Social Networking and the Problems of Facebook and MySpace

Social networking online has literally exploded in recent years and become a enchanting phenomenon. But it is not without its problems, in fact, a immense number of them. In terms of social networkings ‘ value to individuals, a lot depends on what you expect to secure out of it, and a lot more depends, frankly, on your age. Young people have flocked to Facebook and MySpace in Huge numbers.

Literally millions of people all over the world are sharing photos, music, videos, and all sorts of intimate information with friends and strangers. Web savvy users are also developing ancillary applications that extend the use of social networking in myriad ways. Social networking is actually being used by a wider range of age groups, while Facebook and MySpace remain dominant for the American youth.

For older people, these online networks are great for, well, networking; finding like-minded people who might provide leads to jobs and business; or even re-connecting with old friends they’ve lost touch with over the years. Professional online networking sites such as LinkedIn tend to be more business-oriented, giving users opportunities to post resumes, provide career advice, and even respond questions specific to a certain profession, in addition to posting available jobs.LinkedIn is a favorite state for recruiters (aka “headhunters”) who can pre-screen potential candidates before those candidates are even aware they are being considered.

LinkedIn also provides users the ability to recommend each other, which enhances their profiles. There’s mighty upside with social networking online, not only for those seeking social or professional contacts, but also those seeking assistance, or to help those in relatively remote locations feel less isolated. Of course, there is also considerable downside.

Like any other aspect of the Internet, social networking sites suffer from the pervasiveness of pornography. Many of the invitations from “friends” are actually thinly-disguised porn sites that solicit MySpace and Facebook users to join up using their credit cards. If you have young children, you should be aware that even if users aren’t looking for porn, porn will find them on such sites.

More disturbingly is the attempts by sexual predators to spend social networking sites to troll for innocent young boys and girls, posing as their peers and suggesting the concept of LMIRL, or “let’s meet in real life.” MySpace and Facebook have tried to prevent known sex offenders from encroaching onto the social networking medium, but they can’t stop every predator, especially those who have never been caught.

Furthermore, policing the web is a complicated task, fraught with many legal problems. What happens unfortunately with the online medium of communication is that people forget their boundaries and start to extent their comfort zone to far beyond respectable limits for themselves.

A much less serious, but certainly annoying downside of social networking online is the ever increasing invasion of advertising and marketing materials. Veteran Internet users have long decried the commercialization of the web, but to no avail. MySpace, which was purchased by global media giant Rupert Murdock’s News Corp two years ago, is ripe for commercialization, and seen as allotment of a larger global “entertainment play” that will likely spill into television and other media. Social networking has grown in viral proportions in the few years of its existence and shows no signs of slowing down.

It is likely to evolve and morph into something more and something considerably different than novel users can ever imagine. It is certainly not a fad, however, and like it or not, social networking is here to stop. Unfortunately, this medium of “getting together” is not a satisfactory replacement for the phone call or the in-person visit that people faded to do in the times before the Internet. Perhaps advocating the demise of social networking is too extreme, but perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to spend the time to actually interact with people you know in some meaningful way?