How Social Networking Is Shaping Society

In today’s changing social scenario where no one has the time to keep in touch with his friends and family, social networking can truly be called a savior of the social needs we ‘social animals’ have. Providing us with the capability to stay in touch with people we care about, social networking is a platform that is also used for creating new friends.
Creating new friends and keeping in contact with these friends involves creation of profiles which requires an individual to give information about him/herself. This information can be viewed by his friends, family and everyone else so that they can know a bit more about the person.

While creating profiles and giving information about oneself is a cool thing to do, this information can also lead to a wrong turn of events. An internet search about mishaps that were triggered due to information given on a social networking profile will result in various listings stating the mishaps. Many of such instances include cases of kidnaps or burglary where a person has given some vital information about his daily plans on a social networking website. Such is the mischief going around in the social networking arena that almost every one of us has heard at least one case of fake or obscene profile of a person being created by someone else. Even though the positive impact of these social networking websites on our society cannot be denied, its negative impact cannot be left out either.

Social networking websites like MySpace, Orkut and Facebook have become the icons of today’s youth and there is no denying from the fact that the popularity of these social networking websites will continue to rise as the time passes by. The impact that social networking has on our lives is evident from the fact that “Are you on MySpace?”, “can I get you on facebook?” and “do you have an orkut account?” are the questions that normally follow “what is your number?”

Another huge contribution of social networking platforms to the modern world is its role in changing the way we talk and use words. Words like scrapping, teasers, commenting and blogging have gained acceptance in the general public. The knowledge of these words would have been unknown until a few decades back but today, it seems no conversation is complete about these words.

Call it whatever you want but social networking websites are doing a good deed of allowing us to communicate with each other. The magic of social networking has been seen to work wonders for people living in distant lands. You may have heard about couples who fell in love and got married because of social networking. People who have to move a lot because of their jobs often use social networking websites for staying in touch with their friends and family and get to fulfill their emotional needs.

Allowing users to keep abreast with the happenings in the life of their friends and family, social networking websites provide an addictive environment that compels everyone to come back again and again in search of new friends and speak their mind.