The Impact of "Social Networking" on Today's Society
Mayra Gonzalez
Introduction to Sociology
09 March 2014

Social networking has been rapidly taking over our lives. Every time we leave home we feel unsafe if we forget our phone. We are becoming dependent on today’s technology. Social media being used to learn about what is going on around the world or what your friends are thinking about. Even though being addicted to social media has its cons, it still has many pros that most people do not take advantage of. Before social networking we would know hear about the news from television or word by mouth. Now with a simple click of a button we are able to go online and read about almost anything for ourselves. Unfortunately, not everything we read online is true (Laird 2012). Even though not everything online is true people still believe it. There have been Facebook pages set up for celebrities that have supposedly had died and they were honoring them. Wikipedia is also another source of information that can be misleading. Anyone can make changes and updates to any information on the page. Even though sometimes what is read online can be misleading, social networking can let the world know about breaking news (Marino 2012). Anyone who has a Twitter or Facebook account can look at their news feed and learn about what something happen in his or her own city or at the other side of the world. As technology advances we become more and more addicted to social networking (Ogbevoen 2012). Schools are even adapting to technology by getting rid of textbooks and distributing a computer for every student. In some ways this is a good thing, but it can also have bad effects. We do save trees and money on replacing textbooks with computers. Some problems that we face in the future are that children will not be able to find something in the textbook with the index or have effects on the eyes by staring at a computer screen for a long time.
Having computers in classrooms can also affect learning. Even though social media sites have been blocked from viewing some students could get around it and still be able to access social media. They will instead be on Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter, the popular websites of right now, instead of paying attention in class (Sumiti 2011). Even adults get into trouble in the workplace. They are able to access social media and instead get so caught up in it that their work falls behind or is not done well. Social networking can also be good to discuss educational topics or talk about assignments from work (National School Boards Association 2007). People like to interact more on social media than face to face. It is also an easy way to communicate instead of figuring out where everyone could meet and at what specific time. Someone can update their status with a question and wait for their friends to response with their opinions. As we get more comfortable to social networking, we tend to put more information about ourselves telling other people about who we are, where we work, who are our relatives, and even where we live. Identity theft can be an easy thing these days (Mathews 2010). All the thief has to do is look at your public profile. People also like to post pictures of them, called a selfie. Selfies give bullies an opportunity to call out on that person on their flaws. Teenagers mostly go through this bullying and some have even committed suicide. Cyber bullying has been increasing and there have even been movies made about it. Some parents are trying to put an end by this by creating a law that can punish teenagers for cyber bullying. One more good reason about social networking is that nowadays people have the opportunity to move and live wherever they desire and still be connected to friends and family. With moving away it can be lonesome and hard to find new friends. Fortunately, social networking has giving us a chance to still be connected to