Faith Carrillo
Professor: Matthew Whittaker
Intro to Film 1023
6/27/12
Social Networking
Is the nature of today’s society getting worse with the use of social networking? Sure there may
be many benefits to using Facebook and other social networking outlets, but are they just an excuse to
feel “accepted” in today’s society. Many people feel that they must belong to some sort of social
networking to gain acceptance among their peers, while others join to show their popularity status.
Whatever the case may be, Facebook along with other social networking sites are changing the way
society functions. In this paper I will discuss how social networking is beneficial and harmful to our
society, the effects that social networking has on people, and how our society was before we had
Facebook and other social networking sites.
Society has changed tremendously do to social networking sites. It has changed how we
communicate with friends, how we do our job, and the way we build a relationship. People feel more
comfortable posting their personal feelings and emotions that they may have felt restricted previous to
Facebook. You can be anyone you want to be over the internet, and no one has to know the truth about
your personal life. You have the option to share your whole personal life or make your own identity on
social networking sites. In many ways, social networking has brought people closer together. In High
school students may be reluctant and scared to make friends outside of their social groups, but online you
can take the fear out of talking face to face by instant messaging one another.
People are more fearless
online because there isn’t the worry of being judged for their appearance because people are not able to
see their reactions. Social networking can help people create their identities by liking certain things,
posting pictures, sharing interests and personalizing their page. You have the option to accept, or deny
anyone that you would like to on Facebook. Facebook has also been a helping hand for communication
across the world. For example, an enclosed society, whose members have internet access and Facebook
profiles are no longer isolated from the rest of the world. In the practical world, societies merge and
divisions that separate people disappear (Farah). Facebook allows everyone in society to have a voice
regardless of your age, gender status and class. Social networking’s biggest argument is that online
communities promote increased communication with friends and family. It also helps the older
generations get familiarized with valuable computer skills.
According to an online story posted on msnbc.com, a mother was able to save her young son’s
life. A mother’s 4-year old son woke up with a rash and had a fever. The day before at her son’s day
care, there was a case of strep throat with one of the kids. She decided to make an appointment and take
him to a medical office and check to see if he had strep throat. While waiting for his results she snapped
a photo of her son on the exam table and posted it on Facebook. The strep test came back negative but
her son’s temperature was on the rise. After three days, his face was completely swollen and was now on
amoxicillin, but nothing seemed to work. While in the process, she continued to take pictures of her son
progressively getting worse and posting them on Facebook. Her friends and other concerned mothers
posted their sympathy and thoughts of what they thought must be making him swell up. Finally after
frantically posting “swelling getting worse,” and posting a picture of her son, a concerned mother called
her and said that she should immediately take her son to the hospital. The lady said that her son had the
same symptoms and was hospitalized for Kawasaki disease. Kawasaki disease is a rare, but sometimes
fatal auto-immune disorder that attacks the coronary arteries surrounding the heart. The concerned
mother said the longer you wait the worse the damage can be. Over the next three weeks, her son was
treated for Kawasaki disease. Her son is still recovering, but doing much better today. The mother feels
that Facebook really helped save her sons life. If it wasn’t for posting pictures of her son’s condition it
may have taken doctors much longer to diagnose her son’s disease. This story is a great example of how
social networking sites can help benefit our society and keep people aware and up to date with what is
going on with one another.
Facebook and other social networking sites seem to give a lot of information about their members
in a very easy and quick manner. This can be very beneficial in today’s society. For employers,
Facebook may be a very helpful tool when hiring new employees. Just by looking at a Facebook profile
a, you can learn a lot about someone. Some people find this to be too intrusive when being considered
for a job, but one must realize that if your profile isn’t private and out for the world to see, it is easy and
convenient for employers to use. Another beneficial factor about social networking is that families who
have been torn apart or children who were placed in foster homes can search Facebook for family
members. There have been countless stories of parents who had to give up their child for adoption due to
whatever reason and years later have found their children on Facebook. Facebook can help bring
families and friends and even communities together. One great design about Facebook is being able to
create events and even advertise. Facebook and other social networks aren’t going anywhere soon; it is
important for people to learn all they can and use social networking sites to their benefit. Websites like
Match.com and eharmony.com also help people who may find it hard to find love on their own to create a
profile and connect with people with similar interests and likes. Social networking is a good thing for the
most part if it is used correctly. It can be disrupted and negative once people try to ruin it for everyone
and use it to hurt others.
