Social Networking Sites - Essay Example

With the increasing use of technology, it has become more acceptable for individuals across the globe who share common interests to interact online and discuss their subject of interest. I love collecting stamps, but most of the friends within my inner circle before I joined Facebook were not similarly inclined. Although they would pass on stamps to me to add to my collection, they were not in the least interested in discussing them. When I joined Facebook however, I was able to contact other people who were also interested in stamp collection and were as passionate about it as I was.

My contact with them was not restricted by my geographical location, because the world wide web allowed me the opportunity to make contacts with people I would never have been able to connect with otherwise. The best part of it was that I could interact with these people free of cost, without needing to pay large sums of money to travel long distances for meetings. Facebook also provided me a forum to exchange stamps and get new ones I did not have in my collection. My friends on Facebook were quite willing to send me their extra stamps in exchange for some of mine and this was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Entering into new relationships on social networking sites however, also has its negative aspects. One example of this is online dating sites. They provide the opportunity to make lots of contacts, hence there is an excellent chance to connect with a love interest, but there are also some significant disadvantages. At the outset, most dating sites are paid ones, therefore they are expensive to use. Secondly, there are also safety concerns that are associated with using such social networking sites.

The online interaction with the individual in question occurs on the basis of photographs exchanged over the web, which might not necessarily represent what