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Deactivating (A Social Networking Site.) Should You Do It for Yourself?

Social networking is huge. That’s just a fact now — from Twitter to Facebook, Foursquare and MySpace, it’s everywhere. A majority of companies have the “Like Us on Facebook!” sticker, or a “Follow Us on Twitter!” now a days. But one of the main issues of social networking is the effect it has on people. Some believe that it can cause depression among youths and teens, but others argue that it’s fine. Among the elderly, it helps to not let them be so lonely and among adults they use it to reconnect with their friends from the past.

Social networking does have the pros, like I stated above, but they definitely do have the cons. Formspring, a social networking site where users and anonymous users can post questions to their friends, has caused some issues where spam and nasty bullying has caused a young teenage girl to commit suicide.

MySpace was the world’s leading social networking site — until a young girl committed suicide, was raped, and other things happened. MySpace is still online, but has laid off many people in their effort to save them from their own crumbling website.

Twitter is a mixed site. Though only allowing 140 characters, this site became a hit. People from all over the world use it to update what they are doing. Twitter is used a lot in situations where a disaster has occurred. Right now, Twitter/Twitpic is being used to send information to others in Egypt where there are protests to do something about the Egyptian government.

Facebook (which I have deactivated temporarily to see the effects of what would happen to me) is the world’s largest social networking website, competing against Google for however many people go to their sites. Many surveys and research is done to observe the effect of people use Facebook. Some say there are negative effects to the mind, but others say it’s a positive website.

Social networking websites are very important to our culture and society now, as it connects others with others, but is it really good for us? I deactivated my Facebook account just because I wanted to see the effects, but I am still keeping my Twitter. This will be interesting as more research comes out about the pros and cons of social networking