Running head: SOCIAL NETWORKING 111

Social Networking in Society Cayla GIllam English 1010 December 4, 2013

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Social Networking in Society The technology that is presented in the 21st century is remarkable. The technology that we have today is what some scientist once called impossible. With new computers, phones, and gaming systems, the sky seems to be the limit. Many of these new advances in electronics would not have been possible without the internet. The internet is believed to be our greatest success yet as a society. The internet started in the 1970s, and was used by the army as a new way to communicate by text. The internet went to the public in the late 1990s one the internet was released into the public a new world opened up for many. In 1977 another great accomplishment was made. It was a new way for people to communicate with hundreds of people. The first social network entered the new world. A social network allows for users to create a personal space on the internet, where they can interact with family, friends, and new people all around the world. No one could predict how fast these websites would takeoff, SixDegrees.com was the first site to be considered a social networking site. Six Degrees was founded by financial analyst and legal professional Andrew Weinreich, and was launched in 1997. It was created based on the theory that every person in the world could be connected to each other by just six degrees of separation. The site lasted from 1997 until 2001.The site was the first to combine personal profiles, instant messaging, friends lists and the ability to search other members friends lists. It was really the predecessor to sites like Myspace and Facebook. (Andrew Weinreich May 26, 2012)

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Six Degrees was the only social networking site until 2002 when Frendster.com was made. Although Friendster was not the first networking site it was the first site to popularize social network into the United States. With Friendster being a huge hit Tom Anderson created myspace.com as another social networking website. Myspace was a huge hit, with the people and it sky rocked to the top of the social networking chain. It stayed there until Facebook hit public access. The origins of Facebook have been dispute since the very week a 19 -year-old Mark Zuckerburg launched the site as a Harvard sophomore on February 4, 2004. (Nicholas Carson, N.D.) The young Mark Zuckerburg never dreamt that Facebook would become what it did. When it was invented he intended Facebook to be used by students at Harvard only. He thought that it would be a good place where all students could interact with other students, making school work become easier and help to form good relationships with other peers. Six years later the site has become the biggest website in the world, visited by 400 million people in a month. (Nicholas Carson, N.D.) Facebook was beginning to be used all around the world for all families and friends to keep in touch with one another. Although facebook is the biggest social networking site in the world, it has new and old competition to compete with. With new users joining a new social networking each day the number of users continue to increase. New users joining the social networking world have the chance to meet millions of people in one day. Having your thought being heard by all these people by just typing a new status is something many people would have never thought of. Proponents of social networking sites say that online communities promote increased interaction with friends and family; offer teachers, librarians, and students valuable

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access to educational support and materials; facilitate social and political change; and disseminate useful information rapidly. (procon.org 10/15/2013) The creators of these social networks have made joining their website so easy that 4 year old can join. Believe it or not there are children that young on these sites. How easy it is to join and create a new profile, it is even easier for someone to join and create a fake profile. When signing up for a new social site it is very easy to alter the truth a little, or create a new person that lives in a different state, has different hair, can sing, and is a millionaire. The fact that it is so easy for someone to create a fake profile, this frightens many people. It makes many too scared to accept a friend request in fear that they will think it is one person, but it really being a stranger. Opponents of social networking say that the sites prevent face-to-face communication; waste time on frivolous activity; alter childrens brain and behavior making them more prone to ADHD; expose users to predators like pedophiles and burglars; and spreads false and potentially dangerous information. . (David Levithan, Will Grayson N.D.) With people shying away from social networking sites, developers have started developing new steps to help make it harder for strangers to see your profile. As social networking sites continue to thrive worldwide, some are starting to think that social networking is a unnecessary evil that needs to be abolished. Many people feel that social networking has become too dangerous for anyone to continue to participate in. That the generation is becoming too gullible to the facts that they are finding on the internet, because that many believe that the internet cannot lie. This thought is completely false and that society needs to learn this. If we can show the generation that we

