Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking

1632 Words4 Pages

One of the key attributes amongst living things is communication. There are many ways for humans to communicate, whether it is face to face, telegrams, snail mail, texting, et cetera. The form of communication that has rapidly increased over the years is social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google Plus, et cetera. In fact, according to Pew Internet, as of 2012, eighty-one percent of teenagers who use the Internet are using it for social networking sites (Madden et al.). Furthermore, as of May 2013, seventy-two percent of adults who are online are social networking sites users, which is five percent higher than a year ago and sixty-four percent higher than where it was in February 2005 (Brenner and Smith). With the numbers of users rising over the years, it has become clear social networking sites has established itself as a legitimate form of communication, whether for personal, educational, or even professional use. While there are some concerns about using social networking sites – many of them being valid – the advantages of using social networking sites outweigh the disadvantages, which will be addressed shortly. Moreover, when it comes to communicating with others, social networking is more advantageous than any other form of communication, including face to face communication.
Opponents of social networking, however, may refute the claim of social networking sites being more beneficial than face to face communication. One disadvantage of social networking that opponents point to is the lack of personal interaction between people. While communicating via social networking is an expedient way to communicate with everyone, it is missing the intimacy and personal connection between all of the parties invo...

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...personal networking is the best way to advertise job openings. While this has been, and to this day still is, an effective strategy, the main disadvantage of the word of mouth approach is that it is just too limited. A company may have only so many employees to spread the word, and thus, there will not be as many candidates who can potentially fill the position. One of the best ways to overcome this potential liability is to use social networking sites, for they can reach a larger pool of candidates. Sure there are other avenues such as newspaper ads and sites such as Snagajob, Monster, Careerbuiler, et cetera, for example; however, the added bonus of social networking sites is that they are free, as opposed to the aforementioned options. Therefore, if the personal networking strategy is not getting the desired results, social networking sites is the best way to go.

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