Social networking: Pros & Cons
In todays world, where social networking has become an essential part of people’s lives, we often overlook how it affects our morals and daily lives.
As everything that surrounds us, social networking has its benefits and disadvantages. It depends on the extent to which we exploit it. As every resource is harmful after a limit, it is quiet easy to overdose on social networking.
In today’s busy world social networking gives us an opportunity to stay in contact with our friends, relatives and acquaintances. It also gives us a temporary escape from our stressful lives. But, the most important advantage of social networking is that since more than 1 bn. people are now on social netorkin sites i.e. 1 in 7 people on earth are using social networking sites, we get an opportunity to communicate with people from all around the world, explore their religion, cultures, etc. and, that too without traveling abroad in the comfort of our homes!
South Korea is testament to the ease and comfort of social networking in the lives of its citizens. It is the most wired country in the world, facilitated with the widespread availabilit of internet, social networking has permeated every facet of human life.
Its benefits also extend to social revolutions such as the Arab Spring, wherein social network sites like Twitter and Faceboook were used extensively to organise widespread protests throughout North Afrca amd West Asia, resulting in the ousting of long-time dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
Now, THE UGLY TRUTH.
Social networking sites are highly addictive and are slowly killing our personal lives. A recent survey showed that 65% people were ready to give up on alcohol than deactiving their accounts on social networking sites!
This shows the level upto which people are addicted to social networking. This addiction leads to people revealing too much information to the public killing their private lives.
Once addicted, the people cannot make do without social networking for even an hour! Without social networking addicts become restless and desparate to visit their profiles.
This is now a common sight and nearly 37% of people having an account on social networking are addicts.
Further ill effects of social networking include a disastarous loss of concentration and massive deterioration of grammar and basic language skills, with “Spelling” being the lates and most common casualty amongst even the most educated users; A flaw they later carry on to their real and professional lives, as is clearly evident from observing school-going children.
Further ill effects of social networking include a disastarous loss of concentration and massive deterioration of grammar and basic language skills, with “Spelling” being the lates and most common casualty amongst even the most educated users; A flaw they later carry on to their real and professional lives, as is clearly evident from observing school-going children.
In conclusion, the merits and demerits of social networking is debatable. It is easy to get addicted to social networking and lose oneself in the virtual world, along with losing one’s language skills. On the otheer hand, social networking can be a very powerful tool to stay connected with the world, and bring about social revolutions as witnessed in recent years in North Africa and West Asia. And judging by the plethora of social networking sites and apps available to the user, its easy to assume that these are here to stay and will continue to remain a part of our lives.
Ishaan Humble
&
Sumant Agnihotri
CIM
