too much time online leads to signs of classic depression: changes in eating and sleeping patterns and severe mood swings. Facebook can become a substitute for authentic communication, and the child loses the interpersonal skills necessary for social development (Frison & Eggermont, 2020). Despite this, it is crucial to focus on two principles central to shaping a view of the benefit of social media.
One of the first is to increase the communication channels needed to improve socialization skills. Communication of children in social networks is valuable and productive for the socialization of any child because the means of Internet communication increases the number of interactions with people in the life of children. Excessive Internet presence is fraught with risks to a child’s well-being. Still, children who are not on social networks are deprived of their peers’ experiences and feel informationally and socially excluded. Auguste Comte, a philosopher, once said that sociology could unite all sciences and improve society (Orben, 2020). In this paragraph, this is well illustrated because Facebook is a social media platform where people give answers to each other, which facilitates a continuous learning process.
Another principle is that for most users, including children, the Internet functions as an area of research. Expanding the information field through the availability of various sources of knowledge about the world certainly contributes to adolescents’ intellectual autonomy and socialization. According to Marshall McLuhan, the form of society has always been determined more by the nature of the means of human communication than by its content (Globbokar, 2018). It is the preliminary conclusion because Facebook is a unique means of socialization, but what matters is not its content but the nature of its use.
References
D’Arienzo, M. C., Boursier, V., & Griffiths, M. D. (2019). Addiction to social media and attachment styles: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 17(4), 1094-1118.
Beamish, N., Fisher, J., & Rowe, H. (2019). Parents’ use of mobile computing devices, caregiving and the social and emotional development of children: a systematic review of the evidence. Australasian Psychiatry, 27(2), 132-143.
Frison, E., & Eggermont, S. (2020). Toward an integrated and differential approach to the relationships between loneliness, different types of Facebook use, and adolescents’ depressed mood. Communication Research, 47(5), 701-728.
Globokar, R. (2018). Impact of digital media on emotional, social and moral development of children. Nova prisutnost, 16(3), 545-560.
Orben, A., Tomova, L., & Blakemore, S. J. (2020). The effects of social deprivation on adolescent development and mental health. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 4(8), 634-640.