Pros and Cons of Social Network - Essay Example

Social Networking Name Institution Date Table of Contents Social Networking 1 SOCIAL NETWORKING 13 2 Table of Contents 2 Abstract 2 Introduction 3 History of social networks 4 Pros and Cons of social network 5 Pros 5 Cons 8 Combination of people and some important social networks 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Abstract Social network is currently very popular among people of all works of life in the world. It has made both positive and negative impacts on its users. Social networks have also increased its popularity over the years to act as a tool for communication among different people. This has also seen the popularity of social network as a political tool. Social network has attracted different class of people including leaders and governments to communicate to the people based on the popularity of these sites. At least every group of people including the ones in the remotest parts of the world has access to social network. The paper will therefore try to analyze the history of social networks and how they developed and became popular among the people. The use and privacy of the networks will also be discussed in details and how the social networks prevent fraudsters from accessing other people account and details. The pros and cons will also be analyzed in details to show the impact and the effects of social networks since its discovery. Popular social network sites will also be discussed and how they operate, this will include face book and twitter. How the leaders use social network as a means of communication will also be discussed in details. Introduction Social network is the grouping of people with common interest together so as to enable them to socialize currently with the advancement of modern technology and internet use, social networking has changed. People socialize online through the social sites like face book one needs to be granted access to the sits before they can start to socialize. This will function like an online community. The users will be access the profile of other members and share various information or interests. This includes accessing personal profile of the members and contacting them. Hobbies, songs and even politics can be shared through the social sites. Watkins (2003) notes that members also get to socialize with new people and make friends from all over the world. This has made social sites very popular. Currently it is easier to join the social sites by use of mobile phones which is currently very popular with most people in the world. This easy access to the internet has greatly contributed to the large number of people joining the social networks daily. History of social networks The history of social networking can be traced back to as early as 1978. This was mainly through the use of the early computers. It was first done through the use of Bulletin Board System (BBS). This required the users to be connected to the modem and exchange information using their phone lines. It was however very slow since it allowed only one user to be signed in at a time. The number of users at this time was very few since the access to computers during this time was still very low. Usenet was then developed later although it did not have a central server. It allowed people to exchange ideas through the use of their computers. The posts were usually referred to as news during the time. The concept of Usenet is today used by in Google and yahoo. At this point the number of users was still very low and nit did not make much impact. Later in 1988 instant messaging was developed with the use of an Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It was mainly used for the purpose of keeping in touch with one another and it limited the number of users however link sharing was possible (Ligon & Schechter, 2009). The first modern social networking sites were however set up in 1994. This was when Geocities launched its first website. Its main reason for developing the website was to enable the users to launch their own websites. They were then divided into cities depending on the contents of the website. This was followed by the launching of TheGlobe.com in 1995 which enabled people with the same interests interact by publishing their own ideas and views. However the first time people were able to create profiles and friend each other on the net was in 1997. This was after instant messaging was made popular by AOL Instant messenger and SixDegrees.com. This greatly improved online social networking and it attracted a number of people. Other social networks thereafter started developing. This includes Friendsters which was very successful and had three million users after three months of its launching (Wasserman & Faust, 1994 p78-9). It was thereafter transformed to the modern day MySpace. Classmates.com, LinKedIn and Tribe.net then followed. The most popular social network site today, facebook was developed in 2004. This was done by college students who wanted to be connected with other college students. After two weeks of its launch, it had almost twenty thousand users and its popularity rose leading to the opening of its registration to non college students. Since then facebook currently has millions of users allover the world. Other popular social sites also include twitter which currently also has millions of users (Ligon & Schechter, 2009). Pros and Cons of social network Pros Social network is important in reconnecting people and creating new relationships with people from allover the world. In most of the social networks there are groups which try to reconnect people who have not