In a society, there exists quite a number of challenges that affect the people as individuals, as a family or as a community. When an issue is social, it means that it influences quite a number of individuals within a given society (Smith, 2016). Such problems may directly or indirectly cause conflicts among individuals in a community due to the differences in opinions that are likely to arise concerning the matter from different people, based on their personal or societal beliefs. Some of the topics that are seen as social problems concern politics, racism, education, family, work, the economy, health, war, population and the environment. A topic can be considered a social problem depending on the number of individuals that are affected by it, either directly or indirectly within a society. At many times, a given topic may appear as a social problem in a given community but may, in a different community, not be considered a social problem. Therefore, depending on the current status and beliefs of a given community, a topic may be considered to be a social problem or not. In the discussion, we shall focus on health, education and politics topics and how they can be seen as social problems in a given society.
Health
Halvorsen, J. A., Stern, R. S., Dalgard, F., Thoresen, M., Bjertness, E., & Lien, L. (2011). Suicidal ideation, mental health problems, and social impairment are increased in adolescents with acne: a population-based study. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 131(2), 363-370.
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Health problems can occur in individuals within a community due to various factors like poor sanitation and hygiene, pollution, genetics or the increment in stress levels resulting to immune suppression. Due to differences in terms of geographical locations, some regions may be highly vulnerable to a certain disease as opposed to others. For instance, a community that lives in places where there is increased environmental pollution, say for instance noise pollution, many people within that community may develop hearing problems than those people who live far away from that region.
In this article, it is stated that many youths especially those who are in the adolescent stage, suffer from mental challenges due to stress which may make them consider committing suicide. In this case many of the youths who consider committing suicide are those who are suffering from acne, which is a skin disease that affects a majority of the youths while in their adolescent stages ( Halvorsen, Stern, Dalgard, Thoresen, Bjertness & Lien , 2011).
Usually, suicidal ideation is linked to emotional stress, which may arise in many youths in their adolescent years. In this stage, those with acne feel discriminated against and if no parental advice is given to them, many end up becoming emotionally stressed. As the condition worsens, many feel even lonelier and may end up committing suicide (Cacioppo & Cacioppo, 2014). Thus, acne, which has been associated with increasing levels of stress among adolescents, can be considered a social problem in a community, given that the number of adolescents increases each day. Additionally, as the level of stress increases among the youths, the more their immune system weakens, making them relatively vulnerable to opportunistic diseases.
Also, a health community is able to develop its economy faster that unhealthy community. For instance, the more the number of healthy individuals in a community, the higher the chances of attaining its societal set goals. That is because many people may be able to focus and concentrate in their work and hence help in developing their society. It is therefore, important that individuals within a community remain physically and emotionally healthy as that increases the chances of more productivity and also, makes people live for long. Therefore, the government should ensure that it develops good health facilities within the society, so that people can access good health services quickly when they face health problems.
Education
Leung, L. (2015). A Panel Study of the Effects of Social Media Use and Internet Connectedness on Academic Performance and Social Support. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology, and Learning (IJCBPL), 5(1), 1-16.
Education in most societies across the world is considered as the best gift a parent can give to the child. Given the value of education, most governments across the world have set aside billions of money to support the education sector. That is meant, to ensure that as many children as possible get educated. Also, many nongovernmental organizations from different countries have been developed, to specifically support the needy children, especially, those who have to show significant interest in learning. However, despite all those efforts, the number of children who are going to school in some regions still remains low. That is because some children have opted to drop out of school due to bad influences from friends.
