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Топик 0368. (B). Социальные сети

Опубликовано: 31.10.2017

You are Foolishly Thinking that you are Not Eternal - Prabhupada 0368

Анастасия Миллер. Таллиннский английский колледж, Таллинн, Эстония

In today’s world, social networks are among the most popular enterprises. The plateau of users on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace, to name a few, ranges in the millions. Nowadays, every advertisement, company and event has a Facebook page. However why are social networks so widespread and widely used?

As we live in an era where technology is at its peak and is in constant development, things like reading books on the internet, shopping online and communication with contacts around the globe, which were impossible a hundred years ago, are now part of everyday life. The most vital part of today’s world is speed – the speed of acquiring information. The appeal of social networks lies firstly in their accessibility – the registration on most of the popular social networks is free of charge. Accessibility and ease of use is what makes sites such as Facebook and Myspace appealing. Secondly social networks create the possibility to connect with friends, acquaintances or even strangers across the world, which is vital in the modern world. While during the pre-internet era communication required countless amounts of time, energy and money then today it is only a click away. In addition social networks allow people to monitor the social developments of their ‘friend list’. Finally, in addition to fulfilling the task of a social network, sites such as Facebook, provide entertainment for their users. Take for instance the Facebook applications, which feature all kinds of quizzes and games for the users.

However like in most cases social networks have also a negative side and it is important to ask whether the benefits of social networking outweigh the dangers of it. One of the problems associated with social network services is that during the process of registration, users are asked to fill in mandatory fields requiring personal information. By providing social network services with personal information including full name, address, schools, and hobbies, users also enable anyone to access it, which could impose various risks. For instance the provided personal information could be stolen from the service provider and used for wrong purposes. Another possibility is that the companies providing the social network service may themselves use the provided personal information.

Another problem associated with social networks is the social profile of a person – the image of themselves that they present to others. The internet offers various freedoms and thus often users upload photos of themselves, post messages and so on but do not consider the consequences. Once something is on the internet, it stays there forever. Or as it can be said that on the internet, namely on social networking sites you can never be certain of who is “listening”.