been in contact for a very long time. This may include classmates or even family members. Through these groups people have been able to meet their long lost friends and even relatives. This is quite a positive move that has reduced the time and resources taken initially in trying to establish contacts with long lost loved ones. The social network therefore acts as a unifying agent. Establishing new friends from all over the world is now possible due to social networking. This is important since while traveling to other countries it’s easier to contact the new friends incase of any problem or difficult situations. This portrays the unity that social networks bring to the people all over the world (Wouter et al., 2005p.45). Social networks promote innovations among its users. This is because the users constantly share photos messages and invitations. Each user will always try to be unique and smarter than the other in terms of writing messages and sending photos. This creates innovative ways of self expression. This has led to creativity among many users in trying to come up with the most unique photos. This in turn leads to creativity which is then applied in real life situations. This has promoted style and literacy in the use of the computer and the internet (ProCon.org, 2009). People with common interests are brought together through the social networks. Most people from a particular profession or interest group usually have their own forum page where they invite like minded people to make their contributions concerning a specific issue of interest. This may include professionals like doctors, Engineers or even business people. Like minded people are given a chance to express themselves from allover the world. This leads to solutions to some issues and encourages every one to participate equally. This is especially important for people who may find it difficult to express themselves while in a group of people and thus reduce the anxiety among the people. This form of communication also enables free and comfortable means of interaction between the people with a common interest (Daniel, 2011). The social networks have been very important in the business world. Most of the people have been able to find new jobs through advertisements from the social networks or recommendations from friends. People have also been able to purchase items through the social networks. This in ordinary circumstances would take a long time to purchase the gods since it will require extensive search and many resources. Patients seeking treatment have also found it useful to use the social networks to find the solutions to their problems. This is because by posting their problems on the social networks, they either find an expert view or solutions from people who have undergone the same problem and solved them successfully. This is an advantage that eases costs of consultancy (Larry, 2011). The social network has also been an important advocate for social change. Thos is a phenomena that has been used allover the world. The social media has been used as a venue for expressing change in the political leadership in the world. Views that advocate change are expressed and protests coordinated through the social networks. In the disputed elections of Iran in 2009, the protestors used twitter to pass information to each other. According to Daniel (2011), this was quite successful in organizing the protests since the Iranian government had disabled all phone calls. This year in the revolution that was witnessed in the Arab world, social networks were mainly used to organize protests. This was mostly used by the protesting youths in Egypt and Tunisia. This protests successfully forced a change in governance and political scenes. Without the social network protests could be organized due to the government tactics of disabling mobile phones communication. Social network is thus a powerful communication tool among the people advocating for change (Larry, 2011). In educational maters, social networks have played an important role in the prospering of education. Most students are social network users; most of them post their assignments on the networks so as to discus with their colleagues and find solutions. Some teachers also use the social networks to pot assignments and homework to their students. This has been quite successful. The involvement of students in social networking is also important to their health. This is because it makes them mentally active and it boosts their memory and retention capacity. Social network also has groups that advise students on how to deal with social issues like drug abuse, alcoholism, peer pressure and addiction. This information reaches more students easily since most of them are subscribed to the social networks (ProCon.org, 2009). Cons Social networks are very open for anyone to join. According to Buzzon (2011), criminals have taken advantage of this to gather information about individuals. Some of the information required in the profile of individuals could expose them to risks. This is because most people use details such as their date of birth or location as their password for sensitive documents like bank accounts. This information can be used by criminals to access the accounts and hence loss of money. Some people also post their location or a movement on the social networks this may lead to kidnappings and even house breaking since the criminals knows their whereabouts. The security of the countries can be compromised by the use of social networks. This lead the Us Marine Corps to impose a ban on social networks like facebook since sensitive information could land in the