It has been found out that, many cases of school dropout or engagement into illegal activities among the youths is linked to the use of social media. For instance, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp allows students and other people to communicate with each other, which may not be bad. The problem with the use of social media among the students arises when one gets addicted. They begin using for wrong reasons and motives like for cyber bullying and sexting, which greatly affect a students’ performance in school (Sampasa-Kanyinga,& Lewis, 2015). That has majorly been contributed by the advancements in the information and technology sector. These advancements have made it possible for many youths to be able to buy a Smartphone at a very low cost and access cheap internet from any part of the world. Thus, many youths forget to concentrate on their studies and eventually, fail to pass their exams (Leung, 2015). The moment a child fails exams, they consider themselves useless, and may be tempted to partake such illegal activities as drug trafficking and terrorism. That, therefore, means that the less the number of educated youths within a society, the more the community drags behind in terms of economic development.
Additionally, education within a society is essential and parents should be encouraged to take their children to school so that they can learn and develop new skills and ways of solving the social challenges available within a community or society. When children fail to go to school or drop out of school due to their overuse of social media, it becomes a challenge to the community as such children may influence other younger children within this same society to also drop out of school. If that happens, the issue becomes a social problem.
Politics
Abdu, S. D., Mohamad, B., & Muda, S. (2017). Youth Online Political Participation: The Role of Facebook Use, Interactivity, Quality Information and Political Interest. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 33, p. 00080). EDP Sciences.
Politicians serve a critical role in a community; they are seen as peacemakers and role models by many in a society. For instance, within a community, politicians tend to exercise immense influence over public opinion. They therefore, can influence people to participate in wrongdoing like destroying government property or even, fighting with their competitors (Abdu et al, 2017).
It has been found that, many youths across the world own a smart phone and have access to the internet. They are therefore, able to follow the comments or posts made by different politicians on any given set of issues. It is however, sad to note that some political leaders take that opportunity to incite their followers by spreading sometimes libelous information concerning their opponents. That can create a disruption of peace within a community (Smith, 2016).
Also, some youths may be recruited by wayward politicians in order to help them in spreading rumors and false information concerning a specific group or community. When such information circulates on social media it may generate political instability within a country or even cause post-election violence. Post-election violence for example, may have a serious negative impact on human life, causing death, destruction of properties and even, displacement of people from their homes.
The politics within a community, therefore, is a social problem, especially when it involves those politicians who engage in hate speech and by so doing, create division among the people. Also, if politicians engage in corrupt cases through the misuse of public resources, this may result in the underdevelopment of essential amenities like hospitals meant to help all people in the community (Migdal, 2015). It is, therefore, important that people within a society identify such politicians, so as to avoid electing them during election time.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as has been seen above, the social challenges that exist within a community have negative impacts on the wellbeing of the people within that same society. Social challenges like bad politics, poor health, and education within a community may increase societal suffering. The problems, therefore, requires good leadership so that people can be advice on how to ensure that such problems are minimized or eliminated at all from the community.
References
Abdu, S. D., Mohamad, B., & Muda, S. (2017). Youth Online Political Participation: The Role of Facebook Use, Interactivity, Quality Information and Political Interest. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 33, p. 00080). EDP Sciences.
Cacioppo, J. T., & Cacioppo, S. (2014). Social relationships and health: The toxic effects of perceived social isolation. Social and personality psychology compass , 8 (2), 58-72.
Halvorsen, J. A., Stern, R. S., Dalgard, F., Thoresen, M., Bjertness, E., & Lien, L. (2011). Suicidal ideation, mental health problems, and social impairment are increased in adolescents with acne: a population-based study. Journal of Investigative Dermatology , 131 (2), 363-370.
Leung, L. (2015). A Panel Study on the Effects of Social Media Use and Internet Connectedness on Academic Performance and Social Support. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning (IJCBPL) , 5 (1), 1-16.
Migdal, J. S. (2015). Peasants, politics and revolution: Pressures toward political and social change in the Third World . Princeton University Press.
Smith, D. A. (2016). Globalizing Social Problems: An Agenda for the Twenty-First Century. Social Problems , spw032.
Sampasa-Kanyinga, H., & Lewis, R. F. (2015). Frequent use of social networking sites is associated with poor psychological functioning among children and adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , 18 (7), 380-385.
