Pros and Cons of Social Networking
One of the largest social networks, Facebook, currently has crossed the 2 billion users per month mark this year. Social networking is the most common way to communicate with others and to anyone, anywhere. It has the power to reach billions of people in meager seconds.
It’s unnecessary to debate whether or not social network has more advantages than it does disadvantages. It’s the same with every other object or service in this world. The following elucidate the uses of social networking.
Pros of Social Networking
Health Industry
Social networking has undoubtedly become a strong platform for many businesses to communicate with the consumers and customers in the market. One of the industries that took some time in getting acquainted with social networks was the medical industry. The health care departments now are trying to make use of this platform and are clearly able to see more benefits than there are disadvantages (Grosberg et al., 2016).
There are a lot of patients who have made good use of social networking to get information and successful diagnosis for their health concerns. The older generation is learning and using social media to interact and learn about their illnesses. The information found online helps the consumers make informed decisions based on the experiences and reviews of other patients. Support groups available online help patients provide support to one another.
Social media’s popularity amongst almost all major age groups has finally caused the health care officials to have a look into making use of this stage (Grosberg et al., 2016). This involvement will also provide customers with accurate information. This realization, that healthcare needs to be widely available online, has had its advantages.
• Health care companies are providing companies with various tips with regards to basic requirements. For instance, providing proper procedures to keep away from common diseases like flu, cough and cold etc. Also providing updates on new innovations that may assist consumers. Also providing answers to FAQs.
• Online surveys and questionnaires, which are very easy to collect data from, are able to provide the medical institutions with feedback from their patients. They may use these questionnaires to also assist with research on some side effect of a specific medicine.
• Live filming of operations and procedure are being broadcast online as its being considered beneficial for students and interns to learn. Even the general public would be able to view the video if they are interested.
Worldwide Connection
The second major advantage that social networking has to provide is how any individual can connect with another if they have access to the internet. And last we heard almost half the world’s population has access to the internet according to the International Telecommunication Union.
In today’s world friends rarely call each other over the phone just because of the number of ways available to communicate instead (Reid and Weigle, 2014). Messaging each other through their accounts, sending images and ‘memes’ to one another has now become the primary mode through which the current online generation actually communicates with each other. The way one interacts with another also now shows how close one actually is to the other. They cement their bonds online by sharing, what they consider, funny articles and images with each other.
Interactions over the internet have also resulted in casual and professional relationships being formed among two or more individuals. These interactions are also beneficial to keep friends and family in touch once they are no longer in close proximity to one another. More and more students now want to study in universities farther away from their homes to gain some sort of independence and control over their lives and to experience life in a different environment (Reid and Weigle, 2014). These decisions do not cut off the individual from their family completely. Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Facetime and other such applications help these individual stay in touch with their families and their childhood friends at all times.
Also, let’s try to remember that half the population has access to the internet. So apart from just interacting with your friends and family who are not physically close, you also have access to anyone with access to a Facebook, Instagram or any other online account. These applications allow you to speak to anyone over the internet, unless you have been blocked by that user.
Cons of Social Networking
Privacy
The increase of usage of Social Media has given some individuals a sense of relaxing their attitude towards what information they should share online (Almeida, 2012). Almost all major websites ask you to put in your date of birth, current address, and contact details and in some cases also your credit card and bank account details. Now this may not worry most of the online users as almost all of us tend to provide these details only to reliable websites such as Netflix, Apple iTunes and google play. As they guarantee to keep your private information, private.
One of the major examples of such scams coming through to users can be seen in their Spam folder of the email service they use. Almost on a daily basis, users will receive tens and hundreds of emails from users they do not know and pages they never visited. Cyber attackers are getting smarter (Almeida, 2012). They send emails to users, which seem to be from a legitimate source. The user may then be asked to place in personal information which is then used by the attacker to commit crimes.
Hackers can also use information as simple as the user’s birthdate and address to impersonate them. This crime is usually committed to gain access to the user’s finances and credit. The user will then be left in debt to the finances that were either stolen or used by the hacker.
Cyber Bullying
Even though we discussed how beneficial it was to be able to communicate with others all over the world, some users try to make it seem like more of a disadvantage. Many online users have used the Internet as a common mask to hide behind while they say what they want to under the safe blanket of anonymity (Shultz, Heilman and Hart, 2014). Bullying is usually seen in schools and high school and also amongst work places. Its main characteristic is showing another individual as inferior or weaker and in a negative light to others. A bully would taunt another student for being shorter than he is. In the workplace a bully may taunt a worker if they aren’t as witty or as fast-paced as the other employees. This form of harassment and belittlement by mainly young individuals online is known as cyber bullying.
The increase of use of social media in households has definitely decreased communication between parents, children and their siblings. Now cyber bullying is usually in the form of harsh and mean texts, messages and comments to another individual over the internet. This affects the victim as they tried to gain affection from users online instead of the people they know at home (Shultz, Heilman and Hart, 2014). So most individuals will not inform their parents or teachers that the have been bullied at all due to the lack of communication within the family.
In most cases cyber bullying caused severe depression amongst the victims facing the negative comments online. Victims also face other stress-related disorders as well as turning to suicide in extreme cases.