Facebook and Twitter - Essay Example

? Facebook (Add (Add (Add Facebook Introduction Two of the most leading social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter have been chosen for this study. The purpose of Facebook is to assist people to keep in touch with their friends, share their thoughts, and publish pictures and videos. Facebook’s home screen displays the message “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life”. The purpose of Twitter is almost similar to that of Facebook. The main purpose of twitter is simply to create and build relationships among people worldwide. Contents of Facebook include profile, friends, groups, photos, messages, events, subscriptions, and question polls whereas contents of Twitter are small textual messages, tweeting, friends, and followers. As Rosenblatt (2012) points out, as of June 2012, Facebook had more than 955 million active users while Twitter had over 500 million active users. Individuals get more fun in Facebook whereas Twitter is used for more professional matters. It seems that many well known people, politicians, celebrities, and professionals use Twitter whereas young people constitute Facebook’s major participant population. This paper will analyze various aspects of social networking sites Facebook and Twitter in detail. Facebook and Twitter Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have a greater cultural significance. As these sites connect people around the globe, people get an opportunity to interact with others of different cultures. In addition, social networking sites help people know more about their own culture by sharing information, pictures, and videos of culturally important destinations. In addition, these websites provide people with a good platform to popularize their cultural traditions, norms, and values. Another important feature is that interaction between different cultures leads to cultural integrity, which would benefit the world socially, economically, and environmentally. Online social networks have a range of positive as well as negative social effects. These websites help people stay in touch with others when communication is not possible through other channels. Social networking sites provide people with a common platform to discuss social issues and make them aware of contemporary issues in the society. Often, such sites are helpful for governments and other competitive authorities to know public opinion regarding a particular social issue. As there are millions of active users for these sites, people can easily find new friends. Through online social networks, people get an opportunity to share their life problems with their friends and receive suggestions in an effective way; hence, these sites tend to develop social system. However, online social networks may sometimes contribute to social disintegration and communal riots when people use these sites as a platform to spread their religious sensitive or other wounding thoughts. Furthermore, many studies point that social networking sites waste people’s time and reduce nation’s economic productivity. It is observed that online social networking sites have many negative effects on face-to-face interaction. Nowadays, people are increasingly using these websites to communicate with their friends and relatives. As these sites promote an effective way of communication, people are less likely to spend time for face to face interaction. Certainly, such a situation causes relationship-breaks and eventually people may fail to retain relationships. Basically, human is a social animal and he cannot keep social values unless he interacts with others. Researchers argue that face to face interaction can have a great influence on personality development; hence, over dominance of online social networks may adversely affect the society as a whole. Social networking sites have positive and negative influences on cultural values. These websites are very helpful for a society to spread its cultural values. It also provides people worldwide with a clear view of its traditional social norms. However, cross cultural deception is a very common practice in online social networks and it has far reaching negative impacts. Sometimes, people misinterpret a culture based on individuals’ postings and comments. It is widely observed that a notable percent of people does not respect others’ cultural values and often mock them. Such people post immoral comments and publish insulting images to spark fights between cultures. This type of practices persuades other people also to participate in cultural wars. Although online social networks and legal authorities have made regulations on those practices, it is not always practical to find and prevent such activities. Data indicate that the time an average user spends on social networking sites has been increasing for the last two years. Online social networking sites are developing to be an effective channel for product/service promotion. Companies and film distributors have already began to depend on social networks with intent to share their product/service information with maximum number of people at minimum costs. In future, promotional industry is likely to adopt social networks- based advertising techniques. Multinational companies may make alliances with online social networks to sell their products through those sites. Since rate of traffic is increasing in social networks, marketers can easily find potential customers for their product through online social websites. In addition, these social networks may integrate paid online multi-player gaming facilities into their website in the future. Conclusion Family and friends are the current primary traditional agents of socialization in our society. However, family is the most important primary agent of socialization and this agent plays a very crucial role in shaping an individual’s life and behavioral traits. Obviously, online social networking sites will become one of the primary 21st century agents of socialization in our society. To justify, majority of the social networking site users today do not use external media such as television or newspaper to get news. In contrast, they depend on social networks- based videos, pictures, postings, and comments to form a view of the contemporary issues in the society. Hence, social networking sites play a vital role in shaping an individual’s perceptions and behavior. Moreover, an individual can interact with a huge number of people from various cultures through such sites. In short, the influence of online social networks on people’s behavior development is increasing day by day. References Rosenblatt, L. (2012). ARFD defense verdicts in June 2012. New York: Civil Litigation Review. Retrieved from http://www.nycivillitigationreview.com/ Read More