Social Networking, although very helpful in extending relationships, especially one's of greater distance, can be a danger and should be reconsidered in terms of privacy. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LiveJournal, etc. are some of the Internet's most viewed websites, allowing members of the site to stay in touch with each other via posts and comments, pictures, video, music, and messages. Although it is a great way to stay in touch, it has increasingly led to breaks in user privacy, allowing pedafiles and perverts and stalkers to gain more information about their desired user. Bullying and public humiliation via the Internet is another common problem that has become increasingly popular amongst teenagers. The daily torment and bullying a child receives during the classroom now lingers on over to after school activities, such as surfing the web. Bullys can harass their target online through instant messaging or facebook, etc. Situations like these lead to rises in suicide and counseling. It seems that there is nowhere to go to feel safe from harm and torment.
Even our President uses social networking! Barack Obama used his own social networking site, MyBO (my.BarackObama..com), to his advantage in the March 4th, 2008 Primaries against Hillary Clinton. Using this social networking site to encourage voters to go out and spread the word to vote, etc. helped him defeat Clinton, and ultimately gain the Presidency. You can even find Obama support groups on Facebook as well as many other delegates.
Another type of social networking site, Second Life, was intended to be an open-ended environment game where players could do almost anything possible. What developers didnt know was the significance it'd have on the world beyond gamers. Second Life is used as a way for abused children in safe house schools in Portugal to slowly gain their social skills back, due to the allowance of communication, team skills, and collaboration.
I feel that the Internet is the most significant change in the everyday lifestyle of how humans, and has allowed for a humongous gap between parents and children. The internet has changed the way people can shop, bank, watch television or theatre, educate themselves, communicate, etc. The changes are endless! I feel that without the internet readily available, the modern world would not be able to function.
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Yes, sadly while social networking sites are a great tool in communication and keeping in touch with family and friends, complete privacy is never guaranteed. It's just as you mentioned, our modern society is reliant on the Internet.Business and Banking institutions have all grown tremendously thanks to the Internet. I believe in the near future every single individual - young and old alike, in the United States will be connected to the Internet for daily news, updates from family and friends or even for viewing television.
ReplyDeleteHey this is Sean Taggart. Yes the internet has made life easier but people did survive before it. If you take the internet away people would just re-adjust. As with anything you have to weigh the pros and cons and the internet has has more pros.
ReplyDeleteThe Effects of Social Networking
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. You raise some very good points about needing to have some caution about social networking and the risks of bullying and privacy that exist. You are correct to say that MMOs such as Second Life can be very useful and helpful (as the article pointed out with children in Portugal) and that the internet is an amazing tool that is revolutionizing how people “shop, bank, watch television or theatre, educate themselves, communicate, etc.” However, we clearly need to raise the red flag of caution about the potential problems of social networking. One issue that you didn’t discuss is how the “on-line” life is replacing the real life and real interaction particularly with today’s teens. Parents need to watch for teens that are isolating themselves with the computer and avoiding developing real life social skills. To succeed in our world, a person still needs to be able to look other people in the eye and give them a big smile and a firm handshake. You can’t learn that on the computer and in some cases, by not learning these skills during your developing years, you never learn these skills and our teens are developing permanent anti-social behaviors.
Hey i like your blog post. I agree with you on the fact that these social networks are great to keep relationships between friends of great distances. Its a shame that there are many fake people on the web that cause danger to some of the web users. I guess everyone has to be careful who they talk to on these social networking sites.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Jonathan Benussi
YES the modern world will not be able to function!!! Everyone has computers from grandparents to grandchildren..it made alot of things easier for us whether its communications or shopping. I would hate to see how people would react without it...
ReplyDeleteI agree that the internet has brought many great uses and changed the world for the better, but I think saying that the world would not be able to function is a stretch. Things would definitely be more difficult but we would still be able to function and live our lives. I think it should also be taken into consideration that the internet was not the only advancement in technology over the past few years and that we would still be living a higher quality of life even without the internet being what it is today.
ReplyDeleteToday, life without a computer would be close to impossible for many people. We rely so heavily on computers. As you have mentioned people use computers for communicating, keeping in touch, shopping, banking, tv and much more. People could keep themselves busy all day on the computer. You can even even order food to your house from the computer. There is no longer a need to pick up a phone to place an order for food. It is a little scary how dependent we have become on computers. They can make our lives easier, but they can also take over our lives. We need to make sure we keep a healthy balence when using computers. This can often be challenging. Many times we do not realize how fast computers can take over.
ReplyDeleteIn today’s society, I agree that social networking has been a very useful tool for extending relationships. Many people rely on the internet for just about everything. Before people realize they are on a computer all day, whether it is shopping or just online networking. I agree with how it has led to privacy issues, unfortunately there are many people out there who are out to get others. These social networking programs have made it easier for those kinds of people to get what they want. Sadly, this ruins networking for those who put it to good use being that society is reliant on the Internet.
ReplyDeletehi!!
ReplyDeleteI am not kind of social person but i still hang out with freinds, i don't use that much social sites like facebook, aim or any other, there are many ways of socializing yourself with society but sicializing through online community is the fastest way to get to know each other, but every scene has two differnt angles, every angle give you differnt scene.Many of teenagers take disadvantage of freedom but there is no doubt that social network sites connect you to from one corner to the other corner of the world.