The Use of Social Networking Sites

By Ogechi Ebere By Ogechi Ebere Their Advantages, Abuses and Dangers. Their Advantages, Abuses and Dangers. The Use of Social Networking Sites The Use of Social Networking Sites Introduction Human beings by and large atomic number 18 social. They feel an inherent desire to connect and expand their connections. There is a deep rooted need among humans to sh be. In the past, due to geographical distances and economic concerns, connections between slew were limited. A social network is made up of individuals that ar connected to ane a nonher by a particular type of interdependency. It could be ideas, values, trade, anything.Social networks operate on many an(prenominal) levels. Initially social networking happened at family functions where all relative and friends would conglomerate under one roof. Social networking has always been prevalent it is just that in these quantify the face of social networking has changed. Where earlier the process was long drawn, involving a chain mov ement where in one person led to an different through a web of social contacts, today the process is highly specialized. Ill introduce to you themost must-know advantages and disadvantages, dangers of social media so youll be aw atomic number 18 of how to use it in the safest and most valuable possible waysAdvantages of Social Networking Sites 1) Low Cost Communication (essentially free) If you go on to social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo or MySpace, you understructure take messages back and forth to multiple friends at once, absolutely free from charge (apart from the cost of actually running the internet, and computer etc. ). 2) Making New Friends You are given the hazard to make headway new friends via such sites, whether that be suggested friends (a friend of a friend) or online relations that nates be formed due to a shared interest or hobby. 3) The Ability to Upload Videos and ImagesMost Social Networking platforms arrest the capability to allow you to upload particular media. So a spacious selected sense of hearing can view your pictures and videos. Saving you having to send images and videoes directly to each person you want to see them, instead they can simply pop over to your name profile and view them. 4) The Ease of Setting Up Events Facebook allows you to create even upts, which is an online organised meeting to do something (in the real world) with a set time and place, so via Facebook you can offer invites to the event and make announcements etc.Again saving time, as you arent having to go around communicating to everyone individually. 5) Sharing Knowledge Social networking sites give you the capability to share data with ease, and by doing this Julia Porter states that people are able to increase both their learning and their flexibility in ways that would not be possible deep down a self-contained hierarchical organisation this particular statement was is in regards to passing information around scientists, however it c an also be employ to other organisations also. ) Finding Old Friends Social networking is a great tool to reunite with friends, with social networking sites such as Friends Reunited. Where a simple sign-up and filling in a few details you have just allowed yourself to be found by old friends. 7) Tools for Teaching As students are using a wide range of social networking sites already, teachers have taken advantage of this. Teachers have started to bring up online academic discussions (through threads and chat rooms) for their students to participate in.Social network platforms also set up teachers with the ability to help students out with homework and communicate with parents. 8) Pursuing Jobs and Work Experience Twitter in particular is a great tool for this, tweeting that you are interested in a particular job or internship could be a great step to actually securing one. As your followers may not actually have a opportunity for you, but they may know people who do so you don t only tap into your network, you tap into the network of the people who are following you (i. e the friend of the friends network).Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites 1) The Invasion Of Privacy It has been addressed on many occasions in the news and in the press, that we are giving away too much personal information about ourselves, and that this is leading us to becoming vulnerable to the likes of individuality theft etc. 2) Reducing role player Productivity There has been evidence to suggest social networking sites are harming businesses. Their employees are wasting time right throughout the day by participating in social networking sites rather than actually working.It has been stated that Facebook alone is accountable to wasting more than ? 130 gazillion a day in the UK. 3) How Much Do Social Networking Sites Know? Perhaps social networking sites have learnt a bit too much information for comfort, Facebook knows via their program Facebook Beacon that analyses our natura l online behaviour how long we are on the internet for, how often we visit certain websites etc. They monitor your activity even when you arent actually even logged in to Facebook 4) Potential to Cause HarmThere has been many reported cases, where fake accounts have been made, that lead to horrific tragedies. Such as in October 2006 a fake MySpace account was created that was given the name of Josh Evans that was well-nigh linked to the suicide of Megan Meier. 5) The Case of Cyber-Bullying As many young teenagers are using social networking sites as a form of communication, this just providesbullies with another opportunity to traumatisetheir victims. With few limitations from social networking sites to what people can actually post, bullies have the ability to publish offensive images and comments. ) Trolling These are rather common occurrences where individuals pass on post within a social network, to either annoy or spark a reaction through a post or popular comment these pe ople are often referred to as Trolls. Not really bullying, more being a nuisance on the social network. 7) Causing a Lack of Personal Communication There is a concern over people becoming so reliant upon the convenience of social networking sites that they arent actually using real-life verbal skills and they losing out on social intimacy with other people. ) Psychological Issues Studies have been conducted where the results suggest that people are becoming addicted to social networking sites e. g. a case of fourteen year old spending over eight hours day on Facebook etc. . There is also evidence to suggest that these sites can cause a person to feel lonely. The Dangers Of Social Networking Sites There are many inherent dangers of social networking sites because of the way the websites work. One of the biggest dangers is fraud, sometimes having to do with identity theft.Because these sites are based on friends and the passing along of bits of personal information, thieves realized the potential instantly. There are endlesssocial networking scamsthat crooks can try to pull out off with this medium and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg so far. The newest mainstream social network is twitter. Its based on people following others and acquire to read their tweets of 140 characters or less. This is one of the dangers of social networking sites because many people want as many followers as possible and they arent jump about what they say in their tweets.This highlights thetrouble with Twitterand many other social networking sites. Many peoples goals on these sites is to have as many friends as possible and they just dont think before they message or add friends. Unfortunately, this sets them up to be victimized by one scam or the next. The biggest social network in the world is facebook. Started in 2004 by a Harvard student, this site has had a meteoric rise. Facebook has become a grand software platform that houses every application imaginable and millio ns of games and groups and users. This brings us to another one of the dangers of social networking sites.With the goal of becoming bigger than big, can these sites really nurse the average users while on their site? Yes, this should be up to the individual user, but certain things cannot be controlled by the user and when the site has 200 million users (100 million log in everyday ), how much resource can be used for protecting clients of the site? With so many people logged in everyday that contribute personal information constantly, the crooks have followed and committedFacebook identity theftto get what they need. There are truly endless scams they have attempt and will try to pull off on the social networks.Teen Social Networking By The Numbers * 51Percentage of teens who check their sites more than once a day. * 22Percentage who check their sites more than 10 times a day. * 39Percentage who have posted something they later regretted. * 37Percentage who have used the sites to make fun of other students. * 25Percentage who have created a profile with a false identity. * 24Percentage who have hacked into soulfulness elses social networking account. * 13Percentage who have posted nude or seminude pictures or videos of themselves or others online. acebook identity theft like any other online identity theft, can be extremely dangerous for teenagers. With their brain still developing, it is very easy to take advantage of them by pretending to be someone else (usually a crush). There have been many cases like this and it devastates the teen when the criminal reveals that it was a hoax. Many teens have fallen into deep depression or even lost their life, an enormous tragedy and one of the biggest dangers of social networking sites. Be Careful Be Careful There are thousands and thousands offacebook impostorsout there looking to make an easy buck or harass people they know.