The Use of Social Networking Sites

By Ogechi Ebere By Ogechi Ebere Their Advantages, Abuses and Dangers. Their Advantages, Abuses and Dangers. The Use of fond Networking Sites The Use of Social Networking Sites Introduction Human beings by and large ar affable. They feel an innate need to connect and expand their connections. There is a copious grow need among humans to shargon. In the past, due to geographical distances and economic concerns, connections amid tribe were limited. A friendly network is made up of individuals that atomic number 18 connected to unmatchable other by a particular character reference of interdependency. It could be ideas, values, trade, eachthing.Social networks operate on many levels. Initially cordial networking happened at family functions where all relative and friends would conglomerate under matchless roof. Social networking has ever been prevalent it is moreover that in these times the face of social networking has changed. Where primarily the process was long dra wn, involving a chain movement where in single person led to other through a web of social contacts, to sidereal twenty-four hour period the process is highly specialized. Ill introduce to you themost must-know advantages and disadvantages, dangers of social media so youll be aw atomic number 18 of how to use it in the safest and most semiprecious achievable waysAdvantages of Social Networking Sites 1) Low Cost communication (essentially free) If you go on to social networking berths such as Facebook, Bebo or MySpace, you evoke brand messages back and forth to mul current of airle friends at once, absolutely free from gripe (apart from the cost of very running the profits, and computer etcetera ). 2) Making impertinent Friends You are given the opportunity to make new friends via such sites, whether that be purposeed friends (a friend of a friend) or online relations that burn be create due to a shared interest or hobby. 3) The Ability to transfer Videos and Image sMost Social Networking platforms have the capability to allow you to upload particular media. So a wide selected audience apprize view your pictures and videos. Saving you having to send come issue images and videoes directly to each person you want to see them, instead they can simply pop over to your account profile and view them. 4) The comfort of Setting Up Events Facebook allows you to create forces, which is an online organised meeting to do something (in the hearty world) with a set time and place, so via Facebook you can offer invites to the dismantlet and make announcements etc.Again saving time, as you arent having to go around communicating to everyone individually. 5) manduction Knowledge Social networking sites give you the capability to share teaching with ease, and by doing this Julia Porter states that mickle are able to increase both their skill and their flexibility in ways that would not be possible inwardly a self-contained hierarchical organisation this particular statement was is in regards to passing data around scientists, however it can also be applied to other organisations also. ) Finding Old Friends Social networking is a salient tool to reunite with friends, with social networking sites such as Friends Reunited. Where a child uniform sign-up and filling in a few details you have just allowed yourself to be found by old friends. 7) Tools for Teaching As students are using a wide range of social networking sites already, teachers have taken advantage of this. Teachers have started to bring up online academic discussions (through threads and click rooms) for their students to participate in.Social network platforms also provide teachers with the ability to help students out with homework and communicate with parents. 8) Pursuing Jobs and Work Experience Twitter in particular is a groovy tool for this, tweeting that you are interested in a particular job or internship could be a great step to rattling securing o ne. As your pursual may not actually have a opportunity for you, but they may know multitude who do so you dont only tap into your network, you tap into the network of the people who are following you (i. e the friend of the friends network).Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites 1) The Invasion Of solitude It has been addressed on many occasions in the news and in the press, that we are giving away too a good deal in the flesh(predicate) information almost ourselves, and that this is leading us to becoming vulnerable to the likes of identity theft etc. 2) Reducing Worker Productivity There has been evidence to suggest social networking sites are harming businesses. Their employees are wasting time right throughout the day by participating in social networking sites or else than actually working.It has been utter that Facebook alone is accountable to wasting more than ? 130 million a day in the UK. 3) How Much Do Social Networking Sites Know? perchance social networking sites have learnt a bit too much information for comfort, Facebook knows via their program Facebook Beacon that analyses our natural online behaviour how long we are on the internet for, how a great deal we visit certain websites etc. They monitor your activity even when you arent actually even logged in to Facebook 4) Potential to Cause HarmThere has been many account trips, where fake accounts have been made, that lead to horrific tragedies. Such as in October 2006 a fake MySpace account was created that was given the name of Josh Evans that was most linked to the suicide of Megan Meier. 5) The Case of Cyber-Bullying As many young teenagers are using social networking sites as a form of communication, this just providesbullies with another opportunity to traumatisetheir victims. With few limitations from social networking sites to what people can actually post, bullies have the ability to publish offensive images and comments. ) Trolling These are rather common occurrences wh ere individuals will post within a social network, to every annoy or spark a reaction through a post or general comment these people are often referred to as Trolls. Not really bullying, more being a curse on the social network. 7) Causing a Lack of Personal Communication There is a concern over people becoming so reliant upon the convenience of social networking sites that they arent actually using real-life verbal skills and they losing out on social intimacy with other people. ) Psychological Issues Studies have been conducted where the results suggest that people are becoming addicted to social networking sites e. g. a case of fourteen year old spending over eight hours day on Facebook etc. . There is also evidence to suggest that these sites can cause a person to feel lonely. The Dangers Of Social Networking Sites There are many inherent dangers of social networking sites because of the way the websites work. One of the biggest dangers is fraud, sometimes having to do with i dentity theft.Because these sites are based on friends and the passing along of bits of personal information, thieves realized the potential instantly. There are endlesssocial networking swipesthat crooks can try to gain off with this medium and we have only seen the tip of the iceberg so far. The newest mainstream social network is twitter. Its based on people following others and getting to read their tweets of 140 characters or less. This is one of the dangers of social networking sites because many people want as many followers as possible and they arent shy about what they say in their tweets.This highlights thetrouble with Twitterand many other social networking sites. Many peoples goals on these sites is to have as many friends as possible and they just dont think before they message or add friends. Unfortunately, this sets them up to be victimized by one scam or the next. The biggest social network in the world is facebook. Started in 2004 by a Harvard student, this site h as had a meteoric rise. Facebook has become a vast software platform that houses every application imaginable and millions of games and groups and users. This brings us to another one of the dangers of social networking sites.With the goal of becoming bigger than big, can these sites really protect the average users while on their site? Yes, this should be up to the individual user, but certain things cannot be controlled by the user and when the site has 200 million users (100 million log in everyday ), how much resource can be utilise for protecting clients of the site? With so many people logged in everyday that contribute personal information constantly, the crooks have followed and committedFacebook identity theftto get what they need. There are truly endless scams they have tried and will try to pull off on the social networks.Teen Social Networking By The Numbers * 51 component part of teens who check their sites more than once a day. * 22 function who check their sites more than 10 times a day. * 39Percentage who have posted something they later regretted. * 37Percentage who have used the sites to make fun of other students. * 25Percentage who have created a profile with a false identity. * 24Percentage who have hacked into psyche elses social networking account. * 13Percentage who have posted nude or seminude pictures or videos of themselves or others online. acebook identity theft like any other online identity theft, can be extremely dangerous for teenagers. With their mental capacity still developing, it is very easy to take advantage of them by feign to be someone else (usually a crush). There have been many cases like this and it devastates the teen when the criminal reveals that it was a hoax. Many teens have fallen into deep depression or even lost their life, an enormous tragedy and one of the biggest dangers of social networking sites. Be Careful Be Careful There are thousands and thousands offacebook impostorsout there looking to make an easy buck or harass people they know.