Evaluation Essay on Social Networking

Social Networking: Negative Impact on Society, Especially the Youth Social networking sites allow you to connect with old friends from high school, family that lives far away, in my case, even in another country as missionaries, friends down the street, coworkers, and just about anyone else you can think of. This can make you feel more connected to the world around you. You can keep up with what everyone is doing and accomplishing in their lives very easily through statuses and pictures posted every day.I have met new family members, whether by marriage or by birth, through Facebook who I otherwise have not had the opportunity to meet.

One of my uncles, who recently passed away, had an affair about thirty years ago and did not realize he had a son from that affair until his son decided to find his father. Facebook is the only way I have been able to meet my new found cousin and his family. But when you start looking at the downside of social networking, it can make you wonder if it is really worth the cost.There have been many debates on the issues of using these sites for many years, so there have been quite a few downsides brought to the public’s attention such as health issues like anxiety or depression, lower grades for students of all levels, decreased productivity in the workplace, someone being stalked and so forth. Since there are way too many to cover in this paper, I am going to concentrate on three that I feel are some of the most important issues.

Some of the issues with social networking sites are identity theft made easier, cyber bullying, which has caused many suicides, and strong face-to-face relationships suffering and being replaced by weaker online relationships. Identity theft has been a big problem for a long time. Now, with social networking sites where people freely put out their information for everyone to see, it is becoming easier to fall victim. “Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the world,” said Bill Morrow, CEO of CSIdentity. Weidaw) According to PCWorld, “A third of social networkers have at least three pieces of information visible on their profiles that could make them vulnerable to ID theft.

”(Skinner) Many sites ask for or require information that can be used to steal your identity. Some of the information may be your full name, date of birth, phone number, address, hometown, schools and graduation dates, other affiliations, etc. Users can choose whether this information is shared on their profiles and, if it is, who it is shared with. Studies have shown that approximately 80% f people who use social media are concerned about the security of their information, but yet over half of those still do nothing to protect it because they feel like they can trust their “friends” on the sites.

Some of this can be prevented by setting their privacy settings so that not everyone in the world can see it, but many users have not even been into the privacy settings to see what they are automatically set for and to change them. (Siciliano) Also, most people do not even read the privacy policies of sites before they become a part of them.Even if the privacy settings are correctly set, identity thieves still have a way to get to your information. They can find people you are friends with and send them a request.

If it is accepted by your friends, they can then send you a request. As I said before, many people trust their social “friends” and if they receive a request from someone who has several mutual friends, they are likely to accept the request even if they do not know the person. “According to Harris Interactive, 18 percent of men will accept a woman's friend request, even if they do not know the person.About 7 percent of women will accept an unknown man's friend request.

A total of five percent of U. S. adults will accept every friend request they receive. ” (Reisinger) If adults, who should definitely know better, will accept these requests, imagine what these numbers are among kids.

This could even be from someone they know but who has set up a fake account. This can lead to other things besides identity theft. They could have an alterior motive such as stalking or even bullying you, which leads to my next issue.Cyber bullying is becoming a bigger and bigger problem on social networking sites. There have been quite a few teenage suicides in which cyber bullying seems to have played a role.

In at least one case, the suicide of Alexis Pilkington, the bullying kept going on her tribute page even after her death. (Glor) “Cyber-Bullying can cause the victim to become chronically depressed and to experience a complete loss of self-esteem. A short exposure to Cyber-Bullying can have long term effects. It can result in Cyber-Bullying Suicides. (Cyber-Bullying Suicides - Cyber Bullycide Victims ) It has many forms such as degradation, harassment, cyber stalking, impersonation, flaming (using vulgar and angry language to start fights with the victim), password theft and hacking accounts, posting photos or videos, among several others.

(Cyber-Bullying Suicides - Cyber Bullycide Victims ) Bullying has been around way before the internet, but now that it is online, rumors, pictures or other forms of cyber bullying make their way around the community much faster so it is easier to humiliate someone in front of more people. In the Internet era, it appears there are more people interested in spewing hate than in countering it. On the social networking sites and on YouTube, inflammatory, hate-filled content overwhelms the limited efforts to promote tolerance and to teach diversity,” stated Christopher Wolf, former Chair of the International Network Against Cyber-Hate (INACH). (Are social networking sites good for our society? ) Many bullies do not even try to conceal their identity, but some may create a fake account to do their bullying and they think they can not get caught, but there are many ways to find out their identity.Bullies could lose their online accounts, face legal charges, and possibly have to register as a sex offender.

Cyber-bullying statistics show that “Around half of teens have been the victims of cyber bullying,” and “Only one in ten teens tells a parent if they have been a cyber bully victim. ” (Cyber Bullying Statistics) The third and final issue I am discussing is that the strong face-to-face relationships are suffering and being replaced with the weaker online relationships.Before social networking, close friends would make it a point to call each other to see what they had been up to or they would get together and go out to catch up on things. Now, it’s easy to go on the networking site and read their posts and even see pictures about what they have been in to. This gives the feeling that they are still keeping up with them, but without the face-to-face contact these relationships tend to weaken. (Hart) Young people and adults alike can spend many hours on these sites.

Many families no longer have dinner together or spend very much quality time together because they are sometimes in separate rooms on different computers or other technical devices. This is one reason many kids do not tell their parents when they are having problems like being bullied. They just do not feel that close to them anymore. “According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media.By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken.

” (Jung) This lack of face-to-face relationships that they can depend on leads them to not have anyone close to discuss major issues with like feeling depressed or wanting to commit suicide. Instead they may post something on the site. When friends see this, they may respond by sending a private message on the site, but very few will actually call or make a visit. (Social Networking Sites Increase Feelings Of Isolation? Many young people may start relationships online with people they have never met nor will ever meet but there is no substitute for real life friends.

All in all, social networking sites do have some very good benefits, but when you take a step back and take a deeper look, I believe the negative outweigh the positive for many people. To have the best experience on these sites, users must be extremely careful. Do not share all of your personal information, and do not accept any friends that you do not personally know.You never know who they could actually be or what their real intentions are. Also, you must keep more focus on your true friends, the ones you spend time with face-to-face and keep those relationships strong. Real friends are too hard to come by.

Do not sacrifice them for more superficial friends who can never truly be there for you except online. Parents need to pay more attention to their children. They need to make sure to save time for family time to keep the bonds and communication strong so that their children will still know they can come to them when something is wrong.Even if you do everything you can do to make sure you visit social networking sites with care and diligence, there are still many issues that could cause negative effects on society today, especially our youths.

Works Cited Are social networking sites good for our society? 8 November 2007. . Cyber Bullying Statistics. 2009. .

Cyber-Bullying Suicides - Cyber Bullycide Victims . 2010. . Glor, Jeff.

Cyberbullying Continued After Teen's Death. 29 March 2010. . Hart, Laurence.

The Negative Impact of Social Networking on Relationships. 21 June 2010. . Jung, Brian.

The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals. . Lewis, Kent. Identity Theft Through Social Networking. 17 August 2010.

. Reisinger, Don. Survey: Millions Risk ID Theft Via Social Networks. 22 March 2011. . Siciliano, Robert.

Identity Theft Commited Using Social Networks. 23 July 2009. . Skinner, Carrie-Ann. Beware: Identity Thieves Harvest Social Networks. 27 June 2009.

. Social Networking Sites Increase Feelings Of Isolation? 8 October 2010. . The Truth about Social Media Identity Theft: Perception versus Reality. 21 June 2010. .

Weidaw, Kate. Identity Theft Through Social Media. 3 February 2011. .