There was a time when communication was done amongst the citizens by using pigeons as messenger. After wards the place of pigeons was taken by the inland letters. Now the age has come of Internet and everything is done on internet. It has taken place of the pigeons as well as the Inland letters. The internet facilities us with everything, Starting from sending a mail to posting or uploading a video. Internet has made the world a global village, where everyone one is updated of everything happening around the globe.
Earlier we used to meet our friends and talk with them for hours or play with them or have a walk with them. But now everything has been replaced by internet and the use of social networking sites. We chat on Facebook and other applications, we play Farmville and many other online games and we often plan all our other activities on the so called ‘Social Networking sites’. It has become a must in the busy life to be socially active on internet. But the limitation have been not defined which has led to other physical and mental stress to our life.
Talking of the benefits of the Social Networking sites, there are many. You can use for sharing a photo, sending a message, a mail, sharing a video, talking to someone using video chats, etc. These sites have also helped one to develop their mental skills. They have helped us to maintain and build our personality; it has given us opportunity to express ourselves independently and to reach a global world. In short it has made our life very expressive. It has helped shy people express themselves to the world and gain confidence in them. Social Networking sites have helped uncover many truths. For e.g.: The case of Egypt. The people of Egypt revealed the activities of the government against the people through the use of twitter and YouTube. They uploaded the videos of army and police officials’ cruelty towards citizens of Egypt, which finally after getting the support of global media was uncovered.
The social networking sites have their own drawbacks. The first drawback is about your privacy. Privacy on social networking sites can be undermined by many factors. For example, users may disclose personal information; sites may not take enough measures to protect user privacy, and third party use information posted on social networks for a variety of purposes. Your ID could be hacked and manipulated, which can lead to a disaster. There also have been cases of fake ID’s, which are used to make abusive comments. The recent misuse of social networking sites could be very clearly seen in London riots, where the use of BBM (blackberry Messenger) service left the whole city in flame. In just a span of two days it spread to other parts of England and same consequences were seen. There is no denial of social service being used for the purpose of positive things, but at times it has also played a very wicked role.
Many of us depend upon our social networking sites for reading and watching the news online. The best example is twitter, where one can post or upload anything which he/she likes. The news channels and papers have their own accounts and they keep readily posting on it, which allows the reader to follow. Other sites are the blogs, where you can read a person’s personal comments and views. One can comment on those blogs and express their views on the blogs of others too. Citizens and governments have been concerned by misuse by teenagers of social networking services, particularly in relation to online sexual materials. A certain number of actions have been taken by government to better understand the problem and find some solutions. Technological fixes such as age verification and scans are relatively ineffective means for catching online predators.
