Madison LaRocque
Danville, California
Maddy LaRocque
Social Networking
I’m going to begin by listing roughly the top five social networks today; do you recognize any?
5. YouTube
4. Google
3. Twitter
2. Linkedin
1. Facebook
(http://www.statisticbrain.com)
Social Networking origins come from the idea of social groups researched in the 1800’s by Emile Durkheim and Ferdinand Tonnies who connected the idea with community and values (Wikipedia.com). As time and technology progressed, so did these ideas which eventually led to modern day social networking. Not only is social networking a place for social interactions but it has evolved into websites, apps, streams, and so much more on the internet. The web has become its own world where people can post, comment, message, delete, inform, express and create anything they want. Where people can create any identity they desire and share any amount of information as they please. Social networking opened up broad new branches of privacy, identity, and even piracy. Every age uses it whether it is children on chat rooms and online computer games, or young adults on Instagram and Twitter. You can even find your grandparents on Facebook. Sure, everybody loves to connect and feel involved in a community, but with these perks come questionable aspects. Who are you really talking to and viewing? Who can see the information you are sharing? And who is being original and who is recreating?
Social networks allow you to post pictures, express your thoughts and beliefs, show off your talent, reveal your interests, communicate with others, and indulge in other peoples lives. Although these characteristics are positive, people are starting to question what is real. Social networking allows people to create identities that may not even be their own. People can be whoever they want over social networking. Twitter can reveal your opinions and thoughts but are they really yours or are they what you want people to think you believe? Instagram can reveal pictures but is that really you? Some theories suggest that people really have two personalities; your actual human self and your internet self. They can be totally different from each other.
This phenomenon also leads to the concern of privacy. Like explained in Michael Wesch’s video “Anthropological Introduction to YouTube,” people with the most views on that network originally posted their videos for one hundred people or less. People post things that they think are only for the viewers they want to see, but 25% of users don’t even consider their privacy settings (http://socialmediatoday.com). Users also forget their audiences. Do people remember that they are posting for not only their friends, but also family, co workers, teammates, and anyone else they added to their network? One may share private information such as location on their site which could not only invade privacy but create a dangerous situation. Social networks are a great place to expose yourself, but sometimes it is not for the best. Every person at every age sometimes forget their audience and some people don’t even know their audience. It is important that people use social networking with caution.
Social Networking has really advanced in this world and maybe even improved it. But with the pro’s, there are also the cons. It is amazing how fast we can retain information and knowledge, how we can be somewhere without being there physically. We can communicate, and express, and create and do all of these wonderful things via Social Networks but users must remember to continue to recognize their identity, and remember the information they are sharing with a few people may end up being shared with the world. Do people like the identity they are portraying online? Why do people feel the need to constantly share their thoughts and lives on the web? Will there ever be an end to social media?
Work Cited
Honigman, Brian. "100 Fascinating Social Media Statistics and Figures From 2012."
The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 29 Nov. 2012. Web. 23 Sept. 2013.
"Social Networking Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. Browser Media, Socialnomics,
MacWorld, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2013.
Wesch, Michael. “Anthropological Introduction to YouTube.” 26 July 2008. Online Video
Clip. Youtube. Accessed 23 September 2013
Young, Steve. "28 Must See Social Media Statistics." RSS. N.p., 11 Aug. 2013. Web. 23
Sept. 2013.
"Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites | September 2013." Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites. EBizMBA Inc, n.d. Web. 23Sept. 2013.
“Social Network” Wikipedia. Wikipedia.com
