Positive and Negative Effects of Social Networking

The first-ever social media networking site was invented in 1997; it was known as SixDegrees.com. After SixDegrees.com, the most popular social media platforms that most of us in this society use are Facebook and Twitter. There is a debate going on about online networking and how it affects people. Online networking plays a significant theme in our present society. On the one hand, some people believe that online networking devastates genuine human interactions. But on the other hand, social media makes humanity connect and communicate much easier, and more reliable, and affordable to communicate with people.

Grandparents would tell their grandchildren of how they had to make phone calls with a phone booth. Some of their grandchildren may be able to remember how hard it was without phones. As time progressed, something called 'social media networking' was developed. The first-ever social media networking site that was invented in the year of 1997; it was known as SixDegrees.com. After SixDegrees.com, the most popular social media platforms that are commonly used now in this society is Facebook and Twitter. There is a debate going on about online networking and how it affects humanity. Online Networking has impacted many lives, and it will keep on changing lives in a lot of positive and negative ways in the current century.

Social media has made life more accessible than ever before. Some children would have to use their friend's phone to contact their parents. Ever since applications like Facebook have been made, those children can instead call their parents without having a SIM card in their phone. They can even call their friends using Facebook and can create group chats with all of their close friends regardless of distance. The one thing social networking application need to have is a limit on how many times people can post in a day. Some people have friends who keep on posting pictures every 10 minutes, which can be annoying to others that they have the time for posting annoying pictures of themselves. Social media, like Snapchat, is one of the most used applications by far. People around the world use it to share the best moments of their lives with their friends and families.

Social media has changed many lives. One of the good things about Snapchat is that if someone decides to post something annoying or dumb, you can skip it or not watch their snap for the next 24 hours. Humans were never connected to how they are currently. Social media changed a lot of lives. For example; a guy named Jose lost his wife, and his trucking business wasn't doing well. Eventually, the government took his property from him, but after ten years, a stranger named by Fredo met him while Jose was on his way to where he always slept which was under a bridge. Fredo is a Youtuber, and he took Jose out to get new clothes and a haircut. Fredo posted the video on his Youtube channel. After two weeks, Jose's family member emailed Fredo regarding how they would want Jose back with them. This shows that social media changed a lot of personal lives. Social media changed Jose's life, and now he is back with his family.

Social media plays a massive role in a teenager's life because teens get very attached to it. Instagram is one of the second most socializing applications. A lot of people post pictures of themselves daily. There can also be a negative effect on someone's picture. Some people could make a fake account using someone else's picture and pretend to be them. This could be done as an innocent prank or have malicious intent. Regardless of which one the impersonator meant, it could have negative consequences. The impersonator could make the original person look bad to others, ruining their reputation. Their reputation could be ruined forever unless the impersonator stands up and admits to their deed. But unless the fake account was meant as a prank in the first place, it is unlikely that the impersonator would do so.

Social networking is also a life-changing experience that we have right now. It is also really risky because one wrong step can ruin your entire life. If you write something inappropriate on someone's picture, they can easily report you. Social media can be one of the worst nightmares you'll have to face if you try to argue or fight with someone on it. Sometimes people would have arguments with their friends on social media that go too far. Two friends could be joking around on social media, and one says something offensive, which he was joking about. But the other friend can take it seriously causing a fight between them. A match that can carry over to other chats and could even create a falling out. Hopefully, the two friends can reconcile afterward. But that is not always the case, unfortunately.

Our minds can be distracted from a lot of different things while using social networking applications, like pictures, posting pictures, or commenting on someone's post. There are a lot of scammers on the internet where they try to claim. 'Yes, I can help you, I know what's wrong.' but instead they try to steal your personal information by installing a spyware software on your computer. By doing that, they can look and decrypt all of your passwords for your emails and other social media accounts. Sometimes when you are surfing the web, you can find an ad that catches your attention. But when you visit that page, it's not the deal you saw before clicking on the ads. Scammers tend to add a hidden link when people visit the page. Something gets installed to their computer without them knowing that it got fixed.

There are ways that people can all protect themselves from getting their information stolen. According to Paul Lewis's article, 'Our Minds Can Be Hijacked: The Tech Insiders Who Fear a Smartphone Dystopia,' Lewis writes about how people can protect their personal and valuable information from hackers and scammers. Many people get very attracted to deals, which are posted as a scam. There are also many different ways a hacker can steal your information. For example; when you installed an unverified software from a third party. Social networking site is one of the first places a virus can be shared on because a lot of users on social networking site don't care about others and their information, which they worked hard for. One of the many places a virus link can be posted is on Snapchat because the phone won't be able to read the code, so the phone will start crashing, and you'll lose all of your information.

There are many positive effects of spending some time on Social Networking sites. They can teach you about things you never thought existed in the world. It helps spread awareness to the rest of the world of the things that are happening in the different states such as church shootings, kidnappings, wildfires in the state of California. Having an active follow up with Social Networking sites and reading the current events that are taking place can also save an innocent's life. For example there is an individual named Fredo he recently did a Social Experiment with his sister for spread awareness on a 36-year-old man trying to do inappropriate stuff with her in a hotel room, Fredo recorded all of the conversations the 36-year-old individual was having with his sister and sent it to the cops and the individual was arrested. This shows how social networking can save and affect lives in many positive ways.

In the end, social networking can have it up's and down's, and it comes down to us, as individuals, to either be resourceful with it or abuse it to the fullest for self-gain. That in itself will be left to be answered by our own society and culture. Cause the future is still left unknown to all of us

Works Cited

1. “ABOUT | United States | SixDegrees.org.” ABOUT | United States | SixDegrees.org, www.sixdegrees.org/.Kerpen, Carrie. “How Has Social Media Changed Us?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 21 Apr. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/carriekerpen/2016/04/21/how-has-social-media-changed-us/.
2. Link, Eric Carl., and Steven Frye. Crosscurrents: Reading in the Disciplines. Pearson Higher Education, 2013.Paul, Lewis. “‘Our Minds Can Be Hijacked’: The Tech Insiders Who Fear a Smartphone Dystopia.” Theguardian, 6 Oct. 2017, www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia.
3. Fredo, Alfredo. “Spreading Awareness on Social Media and Strangers.” YouTube, YouTube, 23 Nov. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbELpTyd_HI. 
4. Fredo, Alfredo “HOMELESS MAN GETS $15,000 IN CASH!!! WE CHANGED HIS LIFE FOREVER!!!.” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Feb. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwHQ9QS3Rjw.