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have now it will make the internet a safer place for us and for the generation after. To get rid of social networking would be a waste of what technology we have access to. I propose that in order to solve the problems we have with social networking we must embrace it and learn more about it. Social networking is in the rise with becoming more involved in schools. More than 80% of US College and University faculty use social media; more than 50% teaching; and 30% for communication with students. (procon.org 10/15/2013) with teachers and student communicating more outside of school, inappropriate relationships between teachers and student have also been on the rise. The Texas Education Agency opened 156 cases about "inappropriate relationships" between educators and students in the 2011-2012 school year; 86 cases were reported in 2007-2008 and education experts blame the rise of social media for the increase in cases. Social media allows for unsupervised interactions between students and teachers, which can easily escalate into sexual or otherwise inappropriate relationships. (procon.org 10/15/2013) It is good for a student to feel comfortable enough to talk with the teacher. There is a line that cannot be crossed. This line has been crossed of years though sadly, and it was long before social networking came around. If a teacher and student chose to get involved with one another, it is there choice and not at the fault of the networking site. Most administration also monitor the activity between the teachers and students. Saying that social networking is at fault for a teacher and student getting involved is like saying that if the student didnt want to get involved with the teacher than they shouldnt have taken the class.

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Face-to-face interaction is something that humans need in order to remain human. With social networking coming about, face-to-face interaction has decreased because young people believe that if you are talking to the person via instant messaging then there is no need to see the person to talk to them. This has becalm so severe that some people have begun to ignore those who are actually around for someone on a social networking site. This is a problem for some people, but others talking though social networking has improved their life skills. People use social media to network at in-person events and get to know people before personal, business, and other meetings. Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project found that messaging on social media leads to face-to-face interactions when plans are made via the sites and social media users messaged close friends an average of 39 days each year while seeing close friends in person 210 days each year. (procon.org 10/15/2013) Through social networking millions of relationships have formed and it has given people with low self-esteem higher self-esteem. With dating sites coming about, it is much easier to meet new people by logging on to a site that going out and being too shy to talk to anyone. By developing a relationship before meeting face-to-face this helps for better interaction when you do meet face-to-face, improving interaction with others around you. Many people believe that everything on the internet has to be true or it cant be on the internet. So when someone finds new information they no longer question it. On September 5 2012false rumors of fires, shootouts and caravans of gunman in Mexico City suburb spread via twitter and face book caused panic flooded local police department with over 3000 phone calls and temporary closed schools. (procon.org 10/15/2013) When posting

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something on the internet not everyone thinks of how it will affect those around them. If we were to bring the attention on how serious it is to post something false on the internet can help prevent this from happening again. Even though the internet has lies, the true st orys being told daily have saved millions of lifes, helped students get better grade and it is the fastest way to get breaking news out into the public. Over 50% of people learn about breaking news on social media. 65% of traditional media reporters and editors use sites like Facebook and LinkedIn for story research, and 52% use Twitter. Social networking sites are the top news source for 27.8% of Americans, ranking close to newspapers (28.8%) and above radio (18.8%) and other print publications (6%). Twitter and YouTube users reported the July 20, 2012 Aurora, CO theater shooting before news crews could arrive on the scene, and the Red Cross urged witnesses to tell family members they were safe via social media outlets. With this fantastic way to get out new important information it is defiantly worth the few lies that have been told. By bring the importance of watching what is posted on the internet, and by researching the facts you find on the internet, the lies will go down substantially. In every aspect of life there is always good and bad things about it. The part that makes something fully good is by finding ways to prevent the bad. With social networking, it has many advantages and some disadvantages. With learning more about the social network and how it functions it will improve the good and helps prevent the bad. This happens by embarrassing the internet and as we work more with it the more restrictions will come. Soon it will no longer be a bad thing. In conclusion in order to solve the problems with social networking we must explore

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more and become more comfortable with it. If we also keep all the preventing tips for how to use a social networking, it will become easy and fun for those who understand it.