Impact of Social Networking on Young People - Essay Example

Impact of Social Networking on Young People AFFILIATION: Introduction Technology has brought drastic changes around the world and it has impacted the lives of all individuals in one way or the other. Social networking is one major product of technology that has brought tremendous changes in the lives of people and organisations as well. It has transformed the way people think and feel about socialising with friends and family. There are many social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. These are some of the most popular ones and are used by many of the young people in the society. The social networking websites act as a powerful communication tool which is used by both young individuals and business professionals. For the young generation, the social networking websites have become a life support system as they have different types of communication taking place with family and friends. Any tool has both positive and negative impacts and therefore the social networking websites have its own advantages as well as disadvantages (Valkenburg and Peter, 2009). Positive Impacts of Social Networking on Young People The concept of communication with friends and family has been shifted towards the platform of social networking websites. Media channels earlier was just used for the purpose of broadcasting shows and other types of content on television and radio, in todays world the media has impacted the young generation through the social media platforms and allowed them to participate and know about various other things. The young people today are observed to be highly interactive on the social networking websites. Youngsters around the world are observed to be addicted to social networking platforms. The amount of view and opinions exchanged on the social networking websites is a lot as compared to when the youngsters communicate face to face. The communication patterns are observed to increase via the social networking websites. It is observed that an individual has more virtual friends than actual friends. The young generation are observed to become excited on having a huge virtual friend circle and are happily communicating with these virtual friends online. Even introverts who do not socialise often are found to have a good social connection on the social networking websites (Valkenburg & Peter, 2009). Having a presence on the social networking websites have become a status symbol for many and youngsters feel backward if they are not part of the latest social networking websites. Social networking has increased awareness amongst the youngsters on the social, political and economic issues pertaining in the country. The youngster are now more aware of the happenings in the world than they were prior to the launch of the social networking websites. The youngsters also follow up with the organisations that they plan to work with in future and are updated about the latest happenings in their firm (McGrath and Van Vugt, 2009). In some regions, the political state of the country is highly unstable and all these instabilities are discussed by the youngsters on the social networking websites. Through the use of the social media platform, the youngsters are able to protest against issues that are inappropriate. They have filed cases on the social media for fighting against corruption. Many online petitions are signed and rotated amongst the social media to get votes and prevent something from happening. Online petitions are both being done on local grounds as well as international grounds and users from all over the world can participate in these petitions. This shows the power of the social media and also the level of interest and concern of the young audience in working towards promoting good things in the society and fighting corruption (Larsen, 2007). Students can imply the social networking tool in their educational studies as well such as research and development phase of projects and other assignments. As organisations use the social networking websites for promoting their business, the youngsters in their student life can learn how to imply this tool for attracting a large audience and promoting the product (International, 2008). If youngsters are provided proper guidance in using the social media, they can learn a lot about the organisational practices of using social media in improving the business and gaining more potential customers for the business. Negative Impacts of Social Networking on Young People Youngsters spend a lot of time on social networking websites and hence this has reduced the social interaction of the youngsters on a face to face mode or in person basis. This has impacted the communication abilities of the young generation, the confidence level, the body language, the facial expressions, all these elements are not present in online communication hence the youngsters are ineffective in communication skills on a face to face mode. In some cases, this addiction is impacting the youngster in a negative way such as becoming uninterested in studies, and mostly interested in spending time with friends on chat and social websites, uploading pictures, commenting on status updates and so on. The main aim of the youngsters revolve around gaining popularity on the social networking websites and they lose interest in other important activities in life (Das and Sahoo, 2011). Social networking by youngsters may at time lead them to unethical behaviour and attitudes such as being interested in other peoples profiles (Light and McGrath, 2010). Generally