Since its launch in 2002, Myspace has gained over 230,000 users per day; followed by Facebook in 2004, which recently tipped the 100million user mark. The majority of users are young people, under the age of 21. This begs the question: does social networking pose a threat to us?
The major benefit is that it is a way to keep in touch with your friends for free, including those abroad. These sites are the only places where friends, photos, music and all things social can be found together on one user-friendly site. Facebook, our nosy pal, alerts us of upcoming birthdays, events, and even our friends’ relationship status. Facebook keeps us up-to-date with every detail of our friends’ social lives: an exciting yet frightening possibility.
There is a darker side to the social networking: we are under surveillance by advertising agencies, which can use your name to bring up vast amounts of personal information. So a coach company could pinpoint the phrase ‘Reading Festival’ on your profile, and later confront you with an ad for ‘Cheap train and coach fares to Reading.’ Young people now need to be wary that what they post on their profiles can be seen by anyone, including universities and future employers. Would you want your university admissions tutor seeing pictures of last Saturday’s boozy night out, rather than an image of the model student?
We might be quick to judge and highlight the dangers, but does it occur to them that everything posted on the Internet is potentially dangerous? You’re more likely to get knocked over by a car, than the social networking site manager knocking on your door with a bouquet of flowers. The advantages outweigh the minimal chance of danger.
There are two sides to the global networking phenomenon: while sites such as Myspace and Facebook allow us to interact with unprecedented ease, we cannot ignore the dangers.
This story was produced by Kamil Boriel, age 13, Eshe Nelson, age 17, Nyasha Mclean, age 15, Rivkha Brown, age 16, and Nanette Turkson, age.
