Social Networking

Social networking, by definition, is a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who share interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. A main benefit of social networking is the ability to stay in touch with people anywhere with access to the internet. They could be hundreds of miles away but can still stay connected. These social networking sites also bring those who share common interests together by allowing the creation of groups and also access to trending news. Another benefit is allowing both companies and those in search of employment to find each other. A popular website that makes this easy is LinkedIn. This website gives employers the opportunity to hire and gives everybody else the opportunity to find a job. In "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting," the article states that "8 million professionals spread across the world" are using this site, which offers a huge audience for recruiters to select their candidates.

Although there are several benefits to social networking, I believe they also come with drawbacks. One main drawback or “dark side” to social networking is the fact that once you upload something, everyone can see it. For example, with Facebook, your life is pretty much exposed on the Internet. Whether it is your location, pictures, statuses, relationships; anyone with Facebook has access to that information. Privacy is a huge drawback to social networking. In “Who cares about Facebook privacy? Students do”, studies show that “engagement with privacy settings increased significantly” since 2009-2010. This shows that although students are aware of the invasion of privacy, they still choose to use these sites because they deem the benefits outweigh the costs. Even with this drawback, I still do believe that this technology will continue to evolve for the better. There are constant updates and fixes to technology everyday and at this rate, there’s no stopping its growth.

"Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

"Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do" By Marc Parry, NY Times, July 29, 2010
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Who-Cares-About-Facebook/25877/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en