Social Networking – Good For Our Children or Not?

1.      Despite widespread opinion that social networking is a nothing more than a time-killer for students, recent researchers discovered there are educational benefits of social networking.  Students tend to learn much of their technology and communication skills from online networking resources such as Facebook, MySpace, etc.

2.      Another positive point for social network users is that they are surely more globally aware with immediate access to latest global issues.  Furthermore, online socializing develops perspective, decision-making and critical thinking skills.

3.      Social networking sites offers students the opportunity to create a positive self-image.  The profiles gives them a chance to create the image of themselves that they want people to see by putting their best qualities “out there.”

4.      Social networks are also used as a good recruitment tool for both employees and employers.  Having well regarded references and a respected professional profile posted will open a huge opportunities to job seekers throughout one’s contact network.

5.      Social networking can generate income for  young  people trying to make  money with network marketing or  affiliated programs.  Advertising via a social network  is often easy and effective and could replace or add to traditional cold calling methods.  “Viral” marketing, or sharing ideas from person to person,  is becoming a major method for “getting the word out.”

Negatives:

1.       Students may get into trouble with school officials for incriminating and inappropriate information or pictures on their social networking profiles that violate  school policy or a code of conduct.  Damaging one’s reputation by posting some discreditable data or images can be hard to repair.

2.       Social networking addiction may result in psychological stress and a withdrawal from all non-computer related activities.

3.       Ease of connectivity and free sharing of information by young people can allow confidential information to (that otherwise should not) be placed on the internet for all to see.

4.       Profiles on some sites can contain objectionable content that is not secure from younger, impressionable children.

5.       You can create a profile that fantasizes what you would like to be.  Even worse,  a stalker can create a persona that lures impressionable children into acting inappropriately or entering into situations or relationships that parents would not approve of.

In summary, participation needs to be controlled by an adult until a child is mature enough to understand the dangers along with the benefits of networking on Myspace,  Facebook, Twitter or any number of the 100′s of sites available to them. In my opinion, the benefits of social networking far outweigh the dangers.

More Resources from TwitterBlogger:

• Social Networking Sites For Business in Six Easy Steps Social Networking Sites have increasingly been used for business purposes these days. Social Networking in general has become immensely popular over the last couple of years. In fact, if you go to Alexa.com and look up the top 10 or the top 100 sites on the internet in terms of ...
• Social Networking – Summary View The internet is now considered as the world’s largest library and is also used for absolute communication. National borders aren’t even speed bumps on the information superhighway. The rapid growth of the Internet through recent years is because of the intensification of social networking websites. These social networking ...
• Growth of Social Networking Websites The popularity of social networking websites has hit the highest point through the recent years. Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Classmates, Yahoo 360 are some of the bunch of social networking websites that were and are wildly successful. The global Internet users are embracing there social networking websites with more enthusiasm. MORE OUT ...
• 4 Must Know Tips for Social Networking Web Development You must have heard phrases like “Don’t do this, Don’t do that or follow these tips” regarding social networking web development. Though there are many dos and don’ts for the success in social networking web development, not all of them are equally important. With almost a year of hands ...
• Social Networking to Kick Start Your Career Social Networking Websites like Myspace where launched to help people to get connected to old friends and to make new friends. However the phenomenon has turned into something much more. Nowadays, people utilize these social networking websites for other aspects like business, advertising, marketing and so on. Apart from these, ...
• Powered by Contextual Related Posts