Students and the Effects of Social Networking

Students and the Effects of Social Networking Because roughly 150 million people use MySpace and Facebook, the door for social networking abuse is left wide open. Over the past several years, social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook have exploded in popularity, especially among children, teenagers and college students. However, recent events involving child predators and other dangerous individuals using these sites have raised concerns about safety and security. Many parents view social networking websites with suspicion while having limited understanding of what these sites really are or how they work. Used responsibly, social networking sites do not pose a danger or threat to anyone. MySpace and Facebook have numerous benefits for their users in terms of interacting and talking with other people, but also provide comprehensive privacy and safety features. For example, Facebook does not allow people to view others’ profiles unless they are friends, which require both people to confirm their relationship. It is even possible to limit the parts of a personal profile which are visible, which it is visible to, or make the profile completely invisible to everyone. In the past three to five years, we have seen a rise in the use of social networking sites. Along with the rise in usage, we have also seen an increase in the number of rapes, kidnappings, and murders due to these popular social networking sites. Although this is a major problem that concerns all social networking site users, college students who use these sites in alarming numbers may have a bigger problem to deal with when it comes to the things they post on their site. One of the reasons that social networking sites have become popular is the fact that students are able to do a variety of things on one site while keeping in touch with friends. A student can log onto their MySpace or Facebook and write a blog about their life, check in with a friend through their page to see what has