Introduction

            Misconceptions are the incorrect views based on faulty thinking and understanding. There is the misconception among adults concerning teenagers and technology. The adults are thinking that the teenagers are being ruined by technology. They are usually thinking that what the teenagers are doing in the social media is mainly sending dirty images among their friends and other non-constructive activities. Adults also think that the teenagers are less hard-working as the adults are simply because they seem not to care at all. They never think that a teenager can set and work on goals and do constructive activities. That is not how it works as the new generation is advantageous due to the technology. It should be clear that the teenagers have a certain goals and they usually work hard to manage them as the adults do.

            The easier accessibility of cell phones among the teenagers is an issue that is facilitating to exchange of dirty images. The adults have the feeling that there is a lot of exchange of sexualized photos through the cell phones. The parents do also not understand about the message content that is being exchanged by the teenagers through the cell phones (Blair, Sampson, Patricia & Samuel, 382). It is only the fears of what the teenagers are doing with their cell phones that are making them think that they are exchanging negative and harmful messages but it is not evidence-based. This not how it works as the members of the youth culture are nowadays valuing frequent and quick communication. The texting during the adolescent and teenage period has been enabling youths to adapt to the fast and frequent communication which is basically essential among the new generation where almost every aspect of life as being carried out through internet.

            Adults believe that watching television is highly facilitating to development of crimes. They believe that the individuals who are addicted in too much watching of the television are having the highest chances of watching crime videos. This is eventually developing fears concerning personal safety and crimes among the television viewers (Bryant, Jennings & eds, 56). This is not how it works as the television viewing is enabling them to achieve a lot of skills in reading and they are able to acquire many scripts of numerous social situations as a result of watching the television prototypes. They are also in the position of getting knowledge concerning occupations especially those who are not schooling due to various reasons. They are in the positions of getting jobs easily through watching job advertisements.

            The adults believe that the adolescents have no privacy by exposing their lives in the social media like the face book. This is not the way it works as what the adults perceive to be private is not necessarily what the adolescents view as private. The adolescents believe that maintaining privacy in internet is a matter of deciding on whom should see their information and who should not (Walrave, Michel, Koen, Ellen, Jacques & Barbara, 145). They disclose the information in different manner depending on the kind of social network, for example through the use of email versus instant message, they reveal their information in instant messaging when they are having the feeling of being less restricted.   

            Teens and adolescents are addicted to social media as they are online during most of the hours. The adults who are seeing this tend to think that phone addiction has taken part in their minds. This is not the way it works as majority of the individuals who are shy express their feelings among their friends through internet. They have the difficulty in building face-to-face relationship due to their shyness (Zheng, Robert, Jason and Clifford, 5). They are able to interact with others without being much conscious of their saying which has been enhanced by the flexibility, multiple interaction and anonymity of the internet. They are also in the position to safe-guard their self-image.  

            Social media is putting teens and adolescents at greater risks to sexual predators. The parents are having fears that their children are at risks of meeting with sexual predators through the social media. They are worried that the sex offenders might end up contacting their children and harm them. This is not how it works as molestation is most likely to be associated with close friends, relatives, teachers and priests more than the strangers (Sanders, 487). People who know the teenagers well and have been interacting with them severally are the ones who get the courage to molest them. This is because they are having the knowledge on where to access them and at what time. They also know their likes and dislikes hence they are in the position of making tricks on them and end up trapping them easily. They are aware that the adolescents know them and even their parents know them and they cannot be having any doubts about their security. For example, the fact that the parent trusts the pastor very much, she or he cannot even think that he can turn out to be a sexual predator.

Conclusion

            Many of the things that the society thinks about technology and adolescents or teenagers are just misconceptions. Many people tend to think that the usage of cell phones is mainly concerned with exchange of dirty messages and pictures. Contrary to this perception, the teenagers are in the position to adapt into the youth culture which is all about technology. The technology is also enabling the teenagers who are schooling to acquire much information from watching television. This information is important as it is facilitating to improvement of their performance in school. There has been a misconception that the teens who watch television more are at greater risks of performing crimes. The adults are misjudging that the teenagers are exposing much of their personal life but the fact is that they usually expose their lives to only to the intended ones and they do so when necessary. The teens that tend to communicate much through the internet are being perceived to be addicted to social media but the fact is that these individuals are trying to make their communication effective. Lastly, the parents think that social media is exposing their children into the world of sexual predators and child molesters. They are having fears of the probability of the sex molesters catching up with their children through the social medial and end up harming them. This is a misconception because most of the times the close trusted people are the ones who end doing the inhuman on the children. Therefore, it is possible to say that the technology is advantageous among the youths and as the adults have their goals, so does the teenagers and adolescents have.

 

 

 

 

Reference

Blair, Sampson L, Patricia N. Claster, and Samuel M. Claster. Technology and Youth: Growing   Up in a Digital World. Bingley, U.K: Emerald, 2015. Internet resource.

Bryant, Jennings, and Mary Beth Oliver, eds. Media effects: Advances in theory and research.     Routledge, 2009.

Walrave, Michel, Koen Ponnet, Ellen Vanderhoven, Jacques Haers, and Barbara Segaert. Youth   20: Social             Media and Adolescence: Connecting, Sharing and Empowering. Cham:     Springer International Publishing, 2016. Internet resource.

Zheng, Robert, Jason J. Burrow-Sanchez, and Clifford J. Drew. Adolescent Online Social             Communication and Behavior: Relationship Formation on the Internet. Hershey, PA:       Information Science            Reference, 2010. Internet resource.

Sanders, Teela, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Sex Offences and Sex Offenders. Oxford University Press, 2017.