The use of social networking has become increasingly relevant today, with smartphones enabling more time spent on such sites. Being online for long periods and accessing information from many sources at once can cause information overload, making it difficult to filter information and decide which sources to trust.
Social networking can be defined as “the relationship that exists between networks of people.” Online social networks let people communicate and share their interests over long distances; social networking sites provide information for a group sharing common interests, and the broader term ‘social media’ encompasses more than just ‘social networking sites’.
Positive Impacts of Social Networking
- Enables easy access to a vast quantity of materials related to one’s needs.
- Makes people more sociable, supporting individual identity and self-expression.
- Encourages creativity, and a sense of belonging and collective identity.
- Improves the academic experience in general, and is useful for clarifying news.
- Useful for keeping in touch with family and friends, and for sharing tutorials.
Negative Impacts of Social Networking
- Distracts users’ attention.
- Presents privacy issues for individuals.
- Can be very time-consuming, time that could be better utilized.
- Students sometimes neglect their responsibility for studying because of social networking.
