Effects of Social Networking

In today's society, social networking is a major part of communication. Many have argued over the pros and cons of social networking, but I personally believe social networking has more of a negative impact on society than a positive one. The negative effects that comes with social networking are too many. According to The Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites social media has caused people to become self absorbed, have short attention spans, and neglect their privacy rights. For some reason, people feel obligated to literally share EVERYTHING about their daily lives on social networking sites especially Twitter. Twitter was designed for that very reason, but is it necessary??? People are becoming too wrapped up in sharing every detail of their lives with other people. Our generation and future generations will become obsessed with themselves and sharing with other people "all about themselves." Social Networking, in my opinion, is teaching not only kids, but adults as well, that being self absorbed is perfectly fine. Another issue that the site addresses is people's short attention spans. "People are condensing everything down to 140 characters or less, so when it comes time to actually read anything longer than that, it takes a change of pace and a change of mindset to do so." Unfortunately, I am extremely guilty of this! Procrastination has become a big crutch in my school work all because I find it hard to motivate myself to take the time needed to study. I would much rather get everything done as fast as WIFI does, but I know that school work requires a lot of devoted time. I rarely spend the time needed to explore information in depth due to my lack of attention span. I blame social networking. 

EASY

NOT EASY

Privacy rights are becoming a popular topic of debate among social networkers. The site I provided above also reveals that Facebook is the leading cause of coercing people to give up personal information. The article points out that people would not voluntarily wear a sign around them with all of their personal information attached. However, people will post about where they work, their birthday, their family, and even where they live and attend school. Although the article only points out that this is a dream for marketers, this is also a dream for predators!!! It is far too easy for predators to have access to your personal information that you WILLINGLY provided!  Until now, people have not been fully aware of the dangers of the lack of privacy, but hopefully with more attention brought to the issue, more and more people will stop providing personal information that gives people access to using it against them. 

Among the many negative effects of social networking there is also a major concern with networking while at work. According to Are Social Networks Good for Job Productivity a recent study revealed that 56% of employer's monitored their employee's use of social networking while on the job. As a result, some employee's were even fired. Clearly, social networking is effecting too many areas of people's daily lives.