Solutions to Fixing Social Networking Problems

A few tips to maximize your social networking experience:

• Don't overload your contacts/friends. Make sure you stay connect with your people not random unwanted creepers.

• Keep accounts private from random strangers, and web searches.

• Make sure you are sending the message you want to (Eliminate foul language).

• Don't express negative feelings on a social networking. They could backfire and create drama, or in the end you may lose your job like, 56-year old teacher, June Talvitie-Siple who posted Facebook status' calling kids spoiled, and cursing the parents.

• People need to utilize Social Networking on free time, not on time when they are working or at school.

• Understand what addiction is, and be able to asses yourself on your use of Social Networking.

• Keep yourself connected with friends outside of social networking sites.

• People need to rely on human interaction more than cyber communication.

• Try to minimize time in front of a screen.

Effects of Social Netowrking

Perks of having a social networking site like Facebook, is that it can connect long lost friends and family like Carrie Kolb finding her biological mother who was lost at birth. She created a Facebook page, and over 1,000 people helped pitched in and helped her find her mother. Facebook was the main reason Carrie found her mother. Another perk of having a social networking site like Facebook, was to help campaign a mission or a goal. For instance, Facebook was a main catalyst to President Obama's presidential campaign. Thanks to a Facebook page "Students for Obama" Barack had an easy speech to give to over 2,000 students all thanks to Facebook. Obama won "the Facebook election" of 2008. Facebook also helps police and law enforcing agencies find criminals, and where they might be. (Effects of Social Networking)

1 out of every 12 people in the world has a Facebook account and the number is climbing every day. Facebook has a take it or leave it privacy policy, that you have to accept. If you don't accept the policy then you can't join the site, and that is a hard thing to do, acknowledging that almost everyone is on Facebook. Also if you don't like Facebook, and you want to delete your profile it will take over 3 hours to delete. Facebook has a monopoly on the web, where you can "like" anything on the web. (Effects of Social Networking)

Positive Effects:

Online social networking can also help young people learn how to socialize with their peers; users also show more "virtual empathy."

"It's almost like social networks are training wheels for life in a lot of ways - it teaches you to express empathy and see how people respond" Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D.

Kids use social networking to grow and develop social skills with friends


Negative Effects:

According to studies, middle school, high school and college students looking at Facebook at least one time during a 15-minute study break made lower grades. In addition, many young Facebook users show more tendencies to be narcissistic.

The new research suggests that overuse of media and technology can negatively affect health of children and teens, especially with psychological disorders- making users more likely to experience anxiety and depression.

"Everything you do on social networks, you're doing behind the safety of a screen," Rosen said. "You're not paying attention...there's a real flesh and blood human being at the other end of cyberspace and your words might have consequences for that person."

Social Networking has made kids have tendencies of not going deep into the text, just read the bold highlights. "140 characters of news is all I need." Students said they had neither the time nor interest to follow up on news that didn't impact them because the sheer flood of information was so great. They admitted they are headline skimmers, rarely diving below the surface into deeper informational or evaluative waters unless somehow pinged personally.

Headline reading is common, but in 140 characters you can't get across a complex thought. Nick and I had a lot of trouble just reading headlines and can't get in depth in a reading.

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/06/kids-and-social-networking-pros-and-cons/

The Problem with Social Networking

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Why social networking is a problem

In 2009, a slew of news reports warned that social networking sites would ruin our bodies and brains by shortening our attention spans, weakening our immune systems and possibly fostering autism.

The new ICMPA study, "24 Hours: Unplugged," asked 200 students at the College Park campus (Maryland University) to give up all media for 24 hours. After their 24 hours of abstinence, the students were then asked to blog on private class websites about their experiences: to report their successes and admit to any failures.

When asked how they felt during the brief disconnection, students’ descriptions of frantic cravings, anxiety and jitters mirrored those typical of people going through withdrawal from drugs or alcohol.

One of the students said "Texting and IM-ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort." And he added "When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable."

The Largest Social Networking Study Ever
During "the largest social network studies ever released" conducted by Facebook, found out that you can connect to any user faster than ever. "The average distance in 2008 was 5.28 hops, while now it is 4.74," Facebook says. These hops are different clicks and being connected to other people's friends and you can breeze through different people's lives just by a couple of clicks. "We are close, in a sense, to people who don't necessarily like us, sympathize with us or have anything in common with us," Jon Kleinberg, from Cornell University, told the New York Times. "It's the weak ties that make the world small."


This study can help us come to many conclusions, one being that out computers are awesome to help connect the world and Facebook is shrinking the world in a better way. One Facebook user wrote on the company's post "Ultimate proof that our world is getting smaller and smaller." Another user said: "Awesome study! As a Milgram fan, I have been waiting years to see this analysis and it was worth the wait. Beyond any commercial purpose, Facebook data can help us understand how human society is organized, how ideas spread, and how we are connected to each other. Very cool." Another conclusion may be that this social networking problem is getting out of hand, but this case only shows the problems on the top and not going in depth. Over the next few years we will watch our cyber world grow and people will be delusional to the fact that our growth online may be unhealthy.