Disadvantages of Social Networking Sites Social networking has been a common use on the internet in todays generation.

Throughout the past, we had social networking sites which did not make it uphold a longer life than those which have ended up being very popular. One of these popular social networks is Facebook which has over millions of members connecting with friends every day with new members joining daily. Facebook is also free of cash which adds a reason why it is so popular. Facebook helps you connect yourself with friends that you might have not seen for many years and those who now live in another part of the world. Despite the good uses of Facebook, it has its disadvantages. If youre not a user of Facebook yet, you will soon realize yourself the problems that Facebook can cause. The disadvantages are also endless. Social networking sites can sell your personal information to anyone who wants to buy it, including spammers and on line predators. Even if the terms of understanding claim that no personal information will be sold, the site can change its policy at any time. If blogs or other original content is published at a site, the site can take over copyright privileges in unlimited ways. Few writers, artists and musicians are aware of this and forget to read the terms of understanding in order to find out what can happen to their works. True identity is never known unless people meet in person. While it is a myth that, without body language, a person's behavior and personality can never be understood, there is never a way to get a person's complete behavior and personality profile strictly through on line interaction. There are too many people online and in social networking sites. The tendency is to head for the biggest party, but the biggest party is also the most challenging place for conversation that leads to more understanding and more fruitful interactions. It is daunting and time consuming, but the best way to find people is through the forums and groups. The most dangerous people are the sparky and outgoing personas who want to become an instant best friend to total strangers. There is too much relentless and suspicious pressure from some who wish to impose their demands for personal information on others. They make one good point, which is that it is creepy to have a person show up in a

group or to start inviting people to be friends when they have an empty or hidden profile. There is a happy medium where limited and safe information can be put up, but there can be far too much manipulation and aggression involved with getting others to give up age, location, real photos and far too much detail about themselves in public profiles. It is sad when a group holds an in-person event or meeting and only some members can travel or pay for a trip to meet everyone. This happens in the best and most well founded groups, but creates a rift between those who have met in real life and those who have to confine their interaction to the group posts. Social networking is a time consuming activity. A person is expected to participate by reading and to commenting on many topics and posts, rather than just skimming and lurking. It takes time to figure out ways to tweak the profile page into a masterpiece of beauty and widgetry. It takes time to find out where the great groups and people are. Once they are found, it takes time to carry on the conversations and to develop the relationships. Even sneaking over to a site for a guilty pleasure: games, can turn into a time consuming group process. The farming, group interactive and other games can become a full time job as others want to borrow this, give that and then to talk about it all. The budding writer who puts the best work up has to tolerate the comments from those who troll through people's blogs and who want to pick fights, carp and criticize or argue for argument's sake. Certain political operatives and volunteers live to attack anything that does not agree with their extremist views. The mentally disturbed and unstable want attention. Worse, people read but do not comment at all. Social networking disadvantages are lessened if you follow some common networking safety tips. The first tip to underrate social networking disadvantages is to utilize the privacy settings on your profile. One of the biggest dangers during socializing is having too much personal information available. You can use the privacy settings to screen incoming individuals

and what they see of your profile. The second tip to reduce social networking disadvantages is to maintain your computer defenses. Always have virus protection and anti-virus on your computer. Networking sites can have a host of ads that contain virus code which can infect your computer. The third tip to decrease social networking disadvantages is to review the network website's safety notifications, standards, policies, and learn how to report violating content. It can usually be found during the registration process. Make a copy so you have it handy if there is ever a security problem that you need to deal with. Another tip for curtailing social networking disadvantages is to remember to be cautious. Don't post it on your profile unless you want everyone in the world to see it. Bad people are always lurking online waiting for someone innocent to prey on. People are not who they claim to be the majority of the time. Do not meet anyone from a social site unless you are sure that you know them or who they are. Even if you are comfortable with meeting that person still bring a friend and tell people about the meeting in case anything goes wrong. It is always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to social networking disadvantages.

