Benefits and Dangers of Social Networks Essay Example

an educational tool to discuss educational topics. It increases a person’s quality of life and can also reduce health risks. The use of social networking helps improve technological skills of students and allows learning of cultures from users all over the world (Karaiskos, D. et al, 2010). Students also use some platforms to discuss homework topics with peers online, get help on assignments especially from online academic writers. Even some schools create their own secure social network for its students to be able to communicate with other students in a more safe way.

Thirdly, social networking also benefits businesses. The sites businesses to advertise and market their services to a large audience, and a profile is free to set up. Many businesses have created profiles that provide detailed information about the business to advertise in a low cost way. The company or the business can have a conversation with its audience, gain customer feedback, and elevate its brand. For example LinkedIn is a business related social networking site to connect with current employees and should be created.

Dangers

Due to the increased popularity amongst children and teenagers, some social networking platforms have become a popular location for online predators. Social sites such as Facebook and Myspace are a big hit nowadays, not just with the young generation but with people of all ages. It’s an amazing platform for people to connect but it certainly isn’t without its dangers.

First, teens can over share information to the public that can hurt them in the future when trying to get a job (Turel, O., & Serenko, A, 2012). This is because deleting the information may not be good enough since some

of these platforms keeps the records of posts and information in their databases permanently. Secondly, a false sense of security leaves social networking site users vulnerable to security attacks such as hacking, leaking sensitive information, and sending viruses. For instance with LinkedIn for businesses the information leaked can be used by competitors in order to outdo the business from existing in the market. Cyber bullying occurs and is bullying people online though it occurs at a small percentage.

Mass media and society

The mass media content can influence people’s attitudes towards various societal issues, towards one another and even towards themselves. Common concerns of media portrayals includes shading young people’s attitudes towards; body image, stereotypes and violence. Body image-Youths are sensitive to the issues of identity and body image and some organizations have argued that such manipulations in the media have negative effects on young people's self-esteem and self-image, and have urged governments and industry bodies to stop the practice of retouching models. Stereotypes-the portrayals of gender roles and minority groups in media. If the media portrays these stereotypes negatively, it influences society’s perceptions of these groups. Violence- violent games and programmes do desensitize the player or audience, and thus may make it seem acceptable for young people to display aggression as a response to everyday conflicts (Ellison, N. B. et al, 2007).

Issues affecting media business include; poor coverage of important issues that affect our lives and the whole world, sensationalism-dwelling on stories like murders, car crashes, kidnapping and sex scandals, high level of inaccuracies is noticed especially when the public has first-hand knowledge of a news story among others.
Effects of new forms of media on social interactions

are both positive and negative. Positive impacts include; reduce the effort required to perform task and work related activities allowing households engage in many non-task activities, communication in and out of household premises. Negative impacts include; results in technologisation of childhood, poses risks of obesity by spending more time indoors, social exclusion by not spending time with society members among others.

References

• Turel, O., & Serenko, A. (2012). The benefits and dangers of enjoyment with social networking
  Websites. European Journal of Information Systems, 21(5), 512- 528.
• Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook “friends:” Social
  capital and college students’ use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer? Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168.
• Karaiskos, D., Tzavellas, E., Balta, G., & Paparrigopoulos, T. (2010). P02-232-Social network
  addiction: a new clinical disorder? European Psychiatry, 25, 855.