Social Networking

In our first workshop we were asked the question 'What is the first website you go on when you open up your internet browser?’. I along with a vast majority of the class was ready with the answer 'Facebook'. This shows that social networking is fast becoming one of the most popular websites amoung young people.

Although this is a good thing for people to keep in touch with friends and relatives who they do not see much anymore, it can also be a bad thing. For example, some youngsters may spend all their time on the internet instead of actually going out and properly interacting with their friends and family, making them become more unsociable, which must not be the primary aim of these kinds of social networking sites.

Another bad thing about these social networking groups is that it can be quite dangerous. If people add others who they do not know they can end up in serious trouble as has happened to people in the past. By having all your rather personal information written on your page it makes it easier for these unknown people to get to know you and what will connect with you more. It seems very silly for people to have all this information at the ready for those who want to see it, yet we still all do it, knowing that it could potentially be quite a dangerous and stupid thing to do.

Moreover, by having all this information on the website, it makes it possible for someone to take over your identity. Even though it is not as serious as having someone steal for example, your bank card and knowing the pin, it would still be very disconcerting knowing that someone out there may be pretending to be you.