One of the biggest things students have to struggle with is school shootings. School shootings fear all students and even their parents. We think there are many factors leading up to someone wanting to do this. Many of these people who do school shootings have some sort of mental illness.
Mental illness paired with social media and the harsh students that partake in bullying can mentally break down any student of any age. Social media plays a big role for every person, especially students. Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities and in 2019, 79 percent of the population in the United States had a social networking profile, representing a two percent increase from the 77 percent usage reach in the previous year.
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According to the Pew Research Center, by 2015, 73% of teens had smartphones. One psychology professor at San Diego State University discovered that teens who spend 5 or more hours a day online were 71% more likely to have at least one risk factor for suicide compared to teens who spent only 1 hour a day online. This risk increases with only two or more hours spent online. Again, this doesn’t prove that spending time online causes suicide, but the link between time spent online and other factors linked to suicide is important to study.
The number of social media platforms used and how often they are used is related to youth mental health. A recent study found that the more social media platforms an adolescent uses, the more likely they are to have symptoms of depression and anxiety, regardless of overall time spent on social media. Another study looked at social media use and social isolation among U.S. young adults. The study used a nationally representative sample of 1,787 19-32-year-olds. It assessed participants’ usage of 11 social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, Snapchat, and Reddit.
The study found that those who visited any platforms at least 58 times per week were three times more likely to feel socially isolated compared to those who used social media less than 9 times per week. The researchers concluded that young adults saw themselves as being socially isolated from their peers whether or not it was true. Just because they believe that they lack friends doesn’t mean that they do. In addition to feelings of social isolation and depression, social media has also been found to be associated with self-image.
A study found that greater Instagram use was associated with greater self-objection and concern about body image. Too much time spent scrolling through social media can result in symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. Here’s how social media can be destructive: Focusing on likes: The need to gain “likes” on social media can cause teens to make choices they would otherwise not make, including altering their appearance, engaging in negative behaviors, and accepting risky social media challenges.
Acts like Cyberbullying cause teen girls in particular to be at risk of cyberbullying through the use of social media, but teen boys are not immune. Cyberbullying is associated with depression, anxiety, and an elevated risk of suicidal thoughts. Making comparisons: Though many teens know that their peers share only their highlight reels on social media, it’s very difficult to avoid making comparisons. Everything from physical appearance to life circumstances to perceived successes and failures is under a microscope on social media.
Having too many fake friends, even with privacy settings in place, teens can collect thousands of friend requests through other people’s friends on social media. The more people on the friend list, the more people have access to screenshot photos, Snaps, and updates and use them for other purposes. There is no privacy on social media. Less face time: Social interaction skills require daily practice, even for teens.
It’s difficult to build empathy and compassion (our best weapons in the war on bullying) when teens spend more time “engaging” online than they do in person. Human connection is a powerful tool and builds skills that last a lifetime. Being taught about the fundamentals of communication skills, face-to-face interaction is important in society and our daily lives.
Many solutions we can do to overcome this problem, to benefit safer schools and a safe community. One is to create social media companies to want to detect threats on Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. People use social media to express feelings and admiration. In the minds of school shooters, those posts are violent. A study shows strong repeated expressions of this behavior are signs of trouble.
A source of an algorithm (a problem-solving operation created by a computer) so Law enforcement can be alerted when posts are getting out of control or leading to violence. Anonymous reporting systems and text-message-based communication can make it easier for parents and students to alert law enforcement and school counselors to kids who seem disconnected or disturbed. That enables early intervention and helps people in crises. Fast-acting and resourceful technology is a new way to keep in touch with parents and faculty concerning troubled students.
For example, In Steamboat Springs, Colorado, one tip happened and appeared to prevent extreme violence in May 2017. Police took a young man who’d threatened to harm his peers into protective custody before he could act on his actions. With help from the community, can redirect situations and change the outcome of situations. Mostly in all communities, children were raised by their surroundings and influenced by the media. If a responsible adult or parent teaches good behavior and models positive discipline and better ways to solve problems.
Second, schools can hire more counselors, and have more access to their time with school and home-related problems, children are having. Also, more resource officers to supervise students in school and watch over safety concerns and conflicts. Resource officers with an advanced resume, human connection with the students, and the ability to build personal friendships with the students.
Schools should have more protection and more security, I believe that would also help prevent things from happening in school. They can be more prepared and be more aware of who enters and what students bring inside the school, and be on top of the situation. With that, I feel like kids and parents would feel more safe Also, be more aware that their kids are not in danger. They would feel fine leaving their kids at school because nowadays parents are afraid to leave their kids at school.
With all these school shootings happening you never know what can happen or who you will not see again it’s really hard to live by that scare. This is why I think we should increase the protection in school and be more strict on social media with our kids be on top of it and just pay close attention to things around you. Officers can easily get involved in situations, whenever there is a fight, school shooting, bomb scare, or when people come on campus.
Would a background check or test on a student help with fewer mass shootings in schools? Students can get advice and be well-prepared for situations. Schools don’t have the money to hire professional psychologists or the best detectives, but schools should put their money into better safety options and protect more students. Other ways, to put an end to school shootings, are to require doctor doctor-licensed screenings to evaluate students with behavior problems and a history of violence.
