Social Networking Sites free essay sample

Social networking sites have brought more harms than benefits. † Do you agree? Social networking sites such as Friendster, Twitter and Facebook all vary slightly, yet one of the main feature they have is that they enable users to create a profile within the website to represent themselves and interact with other users using emails, instant messaging and other integrated communication channels within the site. The popularity and growth of social networking sites over the years has been colossal. Today, there are almost 1 billion active users and over 500 million mobile active users in Facebook. As technology of Web 2. 0 improves and advances, social networking sites have a bigger impact on the society and human relationships, both negative and positive. However, I disagree with the statement as I feel that the benefits social networking sites have brought to its user outweighs the harms it has done. Social networking site have made effective communication easier in the spread and conveying of ideas to raise awareness. We will write a custom essay sample on Social Networking Sites or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It serves as a medium for people to share their thought and ideas with a large mass of people. An example is the Arab Spring, where hundreds of protestors in countries like Libya and Egypt harnessed the efficiency of communication through social networking sites by organising protests and convey their thoughts and ideas to large mass of group in order to raise awareness. Hence, social networking sites expedite the process of communication by conveying ideas to a large audience almost instantaneously. In addition, social networking sites have acted as a bridging platform between the government and citizens. In recent trends, politicians across the world have used social networking sites to communicate with the people and establish stronger ties between the leadership and the populace. For instance, during last year General Elections in Singapore, the various contesting parties and candidates made good use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to organise rallies and receive feedbacks from the citizens. It was also a channel through which people expressed their support for various parties. Hence, social networking sites have allowed the leaders to be more interconnected with the populace and were able to communicate more efficiently too. Furthermore, social networking sites have also created a platform for people, even those who are socially awkward, to express themselves and interact with more people than they would in real life. They were also able to build confidence and develop communication skills as well as the ability to deal with people of differing personalities. This is made possible through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter where people can express their opinions conveniently through comments and â€Å"tweets† to others, even strangers without the need to have face-to-face contact. Thus, social networking sites have created a chance for people, especially those who are socially awkward or shy, to have more interactions with others and develop social skills. Also, not all impacts brought by social networking sites are inherently positive as they may lead to breakdown of communication. The scale and ease with which human interactions are carried has undoubtedly been expanded and made possible through social networking sites. However, such growth in scale caused the real value of relationships and human interactions to diminish. Social networking sites have made it possible for each and every one of us to have hundreds, even thousands of friends worldwide but interactions on grand scale may not be feasible. A study carried out by Robin Dunbar has given rise to Dunbar’s Number. This number, 150, is the suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable relationships. Instead of wholesome interaction, the sort of interactions that one has with friends in social networking sites have been criticised as largely superficial and non-committal. Thus, social networking sites have also catalysed a negative sort of change in human interaction and may have diluted the strength of human relationships. In conclusion, I feel that social networking has brought more benefits than harms as it has made the world more interconnected. Ideas and thoughts were able to be conveyed to others easily thanks to social networking sites. It also provided opportunities to people who are socially awkward and shy to express themselves and their opinions through social networking sites before stepping out of their comfort zone. Nevertheless, we should not confuse such ease with actual communication skills. It can be detrimental if communication and interactions through social networking sites were to entirely replace socialising with people in real life. Surely our loved ones deserve more than just a Facebook wall post.