Twitter: The Dangerous Effects of Social Networking

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In our society, social networking has become very popular over the last 5 years. Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to become “followers” of other people and stay informed about current events and social trends. Many argue whether or not these social websites such as Twitter, are good for society. In two articles about Twitter, the authors present different arguments about why Twitter is good or bad for society. The author of “Heading off disaster, one Tweet at a time” by Jim Spellman, states that Twitter is a good way of communicating current events happening around the world. The other article, “Is Twitter Bad for National Security?” by Tony Bradley, argues that Twitter could have dangerous effects on our nation’s security.

Social networking can be a good tool when communicating world news, such as natural disasters, because it can communicate faster that a news broadcast can. In the article by Spellman, he states that when FEMA chief Craig Fugate was made aware of an explosion in California, Fugate stated that “I got out my little Android phone and went on Twitter and pulled up the grid to search for 'explosion' and got tweets coming out of the area." After a few minutes of reviewing Tweets on Twitter, Fugate realized that the explosion was localized to one community and was very severe (Spellman). Fugate then states, "I got better situational awareness [from Twitter] before we got official word," he said. "Four or five years ago I wouldn't have gotten that quality of information" (Spellman). This information can then be quickly relayed to first responder’s en route to the incident so they can be better prepared for the conditions. This can also aid with the decreasing of response times and assis...

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...what does matter is what people do with Twitter. The government should be aware of what Federal employees are posting, and avoid any breaches of security. With the internet within arms reach, it seems like every household in America has at least one computer that has internet access and with more and more people getting “smart phones”, Twitter is just a click away and this makes it ideal as a tool to inform the public about disasters or to gain information about what is going on in the country.

Works Cited

Bradley, Tony. “Is Twitter Bad for National Security?” 15 Feb 2009. Web. 3 Oct 2010.

Spellman, Jim. “Heading off disaster, one tweet at a time.” 22 Sept 2010. Web. 3 Oct 2010.

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