Nowadays social network sites and networking are hot items, the research of this phenomena also becomes more popular. Especially the social scientist are doing a lot of research and their most important idea is the fact that all people are individuals, but they are all connected through a web of relationships and interactions. Not only today scientist are doing research, in 1932 for example when the Hudson School for girls had an epedemic of runaways. When the psychiatrist Jacob Moreno looked into this case, he suggested that it had less to do with the individuals and he concluded that the underlying social network was the main reason. You can conclude that social networks have a lot influence. Other examples of social networks are the online social network sites where you can meet strangers and this can result in a connection between two people that would not otherwise be made. Nevertheless most of the social network users are not necessarily looking for new friends, but they are just communicating with friends. That brings me to an newspaper atricle from the Guardian that discusses the impact of social networking on children. This article also concludes that children are on sociale networks to communicate with their current friends. There are a lot of parents who are worrying about their children on social networks, but according to the article there is nothing to be worried about. Scientists have found that the use of social networks can be very useful, inventive and that it is good for their education. The children can show their ideas to the world and they can learn a whole new way of communication, which is very important today. Nevertheless there are also a lot of articles on the internet which discusses the negative side of social network sites. The author suggested that social networks changed the way how people interact, besides that they will warn the readers that the users of social network sites are just a product. The networks are for free, but the firms still earn millions of dollars because users do leave a lot of private information on that websites. At the end of the article they write about the fact that social networking has also negative health consequenses and that there is a danger of isolation. That last argument can be refuted by research of Amanda Lenhart. Her research shows us that the most frequent users of social network sites are also the kids most likely meet their friends in real life. The main reason is that the online socializing doesn’t replace the other ways of socializing. Finally I have a short case for you, it is about the serie Pretty Little Liars. How can they keep a show’s fans highly engaged from one season to the next? The serie is doing a great job by building a large network on social media, the actors are very active and the fans can see exclusive videos online. This is how you should use social networks.
References
Boyd, D.M., and Ellison, N.B. 2007. Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(1) 210–230.
Borgatti, S.P., Mehra, A., Brass, D.J., and Labianca, G. 2009. Network analysis in the social sciences. Science 323(5916) 892-895.
Frazier, K. (2011) Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/Negative_Impact_of_Social_Networking_Sites
Thompson, C. (2013) Teenagers and social networking – it might actually be good for them http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/oct/05/teens-social-networking-good-for-them
http://www.business.vic.gov.au/case-studies/social-media-marketing-for-small-business
http://blog.mipworld.com/2013/01/how-social-tv-seals-pretty-little-liars-success-vast-media-case-study/#.Vg5z4JVZrIU
