Social Networking

Sites such as Facebook, Myspace and other social sites are helpful for a variety of things, such as retaining contact with friends and family, providing updates on your personal life to your followers, and even serve as an intermediary for public issues and debates, hosting events and creating awareness. Of course other social sites such as LinkedIn helps to cater towards a specific social need, such as building a reputation and profile online to attract recruiters and possible job offers. Evidently, there are a lot of positive uses for social networking sites, however, there are also negative or “dark” aspects to these sites, such as the invasion or lack of privacy, as well as the viral spread of negativity and abuse through online bullying/shaming.

For instance, in the article, “Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn’t Private” by Rebecca Greenfield, the article shows how even the CEO and co-founder of Facebook’s sister was unable to manage her own privacy settings on the social media site. Zuckerberg’s family photo was seen by someone that wasn’t on her friends list, and the person decided to post the photo on Twitter. Zuckerberg found out and asked it to be removed immediately because she claims that the photo was a private family photo and was intended for her friends only. This situation shows that there is a lack of privacy settings, or a lack of privacy settings knowledge on social sites that often lead to issues and misunderstandings between one another. If not used carefully, social sites such as Facebook can become an open invitation to strangers following private and intimate details of one’s life.

Another instance of the negative aspects of social sites is found in the article “They’re Back, and They’re Bad: Campus-Gossip Web Sites” by Jeffrey R. Young, which points out the increasingly troublesome problem of online bullying. In universities, gossip web sites have become a popular social networking tool that allows for students to “post anonymous attacks on classmates”. Since the comments are made anonymously and almost anyone with access to the site can view the hurtful comments, the sites become a dangerous weapon for ruining an individual’s self-confidence and self-image and can further lead to life threatening results such as depression or even suicide.

Thus, social networking sites definitely has a “dark” side to it as well as positive uses. Although social media has improved communication and collaboration for online users, it also poses as a threat for others. Nonetheless, I believe that the future of social media remains bright, as there is no quicker way to share and compare information than social networking. It is difficult to meet and maintain contact with everyone in person, but with one click of a button, hundreds and even thousands can see what you’re up to and photos of where you’ve been. Therefore, I do not see social media sites changing in the long run—if anything, they will continue to make sharing information even easier and accessible.