No one can imagine a world without Internet. No one can imagine a modern society without social networking. Even though there are many parents think spending time online is wasting time. I still take the side of that the advantages of social networking are real. It has more potential benefits compared with dangers.
A research study titled by the Digital Youth Project shows that young people can acquire four types of skills through social networking sites. It created chances for youth to grapple with social norms, explore interests, develop technical skills, and work on new forms of self-expression.
First of all, social networking is a perfect stage for interpersonal communication. It can provide chances to develop new relationships with others, as well as intensify existed relationships. Young people should know how to deal with people with different personalities, which is a skill that social networking can help youth to learn it. Young people can figure out how to interact with new friends, how to comfort your friends when they were depressed, and how to share others’ happiness or sadness. I think it is a good social norm skill that every one should learn it. In addition, we also can use social networking to stay in touch with people who have moved away.
Second, social networking also contributes to explore interests. When you create more social profiles and create more content on them, which means you are likely to increase your visibility. Not only this will increase your visibility, but also will increase the opportunities to make new friends who sharing the same interests. The more people you meet and interact with, the more interests might be explored. For instance, if you are a fan of movie and one of your “movie lover friends” might recommend an interesting book to you. Several days later, “a book lover” might be your new tag on your website.
Yet another advantage is that we can learn some useful technical skills via