The Psychological Impact of Social Networking

1862 Words4 Pages

Technology has had a great impact on the way the world communicates. Access to technology has become an integral part of education, socialization and industry related requirements, and accordingly Internet usage is evolving and growing rapidly. MySpace, Twitter, Skype, and Facebook are some of the online connections people use today to stay in contact with friends, coworkers, and family. Communicating in today’s society has become a lot easier with social networking sites allowing us to communicate with people with a simple click of the mouse. In this paper, I will address the strengths and limitations of social networking. I will look at the ways that social network can impact the social world of people and communities, especially those with whom we work. I will address the psychological impact of social networking. Lastly, I will look at how social workers embrace social networking in clinical, community, group and organizational practice.

Over view of Facebook

Created in 2004, by 2007 Facebook was reported to have more than 21 million registered members generating 1.6 billion page views each day (Ellison, 2007). Membership to the newly created social network site was restricted to students at Harvard but soon expanded to include students from other colleges and universities. Facebook launched a high school version in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step (Wikipedia, 2011).finally, on September 26, 2006, Facebook became available to everyone age 13 and older with a valid email address. Most participants log on at least once a day. Personally, I long on at least once a day and spend about 5 to 10 minutes checking my messages, posting a comment, and replying to invitations and comments. When I first crea...

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