What Effects Has Social Networking Had on Our Society - Term Paper Example

What Effects Has Social Networking Had On Our Society? Introduction To understand the situation and the effects that social networking has on our society we need to understand the term itself. Man has always been a social animal and the oldest example for man to have company and live with someone goes back to the creation of Adam and Eve. This was the first example that man could not exist alone and needs some sort of recognition and contact with peers and members of his group. Although the concept of social networking is commonly understood by millions but we will briefly discuss it as a refresher. “Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighbourhood subdivision, if you will (www.whatissocialnetworking.com).” This is a very general definition but covers the main idea of this term. Around us we find many groups and different social activities that take place in form of college students, co-workers, friends and even our families. These groups are also segregated by age and interests like sports or gaming etc. In recent years the internet has brought people from different walks of life together so that they can discuss and share their views and emotions on all kind of subject areas like professional alliances, gardening, golfing and developing friendships. As the recent concept of ‘online social networking’, the commonly used medium is websites. They are also known as “social sites”. They mainly function as a community of people who use internet. Although they share topics and provide online interactions amongst people of different ages they do have some issues and threats associated with them. One of the most common threats of these networking sites is theft of data and the viruses that may be spread through their usage. The most prevalent danger though often involves online predators or individuals who claim to be someone that they are not. Nonetheless people have various options and controls through which they can keep themselves safe from these threats. It has become such a common practice that someone who may not have an account on such a social network site is considered an ‘outcast’ of sorts. Be it any person of any age they will sooner or later end up with their profile built on the most commonly known sites. Amongst the most popular ones are Facebook and Orkut that are accompanied by MySpace, twitter and hi5.com. These are just a few of many more sites that one can easily find using the search engine www.similarsites.com. Anyone who is anyone will have his/her profile saved on any one or at times more than one sites. They access and share very basic to general information regarding themselves as some people tend to keep limited access to their profiles. In the following paragraphs we will discuss the effects that these social sites are having on the people that includes students and children as well. We will look at the latter two separately as their issues will be different from the other groups who prefer to socialize through internet. Social Networking and its effects In an article titled “What Are the Effects of Social Networking Websites?” by Jonathan Popoola a story of a teenager has been narrated who as told lost his life due to his profile on the web. He was an Indian teenager of 16 years and had his profile on Orkut. Through his general profile the people who ended up killing him learnt a lot more than was published and he was kidnapped. Although this may be considered as one of the extreme examples that can be given while discussing social networking but it is the truth as well. We are all aware of this threat or the threat of giving out information to people who might misuse it and still we keep on adding more to the profiles and sharing our lives with not only the people we know but most probably hundreds whom we have no idea about. Are we really socializing here or just creating a potential threat for ourselves? Second question that may arise is also regarding the extensive use of internet socializing. Is this limiting our physical involvement in the society around us? Are we just becoming a couch potato by our own choice and being ensnared by the tactful marketing of the site owners? Even the government has started warning people of what they publish on these sites. Barrack Obama the US president was found stating this in a question and answer session with a group of school students. He advised them “I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life". (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE58762P20090908) If one looks closely at the statements that are used nowadays while making new friends, it would be clear how our interaction style has changed. Whats your Facebook id? or Do you use Orkut? are the commonest examples of the question one asks instead of asking for their mobile numbers. This is the influence of these sites. It is interesting to see the way our communication and our thinking process has been changed. A few years back people had clubs to go to. Physical activities like going to the gyms or parks etc. in order to be with friends. Now we see doctors urging people to start physical exercises again, to stop using computers day and night and move out to meet people. The interesting fact of this social network thing has been the amount of dating and marriage options online. It has become a trend for people to meet and date and even marry online. Undoubtedly, this fact cannot be denied that these websites are fulfilling the basic need of any human being i.e. the need to communicate. Be it in any part of the world wherever there is access to internet people can get connected and reach out to their loved ones or find new friends. It is a sort of addictiveness to use these networks and our current generation are every day becoming more and more addicted to them. Looking at the positive aspects one main feature is that these are providing a means of communicating ones views and gives a freedom to express and make their own choices. Take a look at the number of chat groups and clubs which provide people a place where they can express themselves on the different discussion topics that are available. Similar views as discussed above have been shared by John Coates in his article “How to succeed with social networking? “ He further enlightens the readers by sharing some pointer in running and succeeding in their own social network system. The following text will discuss some of these steps. 