Nowadays in most Western countries there is an increase in the use of social networks. The most famous are for example youtube, Facebook and Twitter, but often these communication media are not used in the right way. There is no doubt, the use of the social networks might have positive and negative aspects.
First of all the major advantage of using social networks is the possibility to keep in touch with friends that live abroad or people that we are unable to see because of our jobs or family commitments.
In a second place, today a lot of important persons, such as heads of state, politicians and entrepreneurs use this media to share their ideas not only to with their citizens but with people of other countries. For example recently the Pope has started using Twitter that turned into a medium of communication and advertising fundamental for him, reason why Ratzinger decided to share the thought of the Catholic Church, above all for young people that could find a more interesting way to approach to religion.
In contrast to these advantages, this new medium have also disadvantages.
The worst, for example, occurs when minors chat and they might know people with bad intentions. Parents should pay attentions to their children, using limitation to the devices, passwords or some kind of control for websites.
Furthermore another risk linked to the use of social networks is that they are often used for bullying: children posts films, videos or images of their bad actions just to be well considered by their friends.
To sum up, in my opinion the social network can represent an important media of mass communication in our society; however this strong instrument can be also very dangerous, so everyone must use it in the right