Some criteria that require immediate attention are troubled childhoods, losing a parent, bullies, aggression, and lack of compassion for others’ losses. If any problem arises, those students be referred to a counselor and teacher to get support and help. It is an important issue for doctors to alert parents and faculty that their children are safe at the school and are getting guidance and support individually.
This generation is really tough now because everyone is so involved with social media and cares about what others think about them, they’re just more worried about looks and what others have to say about one another. This is where school shootings come in, kids nowadays get bullied through social media or at school but get carried on social media. which is why social media is also a big thing in this generation because once you start getting bullied at school it follows you around and it keeps going through social media.
Kids who get bullied on a daily at school tend to feel alone and feel like no one is there for them. Once they get home and see all these negative things about them on social media they start to build that anger towards the person that doing all the harm towards them. I believe social media should be taken more seriously and parents should be more strict on their kids about it.
Young kids shouldn’t be on social media because they are not capable of having one their brains don't fully develop until age 25. Teens see videos and violence on social media and get the idea from there they don’t think about the consequences or the cons of what can happen to them if they do those things that they see. A couple more ways to solve this problem we have now is should be more cautious and strict with social media.
Adult supervision can control what teens or college students put in their heads. What drives them to do things that they regret once it happens, or it can also lead to suicide? This is why parents should be more strict with their kids about social media see what they are up to or what they post, and teens should be supervised. These are the solutions that we as a community and school can learn from and change what’s going on in our schools.
One of the problems we have discussed is 1. Gun Prevention. To prevent gun violence in schools we need to first address the fact that students need to be more aware of the fact that people do have thoughts of harming others. We also should take notice, that social media does have a huge impact on the way people gain information on how school shootings happen. An important thing to know about school shootings is how it has a connection to how people get bullied into wanting to harm others who have hurt them.
To know ways to prevent school shootings from happening we need to know of reasons school shootings happen in the first place. One reason is how social media glorifies mass shootings giving so much attention to the person who commits the crime. Showing how reasons why that person did what they did. Social media has a huge impact on how students and people in general perceive shootings.
Another reason is people get bullied into committing a crime causing them to act out in feel like there is no other way to get help and to feel safe. The way people bully now is also on social media. There are apps like Twitter Snapchat and Instagram where bullies target their victims. So, social media is where people can post what they want or how they feel.
A student often can post about guns and about how depressed they are and if others can post a comment they can glorify the violence take things as a joke, and even ignore the fact that someone could be calling for help. Maybe someone could be giving others a hint that they are tired of the pain they are going through, and that they are starting to feel like violence is the only way out.
Another thing is that some researchers found that because of social media everyone and anyone can look up information about different mass shooters. Some people have mental problems who do shootings and look up this violence. Some people just look at things like this up to gain information for the wrong reasons, and come out as what people call “ copycats”. They take the information they learned for no reason or maybe they do have a reason.
Have the same solution to fix the problem there is research for trying to gain information on what causes mass shootings, and researchers found that because of social media. The influence it has on people is that there is a chain reaction connecting the amount of shootings that occur. Basically if one happened another will and then another like a month after a tragedy just happened.
We as a group concluded that to prevent school shootings to have people realize the reason people get influenced in trying to harm others, and try to influence people and teach people how to speak up and report when someone may seem to have negative thoughts about others and if they seem to post things about weapons in a way that is harmful to humans.
A solution that can be realistic and worked for Virginia Schools since 2013, an assignment brought up in FBI and Social Services that they tested, and the feedback was beneficial. Called, “Threat Assessment” a group of the principal, school counselor, school psychologist, and a school-based police officer. What their plan is; 1. talk to the people involved and any witnesses. 2. They try to figure out if the threat is serious. 3. Figure out a solution.
Is it specific? Is there a detailed plan? Is there a weapon? Lastly, notify parents and get them involved. This solution is a good plan and appropriate for schools relating to these tragic events. This solution worked productively that a student that attends the University of Virginia said that this method,' reduced suspensions and reduced bullying, students and teachers reporting that they feel safer, and students reporting a greater willingness to report threats of violence.
We hope this method transfers throughout every school and have plans to handle gun violence and school shootings whenever it may occur. Social media is the main problem for people bullying and cyberbullying others who are going through mental illness or suffering through our society's problems affecting our environment. With solutions and possible methods, we can end the suffering of parents' grief and the loss of students, trying to get an education without the fear of something happening at their school.
As well to prevent school shootings we must not only have young kids have social media at a young age but also a device that could cause pain to one kid or someone doing it to the other. Some school shootings have started by getting bullied through social media for a while and that student can't take it anymore, so they then express themselves on social media by posting pictures of guns or saying they gonna shoot up the school or a certain person. Social media is the reason school shootings happen most of the time. At a young age, kids are given everything now.
Why do I say that because parents now just give everything to them and don't check up on them? On what they are doing. As well as what they are looking at on YouTube or searching up. They are exposed to basically anything they want to see on the web. That turns into them making social media accounts and then starting to bully some kids on purpose or just cause they don't like them. This is the problem that parents don't pay attention at all.
Kids should not be given cell phones or tablets at a young age. As well as getting exposed to social media because that's a big factor in school shootings most of the time. The New York Times said, “ Schools are having social media monitoring as well schools have hired social media monitoring companies over the past five years”. This means schools would be alerted when someone is getting some time of bullied on social media or getting exposed. This could stop kids from committing a big crime and shooting a school.
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