Through Facebook, there is the ability to bring people together, but at the same time there is the
ability to separate them from the real world. Excessive Facebook communication can warrant people
from socializing in the real world. Many introverted people have fallen victim into this world of online
communication. Introverts may find real life communication to be difficult so they would rather
communicate online where they are not judged. However, in today’s society people need to be skilled
and talk to people face to face. If your only use to instant messaging and talking online, it may be very
difficult to have real conversations with people. The more and more we stray away from having real
conversations, the harder it’s going to be for the new generation to articulate and profess what they need
to say. Breaking up with your girlfriend or boyfriend through Facebook has now become really easy and
almost cowardly. People today are becoming more and more introverted because they try to find the
easy way out instead of dealing with conflict, and Facebook is a tool that can be used at their disposal.
Breaking up with somebody in person builds character, you have to have the courage to express your
honesty to somebody instead of taking the easy way out and doing it online. Besides online breakups,
there are bigger issues that are discussed online like cyber- bullying.
There are always risks being involved in social networking sites, but the risks are much higher for
teenagers. Some teenagers are naive when it comes to the society we live in today, not understanding
that they are taking big risks when posting something online that might be daring. Some teens may feel
peer pressured to say or do things online which can lead to being victim of cyber- bullying. Cyberbullying is defined as an act of aggression toward someone, but done on-line. Cyber-bullying can start
with a negative posting about someone and can turn to rumors, harassments, and threats. Besides
Facebook, the messages can be delivered through emails, instant messaging, web pages and blogs.
Cyber- bullying does affect adults as well, but is much more predominant among teenagers because there
is always a competition and jealousy with other teenagers. Cyber- bullying, or other reasons can lead to
Facebook users feeling lonely and miserable.
You don’t have to be cyber-bullied to be miserable when you login in to Facebook. Many users
find Facebook to be depressing. All of those vacation and party photos that you’re not a part of can make
you sad and even depressed. Having profile pictures that portray the happiest parts of our lives often
make people jealous, even if that day the photos were taken was not that exciting of a day. People don’t
know if the pictures that were captured in that moment were from a good day, they just see the happy
faces and assume that the person in the picture’s life must be amazing. We tend to do a lot of comparing
with our Facebook friends when we look at their hobbies, like/ dislikes photos and friends which in some
cases makes us feel envy and self-pity. Many people join Facebook to find old friends from high school,
and learn how there lives have turned out. For example, it can make you upset and jealous to learn of all
the accomplishments your old high school friend has that you haven’t accomplished. We often get the
family members (Cino).
Another negative aspect of Facebook is people looking up old friends or enemies to compare
themselves with. When they find that those people are not better off and have let themselves go this
makes them feel better and superior about themselves. Almost everyone who is on Facebook has felt
superiority when they searched someone that they knew and saw that the person let their looks go.
Facebook gives us this power to feel in charge and act negatively against other people we are competing
with. Some Facebook users choose to watch others every move to find fault in what they do. These
people tend to lose touch of reality when they are constantly watching somebody else’s play out in front
of them. Superiority can change and make you build negative connections between people; in some
situations, online predators originate from this .
Beyond Facebook there are many other social networking sites like Match.com, e Harmony, and
Zoosk that help build connections between people. However, there are predators out there that are
specifically looking through individuals profiles to find their weaknesses and attack. In many instances,
predators completely steal another individuals profile changing little details to similarly match their
victim’s profile. Once this is done, they’re being matched together and can decide whether or not to go
on a date, leading the predator to attack. In some cases, after the date, women are sexually assaulted,
robbed of their possessions, or murdered. Here is a real story of an online predator and his vicim.
Television and film producer, Carole Markin, was held down and raped in her home after her online date.
Markin sued Match.com after being raped from the dating sites match up. Markin’s case was presented
and wanted Match.com to begin screening for sexual predators online. Officials at Match.com said the
company would begin cross referencing members against the national sex offender registry. Markin met
a man by the name of Alan Wurtzel on Match.com in 2010. Wurtzel went out with Markin twice
however on their third date he held her down and raped her in her apartment. Little after the gruesome
occurrence, Markin searched Wurtzel online and found that he had previous sexual convictions. Wurtzel
has been charged and is awaiting trial.
