Issues and Impacts of Online Social Networking Sites
Issues and Impacts of Online Social Networking Sites
Today, in the century of well-developed technology, we all got used to do everything with the help of special machines and computers. Computers play the most significant part in the life of human being. It helps us to do everything quickly and accurately by automating many tasks, which would take several days or months to complete manually, but now they can be done with the click of one button. Comparing with the previous decade, today our life got easier and became more interesting. Computers have changed our life completely. Earlier, people tend to do everything manually, and they usually need to work together, collaborating with each other. However, today, it is possible for them to do every work alone, by their own, without any help of others. It became the part of our life so that we cannot imagine it without computers. Computers can be used for a range of purposes. We work, study, listen to music, browse the Internet, contact with our friends, play games, watch and even make films using computers.
Moreover, nowadays, we even do shopping staying at home. We search for the things from the Internet and easily can order it without going to the shop. It seems there is nothing impossible in our days that people cannot do. It is the best option to simplify all our works, which are so time-consuming, and it helps us to save our time. We can easily find any information on the Internet just using a computer. Every year the number of people, who connect the Internet, is increasing rapidly, and in our days, in the age of computers, we cannot find people, who do not know what the Internet is. It even became a part of our life, which we cannot be separated. We cannot imagine our life without Internet, and now we access or store information using the Internet is our everyday habit. It is used all over the world and in any field of daily life. Apparently, people got used to spend all their time behind monitors. As there are no time and place limits, you can easily keep in touch with your friends from all over the world. You can easily connect with your friends or relatives, who live over the ocean. You can talk to them without using your cellphone, and you can even see him without even going there. You save your money not paying for long distance phone bill.
Using computers gives us great opportunity even to work and earn money. So you do not need to go somewhere in order to raise money, you just stay at home and use the Internet. I think people should know how to use it correctly in order to succeed. Otherwise, it is just waste of time. Year by year, people are getting to learn how to use it rationally. Today, almost every job needs computer literacy, and almost all works are connected with computers. It is the most important thing for those people who run organizations, industry, companies and corporations. Cars and jets are designed by computers; films are made by computers, and even medical equipment use computers. Most cures are found with the help of computers, and, today, doctors use computers to make diagnosis. That is why, nowadays, modern people are required to know computers very well. In some schools and universities some teachers conduct online lessons. It is called e-learning, in which students study at home by using the Internet, not attending universities. They receive home tasks by their e-mail and do it online. I think it is very comfortable for those students who have health problems and cannot attend school because of some reasons. However, there is great range of needless websites people usually connect. They are social networking sites where people spend most of their time. Today, a lot of teenagers tend to spend whole days connecting with people they do know and even do not know. It became their everyday habit, and they do not even pay any attention to it. Young people use online social networking for different reasons. Some use for entertainment, some for socialization, and some of them visit social networking sites for self-expression. As for me, I think it is an addiction, which is hard to give up. Today even little children can use online social networking sites, and they got used to play video games. It affects children’s physical and psychological wellbeing. However, children are not able to look after their health.
First of all, spending a lot of time in front of computer is very bad for people’s eye sight, especially, little children, who is just growing up. In our days, children are about to spend all their free time playing different video games and chatting with their friends by online social networking sites. They are not able to plan and organize their free time in a proper way. Of course, playing various unnecessary games whole day long gradually strains eyes. Today, the number of your people that spend a large amount of time on the Internet comes up to 80%. It is more than 1.5 million children all over the world. Parents do not pay more attention to it as they are busy spending their time working at several places, and at the end of the day they come home tired. It becomes people’s usual way of life. It became common thing in our society.
Moreover, during sitting in front of computers for long time we do not pay any attention on how we sit. Sitting several hours not doing any physical activities our body is getting tired and we start sitting crookedly. It brings to the spinal curvature, from which many children suffer in our days. We do not take it seriously at the beginning, but then we have to deal with this serious problem being an adult. That is why I think that parents should be stricter about this issue. They must worry about their children’s health and always must pay more attention to their behavior. Parents should spent more time on upbringing process of their children and teach them how to organize their time correctly. They should actively take part on their children’s life and should be a good example that young people idolize.
Furthermore, playing video games sitting in your room sets a limit on person’s physical and psychological development. It leads people to become reserved and unsociable. You do not communicate with your friends, do not go out and do not go in for sport. People who spend more time playing various video games and surfing the Internet become less active. Of course, it apparently impacts on the personal development. People who are engaged in sports activities are evidently active, strong, well built. They even have good mood during the whole day. Going to the gym you communicate with many people, you socialize with others and at the same time you train your body, which is very good for your health. Young people must spend more time outside taking fresh air; having a walk and interacting with best friends instead of locking themselves up in their rooms.
Today many young people became segregated from society. They are not interested in what is happening around the world. They do not even care about the society they live in. Most of young people ceased reading books, newspapers or magazines. Books help us to improve our communicating abilities, enhance our active vocabulary, develop our thinking capacity and be a person of great erudition. They prefer spending time chatting with friends. Earlier, many young people concerned themselves with taking part in different social forums, conferences; they attended various fairs, continuously visited different international festivals, theatres, concerts. They participated in many social activities. All of these activities help young people to broaden their outlook and enlarge someone's scope. It was the best opportunity to meet different people, to interact with them and be sociable. Interacting with people helps us to form our mind.
Of course, it is great idea to talk with your friend, who is far from you, by chatting. However, everything should be measured. There should be definite hours for chatting with friends. People, who spend a lot of time playing computer games, are less active, comparing with people, who go in for sport. They easily get tired, they have bad mood, and moreover, they have bad memory. It was proved by numerous scientists from different institutions all over the world. Professor Akio Mori, from Nihon University's College of Humanities and Sciences in Japan, made a research of the brain activity of 240 subjects aged among 6 and 29. During his research Mori divided the brain activity of participants into four categories: normal, visual, half-videogame, and videogame. People from normal category play video games rarely and it showed that they have strong memory in comparison with the people from other groups. However, the half-video game group and visual group were a bit similar. People from half-video game category tend to spend 1-3 hours 3-4 days a week, while people from visual group were largely engaged in visual stimulation such as television. Finally, people from video game category got used to spend 2-7 hours daily, which made big effect on their mind. They easily get angry; they have some difficulty with concentrating and memorizing things, and problem in socializing.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the way people interact with each other has been heavily influenced by society through the use of computers and Internet as well. Starting with the first computer, which were invented in the 1600s, to the present day computer, the name has remained the same but the purposes have considerably changed. Today’s computers have changed the way people will interact with each other. I can say that our future can only be changed by our present. That is why we should pay a lot of attention to our young generation and take major part in bringing up dignified successor, who will be the great person that is able to develop our society.
Reference
Gross, E., Juvonen, J., & Gable, S. (2002, March) Internet use and well-being in adolescence. Journal of social issues, 58(1), 75-90
Rocheleau, B. (1995) Computer use by school-age children: Trends, patterns and predictors. Journal of educational computing research, 1:1-17
Suler, J. (2004). The online disinhibition effect, Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 7(3): 321-326
Young, K.S. (1996). Internet addiction: emergence of a new clinical disorder, Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 1(3)