The Disadvantages of Facebook Social networks have many advantages including meeting new people and finding old friends. However, is this new and upcoming social network, Facebook, too friendly and too addicting? Are these technologically advanced forms of communicating slowly hurting society's social skills? The obvious disadvantage of Facebook is the availability of your personal profile on the Internet for many people to see. For example, in Sarah Schweitzers article Universities Ponder Facebook Etiquette, a student explains how word of what was on her Facebook profile reached her Grandmother who did not appreciate the content very much. Of course, you have complete control over what the content of your profile is. However, many people do not think about the type of information they make available and many times people will put too much information, leaving them quite vulnerable. In addition, to the control that you have over your content, the website is completely restricted to college students, which

adds much needed security so that not every Joe Somebody can have access to everyones information. The more important disadvantage of Facebook is the effect it has on the people that use it, especially the frequent users. In The Death of Interaction, Conor Boyland, a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara, explains both the best feature and the biggest drawback of Facebook; online directories like Facebook make it possible to find out quite a lot about a person without ever speaking to them. This feature that Facebook provides lets people avoid the essential part of getting to know someone, talking to them. Because of this, and that fact that almost all users spend way too much time on the Facebook or just the computer in general, is why Facebook greatly affecting the frequent users social skills. Social skills are very important in the world we live in. Being able to hold conversations and relate to other people helps people not only in their business lives but also in their daily lives. With the creation of, first, instant messenger and now Facebook, the young generation is beginning to become more dependent on these technologically based ways of communicating. Yes, Facebook makes it easier to meet people, which as everyone knows, is the most difficult part of starting a relationship, but these people using Facebook are becoming addicted and dependent upon this social network. These addicts are using Facebook as another excuse, upon the many, as a reason why they are constantly hunched over their computers. If these people continue to constantly use these social networks as their primary means of communicating, their social skills will slowly diminish and their daily lives will be drastically altered.

Facebook can cause 1) Threat of viruses! Facebook is filled with thousands of daily users from around the globe and there is no surprise if you discover a number of viruses storming through most of the pages. There is no surprise to believe that Facebook involves several hackers who actually steal other peoples account. Regular Facebook users can tell you how they notice suspicious activity occurring

while they are not logged in. The reason how this occurs is because hackers cleverly send viruses to hundreds of members and succeed in stealing their own data. These hackers could cost you a lot of money to repair your computer depending on how badly damaged it may be.

2) Spam and scams! This problem wouldnt be on Facebook alone. Other social networking sites like Myspace and Bebo are full of spam and scams! Many users receive emails nearly every day from anonymous users asking to date and chat on other websites. It continuously becomes frustrating to receive all these useless spam emails and no solution is being revised. Scam is an extra problem for the users. Unfortunately, some scammers trick members and scam them in so many ways to steal their accounts. A ordinary recognized trick could be through a phishing website which looks very similar to Facebook and fools people in believing that they are still on the official Facebook website. Once a member logs in using the email and password, scammers can now access his account and scam his friends, spreading further spam and malware through the website. Fake websites can also steal your bank information if consumers fall prey to their advertisements. If you have never come across a problem like this before, it is your responsibility to avoid such a threat and keep your information secure. 3) Waste of life! Facebook can be very addictive for its members. Once you stay connected with friends, you will realize how often you login for another chat and discover what other members are doing. Some people know the drawbacks

of Facebook but cannot help staying connected with old friends who they havent seen in years. All this will certainly make you addicted to Facebook and will stop you from deleting your account. Many hours may also pass and you could have done something more important than using Facebook. Several members of social networking sites actually use them throughout the day and night without any sense at all. 4) Ruining your professional life! You might be one of those millions of people who are unemployed and use Facebook to post offensive images of you and your friends. Though it is fun and provides humour for all your friends to see, it can be a major drawback when you apply for a job. Employers will want to know more about you and by searching on these social networking sites which contain your offensive content, employers may get distressed and could result in losing the job role that you applied for. There might have been a high chance of getting the job, but because of your social network page, your chances were ruined. The first site they would search would be on Facebook because its the most popular. More people are leaving other social networking sites for Facebook itself. Summary Looking at all these drawbacks, your life will become a waste of time and avoid you from doing more enjoyable activities than having to sit on your seat and type away for many hours. Facebook is good for staying in contact with friends, but you need to understand that these sites can be used to some extent, but not over the limit. Facebook Disadvantages Even the most distinguished product can have its disadvantages and can cause some predicament with one's character. Here are some of

