Many people believe that more and more young people have been using social networking sites as an ideal replacement of conventional socialization. In this essay, I will share my opinion about the cause of this phenomenon and the actions to help them build more communication skills in real life.
The first and foremost reason why many young adults find it irresistible when using and diving into some social networking sites is because these platforms are incredibly easy to join in on. Creating an account on some of the most popular platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, does not take more than 1 minute. Users can find, add friends to, converse with, and start a relationship with anyone they want, even strangers. Furthermore, the first reason can cause the second one, which is even more serious, that the number of people socializing on virtual platforms as an optimal way to escape real communication has increased unstoppably. When every step of a relationship can be done on social networking sites, there will be nothing to stop young people from finding and building relationships on them, even if they are fake and potentially scams.
It seems to be hard to find an absolute solution to this phenomenon since it has become a bigger and bigger part of life. Yet we can help young people get back to real communication by holding some practical activities for them, such as camping, outdoor games, and teamwork activities. Offline meetings could be effective for teenagers because at these events they are able to meet, interact with one another, and learn some social skills in parallel.
In conclusion, socializing online should be considered as a means of communicating, not a thing to boycott. It would be much better for teenagers to learn to balance relationships on virtual platforms and in real life at the same time.