Social Networking Sites

Social Networking Sites: Harmful to our Society Social networking websites, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, have blown up immensely in just a short span of about 5 years; most people nowadays have found that these and other social networking sites have become a “necessity” in their lives and must constantly be checking in on them. Social networking sites such as the ones mentioned above allow anyone to make new friends, reconnect with old ones, and blog just about anything under the sun. For that and many other reasons it is not unusual nowadays to hear people talk about their status updates, picture uploads and the friends they have made on social networking sites on a regular basis. Social networking sites seem like easy ways to make new friends or to express one’s feelings. Since they account for 11% of all time spent on the internet, they must be one hundred percent reliable and safe, right? No (Hird). Although social networking sites provide us with a seemingly safe way to reconnect with and make new friends, you run many risks, such as identity theft, exposure to strangers, cyberbullying and even addiction. Social networking sites enable you to post personal information about yourself; many times it is required for you to post information such as your birthday, city, state, etc. in order to make an account with these sites. Although posting such information might be a much easier way for the website to direct you to people you share common interests with, it sometimes isn’t the safest way to do it. According to an online article “Are Social Networking Sites Good for our Society?” cybercriminals can now gather and collect all the information people have on their profiles and use it against them to commit fraud, otherwise known as identity theft. When social networking sites were new to the internet, identity theft occurred scarcely, but since 2008 has increased by 240% (“Are SNS Good for our Society?”). Not only are social networking sites filled