Social Networking Essay Example for Free

amicable Net working(a) EssaySocial mesh topologying sites such(prenominal) as Friendster, Linkedin, Spoke, Face book, MySpace and Twitter exclusively vary slightly, yet the oneness main feature they engage is that they enable users to create a profile in spite of appearance the website to represent themselves and allows uses to interact through email, instant messaging and early(a) integrated communication channels within the site (Papacharissi, 2009). The universality and growth of kind networking sites over the past five years has been colossal, as galore(postnominal) people from all over the world join up to this kind phenomenon for varied reasons. Today, there ar more than than 500 million active users on plaque book and users spend over 700 billion minutes per month on this sociable networking site (Facebook, 2011). As the technology of Web 2. 0 improves and advances, social networking sites shit an even bigger impact on order of magnitude and human famil ys, both positive and interdict. This paper argues that social networking sites nominate a negative influence on children, teenagers and adults, increase the ease and prominence of cyber push around, increase ad hominem insecurities and feed addictions and weaken rigid ain ties.This paper also argues that social networks create distraction and decrease productivity and profits within the workplace and piece of tail also can jeopardise a companys record. Social networks also increase the ease of identity operator theft and bring to light other solitude issues as well as lead to an overall decrease in our face to face social skills and confidence. This paper will demonstrate that social networking sites do cause more trauma than good. Identity TheftIdentity theft is a huge problem in todays gild and has come about as a go away of the rapid expansion and availability of internet technology and the increase in personal data comprise on social networking sites. In item A t otal of 806,000 Australians aged 15 years and over were victims of at least one incident of personal fraud in or identity theft in 2008 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). Sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter facilate identity theft in two mains ways.The graduation exercise being is that sites encourage you to edit your profile this includes adding your inte breaks, full name, where you live, who your top friends are, your email address and even personal details like your phone number an relationship status. Users share a variety of entropy about themselves on their Facebook profiles, including photos, contact information, and tastes in movies and books. (Jones vitamin A Soltren, 2005). This information disclosure causes a huge problem as the more information you have on your profile the easier it is for identity thieves to verify themselves as being you.The second main issue is the privacy settings on these social networking sites also help faccilate personal fraud. Whilst there are built in features that allow users to change their privacy settings and not allow other users to view such personal details, these settings are never default, so that users are usually unaware how much information they are sharing not only with their friends, but with the rest of the world By default, profiles on Friendster and Tribe. net are crawled by search engines, making them visible to anyone, regardless of whether or not the viewer has an account (Boyd amp Ellison, 2007).A general lack of awareness amongst users and the fact that digital identity can be easily hacked makes social networking sites a hub for identity theft which results in unwanted legal hassles, loss of money and years of trying to re-establish a victims credit and good name (Acquisti amp Gross, 2006). This is why it is authorised for users of social network systems to be aware of the value of the data they are making available online and of the ways that is can pote3nitally be used (Donath a mp Boyd 2004).moreover some other privacy issue that social networking sites face is that they encourage users to overshare very private information that can easily be used against them. For example the jam based social networking site Foursquare encourages users to check in at various locations to win points and earn badges and discounts. However these check ins are in touchable time and essentially users notify others where they are, but more importantly when they arent home. For strangers and thieves this is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of such k presentlyledge and rob mortals house while they are out.A web site called Please rob me has been set up to raise awareness about over-sharing and highlights these kinds of privacy issues that social networks create Location based services also raise myriads of privacy issues due to the ability to collect, store, use and dis coterminous the locations of users. (Anuar amp Gretzel, 2010). In this find social networks like these pose serious privacy concerns. Cyber bullying Cyber bullying refers to bullying through information and communication technologies (Webster, n. ), mediums such as, emails, mobile phone text communicates, phone calls, internet chat rooms, instant messaging and most importantly and recently, social networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo (Webster, n. d). Whilst cyber bullying is not physical its randy and psychological effects are devastating for the victim and can often lead to suicide and depression (Hinduja amp Patchin, 2010). Cyber bulling in terms of social networks is a huge issue as more than 50% of American teenagers aged from 12 to 17 use social networking sites (Hall, 2010).Online bullying is often seen as the patrician way out. Social networking sites act as a platform where bullies can say things they might not usually say to someone in person, namelessness and less physical proximity act as a wall between the bully and the victim, none the less, the words or rumours that are shared are still just as hurtful. Bullies often feel more confident online and they can contact their victims any time, anywhere, day or night, not just in the school yard (Smith et al. , 2008).For example in 2009 a 14 year old girl committed suicide as a direct result of cyber bulling. The daughters mother spoke out in an ABC news report and explained that Friday night she was on the internet and told me about some message that had come through, and she wanted to die because of the message. I laid in bed with her and we discussed it for about an hour and she left me fairly happy. I can guarantee you if she didnt go on the internet Friday night shed be alive today. (Dikeos, 2009).Additionally another well know casing of cyber bulling that resulted in suicide was the case of Megan Meier who was constantly teased tormented and riven to her death from intense cyber bulling. 