Pros and Cons of Social Networking Sites - Literature review Example

Name: Tutor: Title: Pros and Cons of Social Networking Sites Course: Date: Introduction Social networking sites such as You Tube, MySpace, LinkedIn, Classmates.com and Facebook are increasingly becoming popular in today’s world dominated by the use of Internet. Many users argue that such sites are beneficial to the society, while others content that various dangers associated with social media prevail over the benefits. As the social networking sites become widely integrated in the modern culture, majority of the people argue that their benefits outweigh the downsides, while others strongly belief the dangers associated with those sites have become more pressing than upsides. For instance, supporters of the social networking sites claim that such online communities enhance communications among friends and families, allow easy connection with people across the globe as well as familiarizing individuals with more valuable computer skills (Nielson 2010). The social networking sites increasingly expose children to predators, leads to narcissism, increases vulnerability to the various computer viruses, and thus lowering worker productivity. Social networking sites shapes the political landscapes within this era of Web 2.0, commonly referred to as the second generation of the Internet dominated with more dynamic ways through which people interact via online compared to the original time of the Internet applications. Social networking sites are giving more power to a new period of time and even-driven communication which cannot be disregarded. Due to rapid introduction of new SNS, businesses have become bystanders which must be improved through the social networking bandwagon so as to achieve strategic competitive advantages (W3C 2009). General argument on the pros and cons of Social Networking Sites People are able to create and build their new relationships as well as reconnect with their families and friends through social networking sites. It is with no doubt to say that the main reason as to why people join a given social networking site is to connect with rest of other people across the globe. People who are connected on the social networking sites become updated with what their friends may be doing. It is quite clear that a popular site enables the users to track down their old friends, and thus people acquaint and renew their long-forgotten friendships. For example, MySpace and Facebook provide users with features to organize events and invite their friends, while other sites allow users efficiently group based on different criterion such as geographical locations and alphabetical names (McKeon 2010). When a person makes a plan for a group trip to any movie, he or she can easily send out notices to own local friends by use of the social networking service. This indicates that increased communication via online, to a great extent strengthens relations. Such sites enhance creative expression within the new medium because they offer free messaging, games, blogging, event invitations, and photo storages services to individuals with access to the computer and Internet resources. It is important to argue that social networking sites unite people who have common interests, a medium through which people obtain some new ideas across the world as well as lower inhibitions so as to control social anxiety. A number of people today, use the social networking sites to network professionally or enable other people to acquire new jobs (Bruns 2008). On the other hand, the public nature of the online profiles brings about security risks yet many users are caught unaware. It is easy for cybercriminals to obtain information from the social networking profiles, for instance, birthdays, children’s names, pet names as well as other details that are commonly used as password or security questions and use it for identity theft. This means that an incorrect sense of security makes users of the social networking sites vulnerable to the security attacks, including hacking, send viruses and leaking important information. Today, people put their trust more on the messages delivered through the social networking sites since they consider them to be legitimate than emails. This should not be the case because social networks cannot scan messages for any virus attack, while email accounts can scan messages for the attack of spam and viruses using antivirus software (Messina & Iwasaki 2011). Literature Review Horizon (2009) argued that even though people have in the past used the internet to connect with their friends, this has been proliferated through the use of the social networking services and their applications have become a widespread practice, specifically among the young people. The rapid adoption of the social as well as social networking service practices by the young people indicates an important change in the use of the Internet by the young people basically for information and to enhance communication through entertainment. Today, a good number of young people consume, produce, share as well as remix and remix media and as a result of this, they have become active producers and consumers of media. Through this participatory media setting s, young people take part in the creative content production which makes them more powerful given their access to the new ways of creating as well as sustaining their global connections with others (Bruns 2008). According to Nielson (2010) social networking sites use has become a major online activity in Australia among the young people of between 16 and 29 years of age with about 83% reporting to use them on their regular basis. This is because social networking sites allow various users to easily communicate with other people through many forms. Today, people live in the Social Networking generation in which being in contact with one’s own family and friends has not been easy. However, with the introduction an few developments on the social networking sites individuals become updated with the latest news, opinions as well as photos and videos online. Despite it being a revolutionary device developed with only the positive mind to create a place for enhancing trust on the global scale, the online world known and