The Case for and against Social Networking

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David Crystal, an honorary professor of linguistics, says "Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster." (179). As David Crystal says, social networking is not negative. Social networking has provided more opportunity to enrich peoples social life.
Journalist Bill Robinson says "Facebook has turned into (if it wasn't from the beginning) a humongous waste of time and productivity as all those legions of people are glued to their back-lit screens of all descriptions, typing madly, when they could and should be doing something productive--meaning having some value." People are going to waste time, they look for ways, and things to do so, that they can waist time. If someone is going to "waste time"; being on Facebook, interacting and engaging with other people, is less of a waste of time then staring at the walls or playing a mindless game. At least if one is on Facebook while "wasting time" one can be contributing to a conversation or be reading about a current event happening in the world.
Social media has made people more knowledgeable about the world around them. On Facebook, a lot of people post statuses about "_________ awareness day", ex: human trafficking awareness day. On February 27th, national human trafficking awareness day, newsfeeds on Facebook were filled with people who wrote a red cross type of symbol on their hand to show support for the day. Because of the information on Facebook, more people would participate in the event of marking their hand. Without Facebook far less people would have even known that it was human trafficking awareness day. This is true for current events as well, people share news articles that they find interesting or n...

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...tter Will Endure." The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2009. 232. Print.
Carr, Nicholas. " Does the Internet Make You Dumber?" The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2009. 217. Print.
Crystal, David. "2B or not 2B?" The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2009. 179. Print.
Mathias, Alice. "The Facebook Generation." The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 8th ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2009. 229. Print.
Robinson, Bill. "Facebook: The World's Biggest Waste of Time?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.

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