In this day and age, social networking has become an essential part of almost every individual’s life. It has been accepted as a sine qua non for advancement in both personal and professional life. People try to stay connected to their social networks and enthusiastically keep everyone updated on their own activities. For example, anyone who is not part of a social networking site today is either labeled as an introvert, or, in common parlance, ‘uncool’ person. In the context of this trend, I attempt to describe my personal philosophy on social networking.
However, there are people who have, in an attempt to maintain a wide social network, forgotten the need to have a close social circle also. It is an undeniable fact that no matter how many contacts a person has gained with time, there will only be a few who will actually be close friends. The need to have a smaller inner circle cannot be sacrificed. Moreover, another common approach in today’s time is that people have started to maintain social networks only over the internet. Electronic social contact has replaced the otherwise more warm and sincere feelings of personal social contact. This, in my opinion, is not a good development in the thinking of the people that has been made in the past few years.
If I could change one aspect of social networking, it would be the superficiality and the presence of fake identities. Not only can people wear the veil of superficiality in personal contact but they can also more conveniently play the role of someone they are not through social networking sites. In a social network, personal information is bound to be floated. Anyone having access to the network thus has access to the information. This is a highly sensitive issue given the risk of fake identities in today’s society. Moreover, by being superficial and floating the wrong impression, one can fool the other person regarding the traits of oneself. However, there is no way to check that, and anyone who falls for that can suffer consequences. For example, anyone who has contacts with senior professionals of his field and has misled them regarding his qualities and attributes can be unfairly recommended by his contact for the opportunity. The risk is, therefore, so great that it cannot be ignored.
My personal philosophy on social networking is thus that other than maintaining a group of contacts, everyone needs to realize that this huge group cannot replace the need to create an inner social circle. This inner circle should consist of people one personally knows for a reasonable length of time and who can be trusted with personal information. Moreover, in social networking, we all run the risk of being the victims of people cowering behind fake identities who can cause great harm by gaining access to what we share regarding personal lives. In other words, it would be wise to say that one should not dither to keep a social network but should do so with great caution.
