Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking

Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking

Social networking sites have different rules for establishing connections, but they often allow users to view the connections of a confirmed connection and even suggest further connections based on a person’s established network. Some social networking websites like LinkedIn are used for establishing professional connections, while sites like Facebook straddle the line between private and professional.

 Advantages of Social Networking

•  Staying Connected

The main purpose of social media is to be able to stay connected to friends and families in today’s fast paced and ever changing worlds. You are able to rekindle old friendships, share family photos, and special events in your life with just about everyone you know, at the same time.

•  Used To Profile and Discriminate In The Job World

Just about everyone has a social media account the shows what they look like, the type of life that they live, and how old they are. Employers are using this to their advantages is some very unsettling ways. Jobs that are looking for a certain criteria of person, but cannot legally express these criteria, are using social media to prescreen their applicants.

• General fun and enjoyment. 

You have to admit, social networking can be pretty fun. A lot of people turn to it when they’re able to catch a break at work or just want to relax at home. Since people are naturally social creatures, it’s often quite satisfying to see comments and likes show up on our own posts, and it’s convenient to be able to see exactly what our friends are up to without having to ask them directly.

Disadvantages of Social Networking

• Social networking sites can be used to commit scams, spread computer viruses, or defraud people by stealing their identity.

• They can also be tremendous time wasters. Whether it is in work or personal time, people can sometimes spend hours on social networking sites without any obvious benefits coming out of their experience.
• There are privacy issues associated with social networking. It is not always clear who is able to read your profile and personal information. An embarrassing photo of you drunk at a party might be seen by a parent or relative, or unguarded comments made about your workplace might be seen by your boss. It is not always clear how secure the host site is either when it comes to looking after your personal information.

• These sites can be used for stalking and harassment purposes. It is often possible for unscrupulous people to work out a user’s location and movements from social networking sites, or send them threatening messages anonymously. Younger people can be bullied and not just through words, but with embarrassing photographs and other media too.
• Spam and unwanted advertising can be a constant problem, especially on sites such as Twitter

•  Sedentary lifestyle habits and sleep disruption. Lastly, since social networking is all done on some sort of computer or mobile device, it can sometimes promote too much sitting down in one spot for too long. Likewise, staring into the artificial light from a computer or phone screen at night can negatively affect your ability to get a proper night’s sleep.

These days young kids don’t have any place to form an epic adventure. It’s more often in front of the TV screen or a laptop. That’s very hard on them. They’re being taught daily unsocial skills. Facebook is an unsocial skill. It’s so sad.

— John Lydon