1. You cannot make you presence felt by just creating a a website and expect people to take notice of it or even visit it. You have be actively involved by taking part in discussions, reply to posts, by keeping a follow up on what people are saying and by creating your friend lists and groups. 2. After you have made your presence know, you now are a real being in your community with a respected voice and followers. “Even if youre not voicing strong opinions you can still reach out to others by just getting out there, making yourself known and connecting with as many other people on the service that you can”.( John Coates, 2009) “Social networking is about going online and sharing your opinions with other. Businesses therefore have been eager to tap into this massive force for many reasons, including generating traffic back to their websites. Many have failed because they simply do not understand the basics - that you really need to participate and get involved. If you can master this concept and actively engage your community, then youll succeed with social networking.” (www.ezinearticles.com; How-to-Succeed-With-Social-Networking) Effects on Students “There Is A Growing Body Of Studies Emphasizing That Individuals Are Embedded In Their Societies.” (Heng-Li Yang; Effects Of Social Network On Students’ Performance: A Web-Based Forum Study In Taiwan) This community linkage method suggests that any individual would behave under the same process by the “relations, or technical ties, and networks more than by the norms and attributes that an individual possesses.” Most of the time a data exchange is taking place between any two individuals that creates a relation or tie. As with any other exchange and effect these have either a negative or positive effect on these particular individuals. As with the case of the students they may be getting benefit out of such an exchange in terms of more info and facts. “Researchers empirically demonstrated that friendship and advice relations were positively related to a student’s academic performance and an employee’s job performance. On the other hand, the effects of an adversarial network were negatively related to performance.” A major plus point for a web-based discussion forum is that it provides the students a place where they discuss issues and asks questions without feeling shy. They also give opinions and discuss points learnt after an academic session has taken place. Online interaction can be enhanced and made productive by several different methods for example by giving “a controversial topic for debate or structuring a controversy.” It is easy to generate a discussion on the web and provides a full time involvement for the students and the teachers. Effects on children “Social networking websites are causing alarming changes in the brains of young users.”  (David Derbyshire; 2009) As suggested in his article “Social websites harm childrens brains” the writer names sites like “Facebook, Twitter and Bebo” have an increasingly negative effect on the attention span of the children as they are getting decreased and these youngsters are becoming more and more self-centred.  Susan Greenfield, who is an eminent neuroscientist, reveals a very disturbing fact for people who depend so much on the websites for their daily activities. It will definitely help to connect with the concern that millions of parents and teachers have about the young people and their lack of communication off-screen and the inability to concentrate on anything. In a survey it was discovered that among children around the world some 150 million are using “ Facebook” just to stay in touch with friends and share files etc. another 6 are signed in to “Twitter” exchanging messages about themselves etc. Baroness Greenfield, another neuroscientist at the Oxford University and also the director of Royal Institution, is a strong believer that repeated contact is more likely rewiring the brain. (David Derbyshire; 2009) Thus they feel that these sites are doing more harm than good to the children. “We know how small babies need constant reassurance that they exist.” (Greenfield; 2009) “My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.” Such are the adverse effects that being addicted to the computer screens is having on the brain of the young ones. “I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf,” (Susan Greenfield; 2009). According to the study carried out by “Broadcaster Audience Research Board” teenagers tend to spend 7 ½ hrs. per day in front of their monitors. Jane Healy; an educational psychologist; believes that children who are not seven years of age should not play video games because most of these games only stimulate the part of the brain that focuses on fight etc. and does not develop the logical part of the brain. Another child psychologist suggests that the brain development of the children is found to be damaged because they are not