Social Networking And Its Impact On Society

There is debate over these social networking sites; do the benefits outweigh the dangers? Some people argue that social networking sites promote increased communication with friends and family, familiarize people with valuable computer skills, and allow contact and interactions with people from around the world. Others argue that these sites expose children to predators, increase vulnerability to computer viruses, lower worker productivity, and promote narcissism and short attention spans. Social networking sites entice people to spend more time online and less time involved in face-to-face interaction. On an average day it is said that American’s waste about 17% of their day on the internet interacting on social media and networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace. The popularity of these sites has more than

Although news media talks about how social media affects American entertainment, psychology, and culture, few sources have definitively addressed what “social networking” implies. Because there is so much cross-over between social networking and other forms of media, the line between what is and what is not social media is very blurred. However, without a true definition of social networking, it is impossible to discuss its place in the media, in the workplace and in everyday life. It is necessary to understand what social networking is and what it is not in order to determine its purpose in society. While many believe social networking is one broad branch of networking with one general goal, this is not the case. “Social networking” is, in fact, a broad phrase to describe thousands of different social media types, each with its own unique set of purposes.

As we all know, social media has a tremendous impact on society and has affected in some way our daily life, relationships, and/or business. Every day, people around the world access famous social media network sites such as facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and so on to find out about other people, others might use social networking to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, or even meet their spouse. The excessive use of social media websites might bring negative effects; while for other people, it might bring satisfaction or positive effects. Technological advancements such as the internet, have given us the opportunity to connect with other people anytime and anywhere in the world. Pretty much all around the world, everyone has access to the World Wide Web via a desktop computer or smart phones. The fact is that no matter our current location or destination we might go, social media will always be following us as long as we have that direct connection. The main focus of this paper is to identify the good and bad of social media, and the current and future problems it will bring.

Social networking sites are increasing as a communication tool of choice with 58% of individuals using social network sites at least once a week, an increase of 14% from the previous year. Notably, 100% of individuals surveyed under the age of 24 spend time online (Kowalski et al., 2006).

Research has found that the convenience of social networks that makes mankind easier to live in this affluent’s era can lead pupils addicted to social networking, consequently it may affect the productivity of work and negative physical effect on human.

In this article, Malcolm Gladwell argues that in a network were loose ties are prevalent and Hierarchy is just a word, social media could never give what social change will ask for. He starts off by recalling the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement, were groups of dedicated individuals challenged the status quo, with crucially, strategic activism that led to a true revolution. Mr. Gladwell illustrates that there are a few distinctions that show between traditional activism and social media. One being that social media is not a hierarchy, instead it is a network. Secondly, his more compelling argument that social media is built on “Weak –ties” which rarely will lead to the high-risk activism that is needed.

While many people put off and ignore the issue of social media and its downfalls, others say that people should think about how our lives are being affected by this advancement in technology, including, lack of human contact and precious time being lost due to consumption with social media. Social media is currently a highly controversial topic in which numerous people have mixed feelings. Society has typically viewed new advancements in technology as beneficial and a sign of success within their country. But, has it solely caused successful outcomes, or are there downfalls to these advancements?

Do you have a facebook account? What about Instagram? Whether you’ve dipped your toes in the waters of social media, have you ever wondered about the impacts that it can have on your personal life? In the modern society today, social media plays an important role. It has become a prominent part of a teenager’s life. One of the most difficult questions to answer is whether the role that social media plays is positive or negative. For the past 10 years, the rise of social media is immensely great. Although social media has helped change lives for good, it can lead to negative consequences such as the increase in cyber bullying, how social media affects how teenagers view body image and how social media drives teenagers to distraction.

Wouldn’t you say that online social networking has changed the way society interacts with friends, family and perfect strangers. When someone exposes themselves to these sites, they open the door to allow these people into their lives. Some of them you would have passed on the street and not even thought of befriending. These people you have chosen to interact with, whether they are in your city, another state, another country or just someone you met online have now become a part of your circle. This form of communication will eventually turn their social interaction into non-existence. Social networking has a negative effect on society impacting physical interaction with people.