wrong hands. Terrorist groups are also using the social networks to recruit members or pas information its members. This has been evident with terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda urging its members to fight (Wouter et al., 2005 p.55). The real identities of the users of social networks are usually not known. Most people use fake identities and thus making it difficult to know who they really are. Some sexual predators take advantage of this to exploit innocent users. In 2009 alone MySpace was able to identify more than 90,000 sex offenders in its network. This number is quite high and is likely to cause a lot of damage to unsuspecting people. This is even more risky to children who are easy to entice and most of them ends up being sexually exploited. Solicitors and fraudsters have also find their way on the social networks and some people have lost money to them and it is quite difficult to trace the fraudsters since they do not reveal their real identities (Buzzon, 2011). Social networks sometimes lead to addiction and addicted employees of an organization wastes a lot of time and resources in the social networks. Some of the employees access the social sites during working hours which greatly reduces productivity. It is reported that in the UK lone businesses loose up to $12.5 billion annually due to wastage of productive hours by employees while accessing the social networks. This is a huge economic loss to a country. Such huge sums of money would have much more economic benefits to the country and even individuals (Scott, 2000 p.67). Combination of people and some important social networks In the current world, the VIPs have found the social networks quite useful. Most of them use these sites to post their comments regarding issues raised by their supporters or the public. Most of the VIPs have social network accounts which they use to popularize themselves. This is also used to measure popularity among the political leaders, for instance in the US in 2008 before the general elections (Walker, 2011). President Obama had 2,379,102 supporters on Facebook while his opponent McCain had 620,359. Scott (2000 p.71) argues that this shows that the social networks are used to gauge the popularity of leaders. The leaders use social networks to address the people since the social networks are currently the most popular means of communication. The people are also assured of finding answers to their questions since most of them are answered directly. The most popular social network currently is Facebook followed by twitter. These social networks ensure that they have more users y simplifying the procedures on how use them and also ensuring they are easily accessed. Their websites can be easy accessed through the use of cheap and affordable mobile phones. This has greatly contributed to their spread among people of all classes (Walker, 2011). Conclusion According to the paper, social networks available today have come along way through several innovations. Since then people have been involved in social networking with the number of people increasing by day. The social networks have been an important means of communication among most people from allover the world according to the paper. The pros and cons have also been discussed and the advantages of the social networks far out number the disadvantages. However some negative impacts have serious consequences as discussed in the paper. However if the social networks are used for the right purpose, they are advantageous to the users. The paper also identifies some of the most popular world leaders with the use of social networks this proves the popularity of social networks. References Ligon, E. Schechter, L. (2009). The Value of Social Networks in rural Paraguay. http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/bread/papers/0904conf/Ligon.pdf ProCon.org. (2009). Social Networking. Retrieved on December 31, 2011 from www.socialnetworking.procon.org Buzzon, (2011). The pros and cons of social networks. Retrieved on December 29, 2011 from http://www.buzzom.com/2011/05/the-pros-and-cons-of-social-networking/ Larry D, (2011). Kids and Social networking. Retrieved on December 28, 2011 from www.thechartblogs.cnn.com/2011/08/06/ Walker, M.(2011). History of social Networking. Retrieved on December 30, 2011 from www.webmasterview.com/2011/08/socia Daniel, N. (2011). What is Social Network? Retrieved 29 December 2011 from www.webtrends.about.com Wouter, N. et al. (2005). Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=s5tLJoCWEjQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Exploratory+Social+Network+Analysis+with+Pajek&hl=en&ei=WEAPT8eMNMW-0AH0sIG_Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDIQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Exploratory%20Social%20Network%20Analysis%20with%20Pajek&f=false Scott, J. (2000). Social Network Analysis: A Handbook. 2nd Ed. Newberry Park, CA: Sage. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=Ww3_bKcz6kgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Social+Network+Analysis:+A+Handbook.&hl=en&ei=-EAPT-jqLOX30gHKn4ihAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Social%20Network%20Analysis%3A%20A%20Handbook.&f=false Wasserman, S. & Faust, K. (1994). Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=CAm2DpIqRUIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Social+Network+Analysis:+Methods+and+Applications.&hl=en&ei=PkEPT_eCK-Xe0QHDvuWTAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDYQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Social%20Network%20Analysis%3A%20Methods%20and%20Applications.&f=false Read More