Online Social Networking Dangers and Benefits

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For years and years, the internet has been offering a very extensive variety of information, social networking sites, merchandise purchases, online banking and many other services that our grandparents and our great grandparents could only dream of. This doesn’t mean that it’s all good or useful information and sites. Neither does it mean it hasn’t had a huge impact on the way society is changing just because it is a virtual space.

“The internet is home to millions of sites, representing both commerce and the people who share their thoughts and experiences with anyone who visits” (Amp Your MySpace Page 99) The webpages that have had much more impact on society are social networking sites such as, Myspace, Facebook, Hi5, Friendster, etc.

Social networking sites have changed almost everything and every way teenagers and even adults communicate, think and interact with other people.

A very good example of this is that most teenage girls used to stay up all night chatting on the phone with their friends while their parents angrily knocked on their door, screaming at them to hush down. Today, the average parent can sleep soundly not knowing their sons and daughters are on the internet chatting with their friends, if not with some random stranger who, in reality is a thirty-something year old sexual predator.

Also, in the past, if a person wanted advice, they’d go to a close friend, a neighbor, a family member or a mentor. Nowadays, it seems that everyone gets pleasure from venting their feelings and personal issues on blogs or public forums for the entire world to see, as if it were some great accomplishment when, in reality it’s just a private matter which isn’t meant to be seen by everyone who has access to a computer.

These ...

... middle of paper ...

...he internet are websites which can seem very harmful when you think of them, but, believe it or not, they also have some benefits. Many long-lost friends have reunited because of these sites, they browse for each others names, click on their pictures and, boom; they’ve just rekindled a lost friendship.

In conlusion, social networking sites can have a very big impact on how we interact and make friendships but we can only be influenced by them if we want to be influenced. These sites can be “vast teenage playgrounds—or wastelands, depending on one’s perspective” (What Matters in America 48) but so can anything else, depending on your point of view.

Works Cited

Goshgarian, Gary. Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism. What Matters In America. 43-54. Print

Butow, Eric and Bellomo, Michael. Amp Your MySpace Page. 99 Print

Google.com. 2009. Web

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