ENG110, Professor Silvey
30 September 2011
The Disadvantages of Social Network Sites
It is true that social network sites are growing at an alarming rate and that there are many advantages and disadvantages in using social network sites. If one understands these advantages and attempts to avoid the disadvantages, then one can use these sites to improve their knowledge, increase personal relationships with Family and friends, and create a functioning secure social network on-line. Because social network sites play such an important and valuable role in society today, it is detrimental that one undertstands the disadvantages to using them. Social network sites can cause addiction, lower grades, cyber bullying, health problems, and a false sense of privacy. The intent of this short essay is to bring to forefront, these five major disadvantages.
One disadvantage, and one of the most overlooked, is that social network sites can be addictive. According to a study of 1000 Americans conducted by Pam Dyer of Retrevo (Dyer), several questions were asked, on when, where, and how much time they spend on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Over 48% of those surveyed said they check their on-line status in bed. Facebook recently published its user statistics, which revealed the network had over 800 million users (Zuckerberg). If these studies by Dyer are correct, and the statistics of Zuckerberg are accurate, then that means almost 395 million people check or update their Facebook status while in bed. Each day more and more users become addicted to social network sites.
Social network sites can lead to a decrease in a students GPA, and this affects high school and college students alike. By spending more time on-line and on social sites, one is expending valuable time that one normally would use to study. In April of 2009, Aryn Karpinski (Karpinski) conducted a study with 219 undergraduate and graduate college students attending Ohio State University and
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