involving in any activity as they had been doing in the years before. Im not against technology and computers. But before they start social networking, they need to learn to make real relationships with people. (Sue Palmer, 2009) The question that arises is whether or not social networking is killing us? The answer yet is probably not; at least not in the literal sense of the word. However, a couple of British scientists recently proposed that “spending all day, and — admit it — much of the night networking on a computer might in fact be bad for your body and your brain.” (Robert Mackey; The Health Effects of Social Networking). As discussed above Susan Greenfield shows her concern as she talks to the British paper stating that the process of social networking reminded her of the way “small babies need constant reassurance that they exist” and it has her worrying as to the effects these stimulations may be having on the brain of the users. Consider this Although many people don’t think of it, social networking web sites harbour many dangerous elements and many people are concerned about some major problems that they contain. One such problem is privacy issues. (The Effect of Social Networking Sites on Personal Lives of the People) The following data has been taken from the article published in “JALN Volume 7, Issue 3 — September 2003” and comprehensively explain how these different sites have issues with regards to confidentiality and privacy. The sites being used for socializing namely the “Orkut.com, Favebook.com and MySpace.com” it is too simple to recover private info regarding a person and in turn use it for harming them. Looking at all these sites one by one the hazards regarding person privacy can be revealed. In case of “MySpace.com,” the ability to modify a person’s own website has not only allowed them to use “phishing html code to create phishing profiles that allows that person to access anyone’s profile who have visited the phishing profile.” However this can sometimes lead to information loss like the username, credit card number and also passwords. (Phishing 2007) Second issue that needs attention is “Child Safety”. From research it has been made clear “that almost three out of every four teenagers who use social networking web sites are at risk due to their lack of using online safety. (Joly, Karine, 2007)” Although some sites do have an age limit set but that can be easily handled by entering false date of birth etc. nonetheless the average limit of age set on these sites is around 15 years which is not a mature age in any case. Thirdly, one should be concerned that these sites do or do not have the infringement of copyright. The ways in which files are being shared on these sites do not tell as to who the file originally belonged to or who selected it in the first place. “YouTube.com is a great example of how copy right infringement can come about using a social networking website.” People using YouTube.com can upload any kind of file which in turn is viewed by who so ever comes upon it leading to so many members to commit “copyright violation”, uploading videos and files that do not even belong to them. Conclusion The future of social networking is not under serious threat as long as the people who are making these sites promise to keep privacy regarding their users and also provide extra security options. These threats are not so different as compared to those in which a person is warned to keep away from strangers. A word of advice is to think logically and not to get involved in discussions or groups which seem to be against any particular religion or that may lead to an uprising threat. Other than keeping a safe distance from the immoral issues and thing these sites can be a good place where views and ideas are shared but only and only if they are productive. Being heard by not only people you know but by the world is an appealing concept. Because of this provision one can safely say that these websites have no threat of being shut down. However one cannot ignore the medical implications as suggested by different scientists and should keep in mind that being social is not only sitting on a computer and chatting with groups but to go out physically and enjoy other activities as well. As suggested in the beginning our point is only emphasized that the man is after all a social being and will always be one. References Effects Of Social Network On Students’ Performance: A Web-Based Forum Study In Taiwan; Heng-Li Yang, Professor; Department of Management Information Systems; National Cheng-Chi University; http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/ http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Succeed-With-Social-Networking&id=3609120 Social websites harm childrens brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientistc ; David Derbyshire; updated at 1:45 AM on 24th February 2009; Accessed on March 15, 2010. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583 The Health Effects of Social Networking; By Robert Mackey; bits.blogs.nytimes.com/.../the-health-effects-of-social-networking; Accessed on March 15, 2010. http://www.scribd.com/doc/13653301/The-Effect-of-Social-Networking-Sites; Accessed on March 15, 2010. Qualitative research on “The Effect Of Social Networking Sites on Personal Lives Of The People”; by Raizada, Vinayak, Srivastav, Garg, Mehrotra and Chandak, 2009. www.similarsites.com “Lessons from Facebook: The Effect of Social Network Sites on College Students’ Social Capital” Sebastián Valenzuela, Namsu Park, and Kerk F. Kee, University of Texas at Austin http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE58762P20090908; Obama warns teens of perils of Facebook Read More