people live with today provides the view that the social networking sites also have their cons (W3C 2009). For example, with the large application of the social networking sites, there is a high level of ignorance among people’s own security and personal profiling. This has been worsened through the World Wide Web where most users of the sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace among others directly upload their personal and private information to open sources of the infinite data. As a result, they make their information available to anybody else even with or not their consent, particularly those people who have access to the Internet. This has created an extremely big security and privacy issue which affects all the users involved. McKeon (2010) examined that a number of the social networking sites are featured with default settings, though, Facebook is continually evolving aesthetically and technologically and a result, its default privacy settings do change which leaves large amount of the users profile information more openly available to online communities. It is quite clear that social networking sites, for instance, Facebook create large and open spaces for people who may not be consciously cautious with their own privacy to be directly vulnerable to various forms of attack such as Identity Theft and aforementioned child abuse. It is important to note that despite people’s contact information hidden given other information accessible, individuals with appropriate skills such as Social Engineering and the online information collection can easily create complete and more extensive profile on them. This exposes them open and vulnerable to the risk of identity theft (McKeon 2010). The functionality of the social networking sites has been considered a key role in strengthening the social connectedness, general knowledge and life skills as well as self-efficacy that are critical for the overall development of young people’s mental health and their well-being (Boase et.al. 2006). For example, personalization of profiles on the social networking sites has not only been perceived to be useful in how young people relate with others, but also provides positive association with a person’s good judgment of self-efficacy (Notley & Tachhi 2005). This implies that the online space promotes a sense of ownership among the young people which in turn enables them to develop their sense of empowerment and exploit. Third and Richardson (2010) argued that this reinforces a good judgment of belonging and affection to the entire community. On the other hand, Valkenburg and Schouten (2006) examined that positive relationship is highly demonstrated between the young people in using the social networking and the self-esteem. It has also been discovered that good judgmental of a community and personal belonging plays a great role in the promotion of resilience among the young people. This provides them with the ability to effectively adapt to any stressful events or changes (Oliver et.al. 2006). According to Messina and Iwasaki (2008) youths in their adolescent stage who engage in the self-injurious behavior often use social networking sites through many forums, blogs as well as discussion boards. Arguably, it can be noted that the current use of the social networking sites in the promotion of self-injurious behavior reflects the reinvention of their purpose. Grant and Meadows (2008) claims that originality social networking sites were considered useful in fostering healthy interactions, everyday lives and relationships among people. However, audiences through their deliberate gratifications changes have caused changes in such sites as well. Conclusively, Social networking sites are giving more power to a new period of time and even-driven communication which cannot be disregarded. A popular social networking site enables the users to track down their old friends, and thus enables them to acquaint and renew their long-forgotten friendships. Personalization of profiles on the social networking sites are not only useful in developing relationships among the young people, but also provide positive association on a person’s good judgment of self-efficacy. The public nature of the online profiles brings about security risks yet many users are caught unaware. Social networking sites, for instance, Facebook render large and open spaces for people who are not consciously cautious with their privacy to be directly vulnerable to all sorts of attack, including Identity Theft. Bibliography Boase, J. et.al. (2006) The Internet and email aid users in maintaining their social networks and provide pathways to help when people face big decisions, Washington, Pew Internet & American Life Project. Bruns, A. (2008) Blogs, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Prod usage, New York, Peter Lang. Grant, A. E & Meadows, J. H. (2008) Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals (11th ed.). New York, NY: Focal Press. McKeon, M. (2010) The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook. Retrieved January 9, 2012 from, Messina, E. S & Iwasaki, Y. (2011) Internet Applications and Self-Injurious Behavior among Adolescents as well as Young Adults, Cyber-psychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14 (3). Nielson (2010) Led by Facebook, Twitter, Global Time Spent on Social Media Sites up 82% Year over Year, NielsonWire January 22. Notley, T.M. & Tacchi, J.A. (2005) Online Youth Networks: Researching the Experiences of 'Peripheral' Young People in Using New Media Tools for Creative Participation & Representation, Journal of Community 1(1), 73-81. Oliver K., et.al. (2006) Developing resilience among the young people through evocative participation, Australian e-Journal for the Mental Health Advancement, 5(1), 1-7. Richardson, I & Third, A. (2007) Mob-logging and Belonging: New Mobile Phone Practices and Young People’s Sense of Social Inclusion in DIMEA 2007 Conference Proceedings, Murdoch University. Valkenburg, P. M & Schouten, A. P. (2006) Friend networking sites and their relationship to adolescent’s well-being and social self-esteem. Cyber-Psychology & Behavior, 9(5), 584-590. W3C, (2009) World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved on 8 April 2012 from, Read More