Facebook's disadvantages when it comes to relationships, emotional procrastination and depression, industry, cyber stalking and superficiality. Affecting Relationships Talk about long distance relationships, Facebook would be the one answer friends, family and lovers can count on. Though conducted on a distance, the system can still connect relationships right that very moment. But because relationships are built and strengthened just because of an Internet site, it tends to become weaker and it supports less emotional and most especially physical contact. Some relationships tumble down due to facts like these. Affecting Emotions Because Facebook adapts a free-flowing information environment, some uses it to target on other's emotional depression. Others send out procrastination just to bring down a specific person or even bully a student in the lower years. Targeting the emotions may cause a negative attitude towards a person's social relationship, physical activity, and academic issues. Affecting Industry Even if the system overflows with so much advantages that one can be joyful of, there are still numbers of flaws that one can pinpoint. Internet industry is greatly affected by sites popping out to render a technical community. This is where the rivalry starts. The crowding is also becoming an issue. The program is considered as a negative diversion especially to the schooling industry, affecting students to divert their attention. Affecting Privacy Cyber stalking is one thing. Barging into someone's privacy is another. Come to think about it, cyber stalking and invading one's privacy goes hand in hand. A person who is engaged in cyber stalking tends to know everything about a person and uses it first hand. A lot of a user's personal information is so accessible that almost everyone, even those who know you but you don't know of, can view it.

Superficiality There are those who would want to be recognized as someone even in the Internet society. But thanks to sites like Facebook, some are already being characterized superficially because of the user's identification of their personal favorites. It's like being one with the world and being one with the trend without forming any kind of identity that one can point out to be unique. The important thing about having Facebook is that a person be discreet in the information that is given out. Privacy and other things stated above can be prevented if the user won't give out any kind of information that he considers private. Social networking site Facebook has been blamed for many social ills, the latest allegation being: it has led to a resurgence of the sexually transmitted disease syphilis. Telegraph has come up with a list of problems the site has been linked to: 1. Facebook leads 'children to suicide' Archbishop Vincent Nichols from the Catholic Church in England and Wales, claimed that Facebook reduced friendship to just a "commodity". Because of the "transient nature" of it, teenagers become more prone to suicide when their networks collapse. 2. Facebook 'killing off traditional sayings' The site has been blamed for the slow death of British sayings such as "a little birdie told me" and "hold your horses". In a survey on communication trend researchers found phrases commonly used by parents and grandparents were disappearing. 3. Facebook blamed for 'rickets surge' Facebook has been linked to the rise in the number of children suffering from rickets. Researchers wrote in the British Medical Journal that the social networking site, and computer games had led to the disease, caused

by chronic vitamin D deficiencies. It occurs because of sitting for long periods out of natural sunlight and a poor diet. 4. Facebook 'turning Britons into introverts' A study from Mintel, the market research company, found more than half of adults who use sites such as Facebook admitted they spent more time chatting online than they did actually speaking to friends and family. 5. Facebook 'makes partners jealous' University of Guelph researchers found Facebook use led to increased jealousy in relationships, amid greater social exchanges with friends and previous partners. Lovers often get suspicious when their partners get hooked to the site. 6. More middle-aged people 'learning to love' Facebook Ofcom, the communications regulator, found more middle-aged people are logging on to social networking sites such as Facebook in ever larger numbers. The number of 35 to 54-year-olds, using social networking sites, have increased by 25 per cent in just one year. 7. Facebook makes users 'feel unattractive' Some Facebook users avoid uploading photos because they think they are too fat, old or ugly. A survey found almost one in two people admitted to leaving out pictures from their "fat days" when uploading pictures to their online profile.

In summary, there are dangers, irritants, untrustworthy processes, such as selling registration information, and there are untrustworthy people who are active in social networking. The savvy social networker takes time to establish solid friendships and memberships in groups, has a skeptical mind, and holds back when prompted to give up too much personal information or to interact with total strangers. Social networking disadvantages are mostly related to safety issues. Online social interaction has become a very popular activity online. Like most popular activities there is always a certain amount of danger involved. Social networking disadvantages will be minimized if you are cautious when you use it. Internet networking is the act of interacting and sharing information with others online. If you share the wrong information to the wrong person it can end in some dangerous results. If you are careful when giving out information and networking on social sites than you will most likely be safe and have a great time connecting with others. Many social sites have upgraded their security to make it much safer for users. When social interaction sites first appeared on the market they were completely untested. Because of this there were many ways for predators and criminals to do harm to users. Hackers are always a concern with the majority of online sites. This is especially true for certain networking sites which promote tons of personal information about individuals. The social meeting sites have taken a lot of hits in the lack of security they provide. