Social Networking and Its Dangers Essay Sample free essay sample

Merely when I was approximately to pick up my pen to eventually get down on my assignment. the Facebook chat buzzer went away yet once more. It was Ivan. a friend I merely met at the beach this afternoon playing beach volleyball. We chatted for about 20 proceedingss before he started inquiring me a series of personal inquiries and eventually my sexual orientation. I was naive so and didn’t know what sexual orientation meant. looking back I realized that Ivan was gay wanted to cognize if I was gay every bit good. My experience with Ivan made me realized that the Internet makes people less inhibited and more willing to say/do whatever they want. Without the platform of on-line chatting. Ivan. a diffident cat would neer hold garnered the bravery to inquire me such personal inquiries. In recent times. the proliferation of societal web sites like Facebook has brought societal networking to a new degree. people have the ability to portray themselves in whichever manner they wanted by holding a Facebook profile. This trait can be seen in Katie Ellis’s article ‘Be who you want to be: The doctrine of Facebook and the building of identity’ . Katie writes. â€Å"I carve out an online individuality based on how. and as whom. I want to be perceived in both the online and offline universe. † The rebellion of societal networking web sites has besides resulted in a rise of cyber-bullying instances and it is fast going one of the most common offenses around. Technology without a uncertainty has enabled world to pass on with much greater easiness ; nevertheless. we must neer allow our guard down when we are on-line. I remember back in high school. I met Cherry online through a common friend. We would speak about everything under the Sun on a frequent footing. Soon. I saw her as a close friend that I could portion anything with. Bing separated by a computing machine screen. I was non merely less diffident but besides more unfastened minded with our conversation ; we would speak about our personal lives. which helped to speed up our friendly relationship and made us experience like we knew each other really good. However. when I met her at an event. the temper was highly awkward. Even though we already know each other well. we’ve neer spoken to each other in existent life. After interchanging words throughout the event. I realized she wasn’t who I thought she was. Possibly I wasn’t who she perceived to be every bit good. Our conversation shortly died down and we barely talk to each other of all time since. On the other manus. I met Carolyn in individual during my high schoolâ €™s orientation and we interacted with each other for three yearss. Over the three yearss of talks and orientation games. we bonded and she got to cognize my true personality. This allowed me to be myself and later our friendly relationship blossomed. I felt comfy in my ain tegument whenever I hung out with her and we neer had an awkward minute. My experiences with Cherry highlighted the facade of on-line relationships ; practical friendly relationships frequently fail to interpret into existent friendly relationships as most of us unwittingly present a false individuality about ourselves on-line and this is non who we genuinely are. Facebook enables us to redact our profiles in the manner we would wish to be portrayed by others. This is nevertheless. non what others see us to be. This behaviour can be seen in the article ‘The doctrine of Facebook and the building of individuality. ’ in which Katie Ellis wrote that she herself take part in societal networking by carving out an online individuality based on how. and who she wants to be perceived in both the online and offline universe. In other words. Ellis believes that we carve our individualities harmonizing to what we want others to believe. I agree with Ellis beca use I know many of my equals who have profiles which portray them as an wholly separate individual as who they genuinely are. My friend Cherry is one of them. Her exposures frequently show her with her household members. picturing her as person who values her household a batch. Many besides showed her images with childs therefore doing others think that she love childs. Whereas with Carolyn I knew what she likes due to my experiences with her and from what I gather from her behaviour. Furthermore. personally I have besides edited my Facebook history such that my friends can merely see photos that I approved of. These scenes would forestall my friends from looking at commonplace exposures of me posted by other friends and therefore enable me to keep my repute. At the same clip. I frequently upload exposures of my travels and exposures of my household and me. This is because I see myself as person who is adventuresome and close to my household and I would besides wish others to portray me likewise. This is nevertheless. lone portion of my individuality. the ideal portion. Similarly. most Facebook users would redact their profiles to show the ideal side of them excessively. My experience with Cherry has taught me to reserve judgement on person until you truly got to run into her in individual. and to neer swear person else’s Facebook profile. Not merely do people portray themselves otherwise on the Internet. they besides loosen their suppressions and go more willing to open up to others. Sociologist defines this as the Online Disinhibition Effect. This common behaviour can be seen in Sherry Turkle’s article when she claimed. ‘ People become gratified by a certain public exposure ; it is more proof than misdemeanor. ’ Deducing from this statement. I can state that Turkle feels that people these yearss are excessively unfastened with their personal life online. When we are armed with the ability to make false individualities. we are frequently more liberated on the Internet. As earlier described. Ivan was surely more liberated when he was speaking to me online than in individual. This allows us to state or make whatever we want to without the fright of any signifier of negative effects. Even if we do it behind our true individuality ( ie. Facebook ) . we would still experience a false sense of security that the Internet gives us and be more unfastened with our sentiments. This has led to severe jobs in society such as cyber intimidation and racism. One of the chief grounds for the being of the disinhibition consequence is because people can acquire away easy without being recognized. What can go on to Cherry if she had offended me? The worse 1 could acquire is to be banned from the web site but this penalty can be mitigated with the creative activity of a new history. In my place state last twelvemonth at that place was a really celebrated instance of cyber strong-arming whereby a college miss killed herself after her ex-boyfriend ganged up with a few other friends and repeatedly posted derogative remarks like â€Å" You’re free. † on her Facebook profile. Similarly. cyber-bullying instances in my high school has resulted in some of the victims wholly losing their assurance. As seen. the Internet can be a unsafe platform. which can take to unwanted effects. There are. nevertheless. positive reprisals from the Internet every bit good. In her article. ‘Friendship: The Laws of Attraction’ . Karen Karbo writes â€Å"Between e-mail and cell phones with free long distance. we’re able to remain near. Keeping a lively e-mail correspondence may frequently be every bit good as being at that place. ’ Although Karbo is right that engineering does convey us closer to each other. I believe there is still a immense difference between a lively email correspondence and a existent existent meeting with person. However. no 1 can deny the fact that engineering does do communicating a zephyr even though one is overseas. Although I met Carolyn in individual during orientation. we have our ain busy lives and it is sometimes hard to maintain up with each other. With engineering. I am able to invariably and handily catch up with her. Furthermore with the aid of engineering. people who experience troubles socialising can besides happe n a practical community they belong in. In the best-case scenario. these non-threatening and non-judgmental online communities might help these people to construct societal accomplishments and eventually come out of their shell. Technology has decidedly improved all of our lives. we are now able to maintain in touch with our friends easy and even friends who are overseas. However there are trade offs that come with engineering. we all need to larn how to extenuate dangers online such as cyber-bullying. It is besides good for us to reserve judgement on people until we have met them personally as people tend to dissemble their true individuality online and therefore taking practical relationships to be frequently deceptive.