Social Networks Essay -- Social Issues, Technology

Over the past decade the internet has become a important part of everyday life by people of all ages. The internet is used for a variety of purposes, such as finding information, buying and selling products, watching television shows, finding friendships and searching for entertainment, but the main use for the internet is communication. Three quarters of American adults have been online, with even more teens (93%). Almost all of those internet users say their main purpose for going online is for communication (Correa, Hinsley, Zuniga 2010, cited in Jones and Fox 2009, Pg 247). With the introduction of social networking sites such as Facebook, My Space, Twitter and various smaller community based social networking sites it has made the ability of communicating so easy and accessible that people are able 'to sit in one place and know about what is going on somewhere else in the world related to your friend / group / community network' (Nair 2009, Pg 52). This essay will focus on ho w social networking sites play an integral part of everyday communication in society today and will focus on both the positive and negative effects that social networking sites are also presenting in society today. This essay will finally inform how it is not just the younger generation who use social networking sites to build relationships but how the older generation are taking advantage of social networking sites to form and maintain relationships with one another. During the past decade there has been an influx of social networking sites, which have become an essential element of everyday society. Social networking sites enable the ability to share and create information, form personal as well as business relationships, find romantic relationsh... ...r groups? A comparison between UK, Spain and Japan', Journal of Youth Studies, Vol 14, No 1, pp 91-108, Taylor & Francis Online, EBSCOhost, viewed 15th December 2011. Nair, N 2009, '"Social Networking" on the Generation Next', SCMS Journal of Indian Management, Vol 6, No 3, pp 43-52, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15th December 2011. Pfeil, U, Zaphiris, P & Wilson S 2009, Older adults' perceptions and experiences of online social support', Interacting with Computers, Vol 21, No 3, pp 159-172, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 3rd January 2012. Zhong, B, Hardin, M & Sun, T 2011, 'Less effortful thinking leads to more social networking? The associations between the use of social network sites and personality traits', Computers in Human Behavioiur, Vol 27, No 3, pp 1265-1271, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 31st January 2011.