Topic > Social Networks: useful or harmful? - 1239

With the advancement of technology in a short time it has impacted the world in many ways such as the way the world communicates and our lifestyles. One of the many revolutionary inventions or evolutions is called social networking sites (SNS). Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others are where people meet on the Internet, create a personalized profile about themselves, and interact with people all over the world. With the lack of parental supervision in the fourteen to seventeen age group, making it one of the largest demographics using social networking sites, these teenagers may be subject to mature elements. Young people between the ages of fourteen and seventeen should not be allowed to have profiles on social networking sites because they lack the ability to make good logical decisions. With the level of exposure that teenagers face today by joining the social networking trend, they often forget about the dangers of social networks such as stalkers and pedophiles, who may be using the sites as a major business tool. Such dangers can befriend naive teenagers and lure them into dangerous situations. For example, Raymond Wang had a friend who was stalked by an unknown person through one of the social networking sites. This stalker acquired private information about her via Facebook, and got to the point where he was sending her threatening or perverse letters to her real inbox detailing what he would do to her. “This really affected her a lot because now she is afraid that other stalkers might do the same and she doesn't want that to happen or anything to happen to her.” (Wang 19) Even if users are given the option to make their profile private, there is still the looming threat that stalkers will be able to gather enough information about the person's whereabouts. Another similar incident happened to Regina Chau, a member of a social networking site dedicated to the raver lifestyle, Plurlife. When she first joined her friends offline, she liked everything about SNS, but "[w]here most of the people you accept into your friends list would probably be strangers." (Chau 18) had befriended a person she didn't know offline and one of these "friends" had become a little too friendly with her; “He kept asking me if I wanted to meet him at the next event. I found it a little disturbing and never responded to him again after that.