one may not be interested in knowing about the other person but in the virtual world, the interest in others profiles is gaining immense popularity. Sharing matter which is not permitted by the user and also sharing other private and confidential data that may result in unethical behaviour (Dwyer, Hiltz, and Passerini, 2007). Youngsters spend a lot of time on social networking and this allows them to improve their skills in understanding technology and also allows them to develop good skills in the field of Information technology. In a study, it has been depicted that majority of the young people are website specific and the usual websites they visit on the internet are the social networking websites (Pasek, More and Romer, 2009). This is not a good sign as on the internet one can visit many other useful and informational websites, just spending time socialising on the internet may result in wastage of precious time by the youngsters. The youngsters are incapable of researching valuable information on the internet and just easily rely on the matter available on the social networking websites. In another study conducted by Pelling Ella White (2009) on the use of social networking websites by young people, she concluded that the high usage of social networking websites are linked to the attitudinal and normative factors of the young people along with the factor of self identity. These factors then work on further to make the young people addictive to these social networking websites and modify their social life accordingly. They do not want to spend quality time with friends and family rather want to sit in front of the PC and chat with friends online. Youngsters become lethargic and lazy with excessive use of social media websites. The motivation level of the youngsters is extremely low in doing other extracurricular activities. This has a tremendous impact on their academic behaviour and results as well. Furthermore, the mental and physical health of the youngsters are affected and they become weak in both areas. It is important to guide youngsters towards avoiding the insertion of personal data on the social networking websites. There are chances of crimes such as credit card fraud and other such mishaps taking place due to the user inserting their personal information. Youngsters may fall in the trap of providing all their personal data without realising the harm that this can cause to them. Hence it is important that the youngsters should be guided while using the social networking websites (Gallant, 2011). Conclusion In all as we can see from the discussion that the use of social networking websites has both positive and negative impacts on the youngsters of any nation. Technology should be used in the right way to reap out maximum benefits and avoid the disadvantages to the optimum level. Social networking has impacted the personal lives of young people as well as their social lives. Addiction to social networking websites may lead to problems of communication as well as problems related to socialising with people on a face to face basis. There would be more introverts found in the society rather than extroverts and this may not be a god sign for the society. On the other hand we can see that there are many positive impacts of social networking, the youngsters are more aware of the problems and work upon the cause of social and political problems pertaining in the country. Therefore, it can be strongly concluded that addiction of any technology or anything in life is not a good sign. Technology should be used at a moderate level so that maximum benefits can be attained. The youngsters need to be guided at all stages so that they know the benefits of technology as well as the harm that technology can bring in lives if not used in the proper manner. References Das, B. & Sahoo, J.S., 2011. Social Networking Sites – A Critical Analysis of Its Impact on Personal and Social Life. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(14), p.222-229. Dwyer, C., Hiltz, S.R. & Passerini, K., 2007. Trust and privacy concern within social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace. In Americas The. Citeseer, pp. 339-350. Gallant, D.T., 2011. Protecting Personal Information on Social Networking Sites. School Business Affairs, 77(1), p.13-14.  International, C., 2008. Young People and Social Networking Services : A Childnet International Research Report. Young, p.November 20, 2008. Larsen, M.C., 2007. Understanding Social Networking : On Young People ’ s Construction and Co-construction of Identity Online. Paper Presented at The Society for Social Studies of Science 4S Annual Conference Montreal Canada October, 8, p.18–20.  Light, B. & McGrath, K., 2010. Ethics and social networking sites: a disclosive analysis of Facebook. Information Technology People, 23(4), p.290-311.  McGrath, H., & Van Vugt, J., 2009. Young people and technology: A review of the current literature (2nd edition). Melbourne: Alannah and Madeline Foundation. Pasek, J., More, E. & Romer, D., 2009. Realizing the Social Internet? Online Social Networking Meets Offline Civic Engagement. Journal of Information Technology Politics, 6(3), p.197-215. Pelling Emma White, K.M., 2009. YOUNG PEOPLE’ S SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITE USE The theory of planned behaviour applied to young people ’ s use of social networking websites. Cyberpsychology Behavior, 12, p.755-759. Valkenburg, P. M. & Peter, J., 2009. Social consequences of the internet for adolescents: A decade of research. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 1-5. Read More