13 year old Megan began receiving nasty messages from a boy after a few weeks of an online tease with him, via her MySpace account, ending with one that suggested the world would be a better place without her. Megan, believing she had been rejected by Josh, committed suicide in her home. Times Topics, Megan Meier. (2011). The regretful part was that Josh was ust a fictional character, created by a mother of one of Megans former friends. These two case studies bring to light the fact that cyber bulling is a massive problem that is not only exists all over the world, but is only made possible by the use of social networking sites. Without such platforms for bullies to target their victims the rate of teen suicide and depression would most likely drop. Groups on facebook can be created to make fun of or abuse peculiar(prenominal) people or ideas. On facebook I found groups titled I scorn Kevin Rudd and on their wall things like F**k you Kevin and I cant believe they let this di***ead become foreign minister. Also a recent incident that was covered on the new s showed the negative comments towards babies and their parents over facebook surrounding the Bonds Baby Search. Some comments under a photos said A child only a mother could love and another baby was called an ugly duckling (Cute baby competition turns ugly, 2011). Comments like these are spiteful not only to the babies, but for their parents as well. This in itself is another form of cyber bullying that has been made possible via the increased use of social networking sites.It is clear that social networking sites aid in the prominence of cyber bulling which is just one of the negative impacts that social working sites has on society today. The weakening of strong ties amp isolation The way we communicate with our peers and with strangers over the internet is changing. Another negative impact that social networks have on our relationships is the fact that whilst they might strengthen our weak ties we have with acquaintances and people we dont see often, they are in fact weakening our strong ties and also bring about physical social isolation.The term social networking misleads people into believing they are being social, Facebook isnt considered a social network but more a prevalent phone book or search engine. Contact is minimal and impersonal (Carr, 2010). The news feed feature on facebook and twitter keeps us in the loop with everything that our close friends and family are doing. Why would one call their friend to ask them what they got up to on the weekend, when clearly all they have to do is look at their news feed and find all the details a gigantic with pictures entailing their lives.Traditionally we would regularly call each other, or go out of the way to catch up. Nowadays the urge to contact each other over the phone or even face to face isnt as important because we feel like we are still connected via social networks ( Thomas, 2007). This idea of constantly being connected is awful in the way that personal interactions between friends are more s uperficial than they were before Facebook and other social networking sites. Users are also more likely to let more time pass between face to face encounters because they still feel like they are in contact as they constantly have tabs on all of their friends.A case study that was done in America revealed that twenty-five percent of the respondents in the 2004 survey appear to have no close ties, up from ten percent in 1984. Additionally a similar study amongst college student found that 1 in 7 say that social networking sites increase feelings of isolation (Katonda News Network, 2010) As well as Nearly 70% report reading posts from someone close to them that seemed like a squawk for emotional help, and while most students would offer support in some way, fewer than half would make a personal visit (Katonda News Network , 2010).It is clear that the rise of social networks has increased social and emotional isolation and diluted the strength our human relationships. Workplace inter ference Social networking sites can have a negative impact in the workplace, for both employers for employees and time to come employees. They create distraction, decrease productivity, cost companies money, can jeopardise a companys reputation and legal liability and for those users who dont have their profiles set to private can often result in unemployment. If every employee in a 50-strong workforce spent 30 minutes on a social networking site every day, that would work out to a loss of 6,500 hours of productivity in one year (Kelleher, 2009). Social networking sites can also be damaging for prospective employees looking for work ,as facebook and MySpace are fantastic resources for companies as they offer revealing information about a candidates true colours. Several profiles often contain awkward and embarrassing information that affair seekers would not want their future managers to know about themselves. According to a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBui lder. com, 45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job candidates (Wortham, 2009).. Moreover, there have been many instances where personal status updates or blog posts have hurt or damaged a companies reputation, thus seeing many employees loose their jobs over mindless updates that they didnt think twice about. For example in 2010, Jaguar ambassador and swimmer Stephanie Rice tweeted Suck on that f**gots, (Robertson, 2010) after a rugby game the Wallabies had won.Many twitter users and public figures referred to it as a gay slur and even after a public apology, Jaguar Australia general manager Kevin Goult announced that Jaguar Australia today terminated its relationship with Stephanie Rice, who has been an ambassador for the Jaguar brand in Australia since the start of 2010. (Robertson, 2010). Another fine example of one employee who damaged his reputation before he even stared at his new job was a Cisco employee who tweeted Cisco just offered me a jobNow I have to weigh the utility of a fatty pay check against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work It wasnt long before Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco Alert, shared this open response, Who is the hiring manager. Im sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web. ( Popkin, 2009)It is clear that social networking sites can have a damaging effect on not only employees but the companies themselves.Users are unfortunately unaware that everything they post on their profile is public information and even if your profile is set to private your foreman or work colleagues may still be fronted with this information at some stage in the future. As social networking sites become more popular by the day, the rise of negative social effects within our society also greaten. We have and will see further instances of cyber bullying more cases of identity theft and additional privacy breaches. We will also see our stron g relationships diluted to a more superficial and convenient type of relationship.We will expand to see a further decrease in productivity within workplace and also more instances of companys reputations and names being brought into disrepute. Social networking sites have had a huge negative impact on our mental and social health and will continue to do so into the future. It is also now evident that social networking sites facilitate all these problems, and without them they would cease to exist. Therefore it is undeniably true that Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and the like do in fact cause more harm than good. References Acquisti, A amp R, Gross. (2006).