There are many other cases of social networking sites being involved in serious scandals. A
mother named Crystal Whalon’s 12 year old daughter was lured into the sex trades through a Facebook
invite. The predators invited the 12 year old to a show while chatting online, her parents told her no, but
she went anyways. Whalon describes the situation as her daughter being brought to an undisclosed
location and being forced into prostitution. Her daughter was missing for 48 hours, but police were
luckily able to track her down by the GPS on her cell phone. The mother had no clue that this was
happening in central Texas. Austin police department detective, Joel Pridgon says child predator crimes
are on the rise. He’s seen children as young as 8 years old sending nude text messages and pictures
through the internet (Holloway, and Naugle). One of the best ways to keep your children safe from online
predators is to monitor their internet usage and keep an open conversation with them. Some parents have
gone so far as to create fake accounts portraying a teen in order to monitor what their teens are posting
and talking about. But the best way to keep children, teens, and even adults safe is to only post things
that you don’t mind the public viewing, and not sharing too much personal information online. Only post
pictures that are appropriate and that won’t embarrass you later. One last step that is very important to
follow is to report any misconduct or any person who is trying to hard get personal information from
you.
Listed here are some tools you should consider if you decide to join an online dating registry:
Know the nature of con artist and players; they may sound overly charming at first, but watch out if they
sound overbearing after chatting a few times. Be cautious if you’re talking to someone who wants to
meet you after only chatting online once or twice. If they always want more from you such as: nude
photos, or inappropriate requests over a web cam. Get angry at you for being hesitant or not having trust
in them. Don’t let any gaps in stories or lies slide past you, be very aware of the situation (Hubpages).
Always pay attention to the warning signs or if your gut feeling is telling you something is not right about
this person. These steps are very important in creating profiles for any social networking sites. Members
of these sites must always be aware if they let too much information out it is very easy for fraudulent
people to take advantage and steal whatever information they want.
In the beginning of my paper I asked the question, is the nature of today’s society getting worse
with the use of social networking? Throughout my paper I have tried to give concrete examples of both
positive and negative ways that social networking is affecting our society. Facebook and other social
networking is convenient and easy to use. One way that social networking sites are positive for society is
that estranged families can reconnect. Also, websites like Match.com and e-Harmony make it easier and
more convenient for individuals to find love. However, many people use Facebook and other social
networking sites negatively. There are many predators and hackers out there. Before we had all of the
social networking sites at our disposal, people had to either use the telephone or face to face conversations
to communicate with one another. Before the age of text messaging and instant messaging , people
would have to deal with confrontation head on. It builds character and you learn from all arguments and
breakups you go through. I believe that technology is very helpful and can be used for good purposes,
but I do believe that we are getting lazier and take it for granted. I’m not saying that Facebook and other
social networking sites shouldn’t be used, but people shouldn’t obsess over it. It’s important for our
society to grow and be knowledgeable in all aspects of technology and communication, but with the
overuse of using social networking, we will not mature as a society.
Work Cited:
Cino, Jorge. "Does Facebook Make Us Depressed? - AllFacebook." Does Facebook Make Us Depressed?
AllFacebook. N.p., 28 Jan. 2011. Web. 14 July 2012. <http://allfacebook.com/does-facebook-make-usdepressed_b30686>.
Farah, Vilie. "Effects Facebook Has Had on Society." Helium. Helium, 02 Sept. 2010. Web. 14 July
2012. <http://www.helium.com/items/1940499-facebook-and-society-how-facebook-affects-society-hasfacebook-changed-society>.
Hart, Benjamin. "Match.com Settles Sexual-Predator Lawsuit." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Aug. 2011. Web. 14 July 2012.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/woman-who-sued-match-settles_n_934822.html>.
Holloway, Jessica, and Doug Naugle. "Texas 12-year-old Lured into Sex Trade through Facebook Invite."
Kens5.com. N.p., 30 May 2012. Web. 14 July 2012. <http://www.kens5.com/news/Houston-12-year-oldlured-into-sex-trade-through-Facebook-invite-155698385.html>.
Kogan, Deborah C. "How Facebook Saved My Son's Life." TODAY.com. N.p., July-Aug. 2011. Web. 14
July 2012. <http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43757155/ns/today-today_health/t/how-facebook-saved-mysons-life/>.
"Social Networking ProCon.org." Social Networking ProCon.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 July 2012.
<http://socialnetworking.procon.org/>.
http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2010/04/teenage-cyber-bullying-and-facebook-%E2%80%93reducing-the-risks/