Social networking websites such as Face book, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and You Tube are reaching 1.2 Billion users, globally, (ComScore, 2012). Their unprecedented popularity has the opportunity to influence lives in numerous ways. Current research is revealing socialising online is not only popular among young people but across older generations as well, (Hampton, Goulet, Rainie, Purcell, 2010) (ComScore, 2012). Several online communities are redefining traditional social relationships by developing a new style of internet initiated intimacy. Furthermore, academics may have to adapt current research processes before being able to truly understand the extent

Social networking can be a great way to stay connected with friends or anybody around the world; it creates a new medium for communication. Social networking makes socializing much more easier and efficient, in fact, social networking makes finding people with common interests, finding love, and finding job opportunities easier [12]. Most social networks include “instant-messaging”, which can make distributing information of work/social related topics easier [12]. According to Statista.com, about 2.34 billion people use social networks worldwide [7], and about 78% of people of the U.S population have social networking profiles [6], concluding that social networking is part of many peoples lives. Though social media can seem like just something positive, social media has many negative effects on its users. In a Forbes article, Dr. Primack of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine conducted a study with about 1,000 people between the ages of 19-32, to better understand social media habits[5]. With the results of the study, Dr. Primack concluded that most of that people that used social media for about 61 minutes per day showed“‘high’ indicators of depression”[5][8]; The depression of these social media users coming from the flaunting of their peers online, creating envy towards them for having better lives [5][8]. In the study the lead author of the study, Lui yi Lin, described how people using social media, are also vulnerable to

In 2011, Snapchat grasped the attention of millions of smartphone users across the world. Consumers were ecstatic for the launch of the very first social networking application that would allow people to send pictures and short videos, to a controlled group of people, for a few seconds before they disappeared and never surfaced again. Snapchat was the first application that established the idea of impermanent content, which gave consumers a sense of security when sending content to others. This was until a group of hackers found a way to hack into Snapchat servers, leading to the company’s first breach by publically publishing user data on the Internet.

Selfie is defined as a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media. Selfie was the 2013 Oxford Dictionaries word of the year and have great impacts on social media websites across the internet. To this day the world has been caught in this tendency by mocking it or participating it. As selfies get more popular the beauty standard are impossible to reach for ordinary young women. Every individual have different perspective of what self-portrait present. In fact, based on my own experience and the experience of classmate, I cannot deny the boost in confidence level that selfies bring. People, who were often unexpressive and distrustful of their own positive trait in the real world, often finds their worth through selfies.

In recent years the social networking is has increased by the use of smart phones and laptops. Many school students are attracted to this and spend most of their time on this social networking sites. A study by researchers at University of Minnesota "found that, of the students observed, 94% used the internet, 82% go online at home and 77% had a profile on a social networking site."(University of Minnesota, 2008). According to a survey that was conducted by Whitmore School of Business and Economics and by the University of New Hampshire, they interviewed 1,127 college students. Among these students, “96%” of them use “Facebook”, 8.4 out of 10 use “YouTube”, “20 %” use “blog”, 1.4 out of 10 of them use “Twitter”, “12 %” use “MySpace”, and 1 out of 10 of them use “LinkedIn”. Also, “81%” of college students “use social sites”.(http://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essay-on/Problem-Statement-In-Social-Networking/195290)

Our lives seem to be more and more consumed by technology as great advances in this area have continue to be made, especially when it comes to social media. Many researchers have begun to notice that depending on how much time individuals spend on these social media sites, they can negatively affect their daily lifestyle in very significant ways.  For example, social networking has become a huge distraction for students and it can affect their grades depending on how often they check their various accounts while doing class work.  Researchers have also come to find out that social media can contribute to the development of psychological symptoms