Disadvantages Of Social Networking

In a world of technological advancement one cannot simply avoid the influence of social networking on the human behavior (Cimons, 2010). Social networking has been defined as the use of dedicated websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and applications to interact with other users, or to find people with similar interests to oneself (Google definition). Using these websites one may have a feeling that they are establishing close social ties with a large number of people, but such effortless connection in the world of technology can have its pitfall (Jung, 2015). One of the major drawbacks of the social networking is the false sense of connection, i.e., the illusion of intimacy which in reality is non-existent (Strogatz in Jung,

In one of her arguments she claims that texting gives a person an opportunity to get to know someone when that same person is unable to’ meet them for drinks or movie dates’. Also, she briefly acknowledges the fact that there are downsides to texting too, but at the same time gives advice of using ‘WhatsApp’ and other instant messenger applications to find out whether it is wise to waste one`s time on someone who might be a player. However, serious doubts can be raised against this claim if one is reasonable enough to understand that applications are not human beings and therefore lack human capacity to detect an illusion of intimacy. Of course that she has a right to believe in her opinion, but one cannot really know someone`s true intentions unless they meet in person. Moreover, according to Stephen Strogatz (In Strelau, 2012), social networking sites blur the distinction between genuine face-to-face friendships and friendships formed through social networking. For example, the suicide of Trey Pennington came to his cyber friend, Jay, as a surprise, because he had the feeling that he had known him enough, in the same manner one knows their friends outside the online platform (Baer,

He, also, pointed out that positive results are possible only if the employees use it in moderation. His claim is supported with evidence taken from the results as part of his study, but he does not estimate how much time (in hours or minutes) employees can spend on social networks to retain productivity. Since such information is unknown, his point may work for some of the employees, but not for all. This being the case, other studies point out that’ companies who provided access to Facebook experienced 1.5 percent drop in employee productivity’ (TechJournal article, 2010), whereas according to (Cohan, 2012), the Facebook use lead to a 9.4 percent decrease in productivity in US companies, costing businesses approximately 1.4 trillion dollars. One of the solutions is to monitor the social network use in the work place. According to Gartner(Technology research firm), by 2015, 60 percent of companies will have monitoring software in offices(in Jim Orrill) in order to track workers` use of social