The Impact of Social Network on People, Essay Example

Introduction

The below essay is designed to reveal the impact of social networking on people’s socialization, interpersonal relationships, and cognitive development. The author of the current study argues that increased exposure to social media and use of social networking sites has a negative impact on people’s interpersonal relationship, social skills, and children’s cognitive development. By people being allowed to create “virtual realities”, they lose control over their lives, relationships, while losing focus on study, work. Further, the author would like to prove that social networking can distract people from making plans, adhering schedules, objectively analyzing facts, by enabling them to select the information they would like to see, instead of having a sense of reality about what is going on in their lives. Indeed, it is evident that many Americans and Western Europeans do not have a clear view about political decisions affecting them, while they are pretty much up to date with which celebrity has divorced recently. This is a worrying trend, and social networks should be utilized by NGO-s, companies, and government agencies to reach out to the public about issues that affect them using this new, popular channel.

Negative Impacts

The Australian Psychological Society (2010) created a survey about the impact of social networking on social and psychological development of individuals. The results of the research show that many of the respondents felt that they were wasting their time using social networking sites. While 88 percent of people claimed to be using the sites to keep in touch with friends, and 60 percent stated that they wanted to find out what others were doing, only 47 percent of people reported to use their account to share information with others. The quality and reliability of information, however, was not one of the survey’s measured variables, therefore, there is no data about how this information sharing activity contributed towards people’s “informedness”.

Khouli (2013) stated that the main negative aspects of social networking are: causing isolation of children for the real world, using the network during work or study hours (distraction), and spending times of leisure without benefit. The research has highlighted some of the negative aspects of social networking that the author of the current study has outlined in the introduction section and has proved their significance on young people’s social and psychological development.

One of the major risks identified by Childnet (2008) is that users could misunderstand the nature of the environment. This is, indeed, a risk that should be taken seriously. By posting updates, personal information, making it available to a wide audience, users of social networking sites can create a personal risk for themselves. The reason why so many users do so, however, is that they look at social networking sites as “not real”, virtual environment. In most cases, they do not have personal contact with most of their “friends”, or “friends’ friends”, therefore, they are unable to evaluate the risks. This brings us back to the argument that social networking makes users lose connection with the real world, while promoting virtual relationships built on snippets of information about the other user, instead of meaningful messages.

Finally, Khouli’s (2013) research reveals that one of the main concerns of parents and social networking site users is that the environment of these sites promotes “lack of respect for the culture of others during conversations and exchange of views” (p. 87). This statement confirms that children’s social norm development is negatively affected by the use of social networking sites. They fail to learn rules of behavior, society, respect, therefore, their socialization and “connectedness” with the real world is also negatively affected.

Opposing Views

Some authors, however, claim that there are benefits associated with using social networking sites and educators, policy makers, charities could build upon the opportunities provided by the new channel of communication to deliver meaningful messages. The  Childnet International Research Report (2008) states that young people become social participants and active citizens through the use of social networking. This claim would be valid, given that the networking took place in a real, and not a virtual environment. The report also indicates that young people are able to develop their voice and build trust through social networking. The question is: do they really get involved in debates of the real world, or simply express their views without the threat of being challenged? One other important claim of the study is that “anaging an online presence and being able to interact effectively online is becoming an increasingly important skill in the workplace” (Childnet, 2008, p. 22).

Educators are currently searching for ways of implementing social networking into learning, however, this attempt has so far not been proven fruitful. Burnage and Persaud (2012) examined the opportunities of knowledge exchange that lie in social networks. The authors propose an implementation plan that involves the creation of an “accepted practices of exchange”, a “shared values through exchange” and “exchange relationships” platform. Using the theory of social exchange, the report claims that collaboration through knowledge exchanges can enhance learning experience and help educators understand participants’ concepts about sharing and participating. While the pilot study has revealed that there is a real potential in the platform, the effectiveness of sharing knowledge and learning this way, and the impact on academic achievement has not been evaluated yet.

Similarly to Burnage and Persaud (2012), the Childnet report (2008) also reported that there are some opportunities in implementing social networking platforms in learning. One of the proposed programs is to implement scheduling software and promote time management through social network learning platforms. Given the previously revealed disruptive nature of these sites, the task will certainly be hard.

While the authors of the Childnet study claim that “using sites to communicate, collaborate and create means learners use and can develop a wide range of literacy skills” (p. 22), no real impact measurements have been concluded that children’s literacy and written communication skills would be positively impacted by social networking site use. Similarly, the study claims that young people are developing independence and resilience by using social networks, however, there is no proof that these skills and abilities would be useful in real life situations.

Conclusion

Overall, the above study has revealed that young people using social networking sites feel like they lose connection with the real world, and spend leisure time in an unproductive manner. This also indicates that the platforms provide users with the freedom to choose topics, games, and friends, based on their interest and preferences. This is a liberal and democratic approach, however, not very useful in education. If children could choose which book to read all the way through from elementary school to university, they would fail to develop certain aspects of knowledge needed for getting on in life. Similarly, people who choose to follow celebrities on social networks often compromise their knowledge about real issues that affect them. The liberal and unstructured nature of social networks indicates that – despite claims of opposing view proponents analyzed above – labeling these platforms as channels of education would be a mistake. While programs could be developed to encourage users to focus on real meaningful messages and sharing knowledge, policymakers and sociologists should focus on how they can reduce the negative impact of these sites on one’s social and psychological development, in particular focus on real life environments.

References

Australian Psychological Society (2010) The Social and psychological impact of online social networking. APS National Psychology Week Survey 2010. Retrieved from https://www.psychology.org.au/Assets/Files/Social-and-Psychological-Impact-of-Social-Networking-Sites.pdf

Burnage, A. & Persaud, R. (2012) Exploring social media as a tool for knowledge exchange: the #btr11 experiment. Third Sector Research Centre. Retrieved from http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/generic/tsrc/documents/tsrc/reports/discussion-paper-E-exploring-social-media.pdf

Childnet.com (2008) Young people and social networking services: A Childnet international research report. Retrieved from http://www.digizen.org/socialnetworking/downloads/Young_People_and_Social_Networking_Services_full_report.pdf

Khouli, M. (2013) The most important negative aspects of using social networking affecting the family stability in Abu Dhabi- A Pilot Study. IACSIT International Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol. 5, No. 1, February 2013