Debate: curiousrb vs PatrickGarrow17: Social networking websites have a negative impact on

Thanks PatrickGarrow17 for accepting the topic

Lets get right into it

In a modern society, we have little privacy. Advertisers monitoring the websites we go on, so they know what appeals to us, cameras out on the streets - technology allows us to be ''spied'' on.

Social networking sites are no exception, even if you do sign up voluntarily.

Take the social networking giant ''facebook'' for example.

Facebook has approximately 1/7 of the worlds population using its' services. Facebook has detailed information on 1 billion people, which it stores for keeping.

This information can include but not limited to, birthdays, family, addresses, contact numbers, private chats, where you work, where you study, your religious views, political views, activities you do, entertainment and recreational activities you like.

Some of it may seem irrelevant or like useless information but it is very extensive and frightening none the less. It's not only available for facebook to share without you or authority knowing, but also hackers and people wanting information on you. Might not seem likely, but it is a risk. And you're offering them a lot of information. An easy way to get information from you, which has happened to friends of mine is phishing. This is where they are tricked into entering their log on information into a website they believe is associated with facebook, which ends up obtaining their log on information. Not too tricky and anyone can do it. A major flaw of security protection.

Whether someone uses facebook or not they will not know about a few little sinister things they agree to. And that is because they don't read the privacy policy.

“We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship.”

“We may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law or to protect our interests or property. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.”

“Facebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services. This information is gathered regardless of your use of the Web Site.”

Facebook will work with the secret service or at least the secret service will use facebook and find something you've posted by just a single comment.

posting a comment along the lines of “Or we could all donate a dollar and raise millions of dollars to hire an assassin to kill the president and replace him with a monkey.” Four months later, Martinez found himself being questioned by a secret service agent who thought he might be a trained assassin.

Obviously a bit of humor (stupid I might add) but only humor none the less. Just an example of what you have monitoring you and your activity on the site.

It's not just facebook that presents these problems, but with 1 billion members, there sure is a lot of information available. You even have the option to download your data. Proof enough that facebook stores all of it.

Service Providers We give your information to the people and companies that help us provide, understand and improve the services we offer. For example, we may use outside vendors to help host our website, serve photos and videos, process payments, analyze data, conduct and publish research, measure the effectiveness of ads, or provide search results. In some cases we provide the service jointly with another company, such as the Facebook Marketplace. In all of these cases our partners must agree to only use your information consistent with the agreement we enter into with them, as well as this Data Use Policy.

A bit of a mouthful, but basically they can share your information with who ever they collaborate with, as long as it's on their terms.

It's not only facebook though. A few big social networking sights which have access to large amounts of information

- Myspace
- Twitter
- Instagram
- Bebo
- LinkedIn
- Friendster
- Habbo
- Tumblr

Many, many more too! 40 most popular social networking sites


Moving away from social networking site, we have seen more scary behavior.

Social Networking Habits: 54 Percent of Users are Addicted, Webroot Research Finds

Not only is it people becoming addicted.
From first hand experience, it may seem silly, but procrastination has lead me away from things that really matter, such as my study.
I doubt I'm the only too, and I can almost guarantee it will be a large number of people in the same boat.

I will go more into this later on.

Another problem is having your computer infected with a virus through something known as a ''koobface''.

Koobface is a multi-platform computer worm that originally targeted users of the social networking websites Facebook email (its name is an anagram of "Facebook"[1]), MySpace,[2] hi5, Bebo, Friendster and Twitter.[3] In the later versions it has stopped using those social networks so extensively because they improved their protection. Koobface is designed to infect Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, but also works on Linux (in a limited fashion)

Koobface

n the US the number of social networkers who experienced Koobface infections and other social network attacks climbed from 8% in 2009 to 13% in 2010 to 18% in 2011.

- Source listed above

An infected computer can lead to loss of important information whether it be photos, documents, presentations, videos, contacts, editing or software. Something I wouldn't be fond of losing.

With the high possibility of the theft and sharing of private information, can we consider social networking sites beneficial? While they provide advantages through connecting and sharing with friends, family and strangers from your or other countries, you put yourself at great risk. There are many horror stories around available information being used in a sinister way, which I will talk about later on. From this, I cannot see it possible to be regarded as beneficial.


In this post I primarily took a look at security and privacy issues surrounding facebook, but not limited to only facebook. I will look at the social interactions and impact of real world living over the next posts.

For now hand over to you PatrickGarrow17. All the best my friend.

I apologize to curiousrb and any readers for taking so long to post.

My position in this discussion is that social networking websites do not have a negative impact on society.

In fact, it is the opposite: society is having a negative impact on social networking.


Any negative effect that is said to be caused by social networking is really a negative characteristics already existing in society that is being enhanced by social networking.

It also works in the opposite way, a positive characteristic can also be enhanced by social networking.


Social network magnifies the characteristics of it's users.


Facebook, for example, developed as a networking site for college students. It has, therefore, taken on many characteristics of college culture from a sociological standpoint. Along with other networking sites, like myspace, marketed toward the youth - facebook is exposing inherent flaws in our society.

Narcissism, egoism, dishonesty, materialism. These types of things existed before social networking and have become enhanced because of it.

Really, the sociological impacts of social networking is an increased in information and awareness. The fact that a lot of the information provided by social networking is false increases the awareness that a person must not take a source's honesty for granted.

An increase in information and awareness in itself is positive for the development of a more thoughtful society. Right now, we are in a sort of shock state because of the rise in awareness of the negative characteristic of our society.

Social networking should prove to be a great tool in improving the things that are adverse to quality of life.


Social networking is a positive tool for the general population. As addressed in the introduction, it is also a significant tool for any organization that wishes to compile data on the public.

Privacy is an issue.

But, privacy issues can be addressed. Information security continues to improve and can keep pace with any invasive techniques.

Social networking will be the driving force behind a raised awareness for privacy concerns. Instead of eliminating social networking, our society should aim to make social networking more secure so that it can continue to raise awareness and information availability worldwide.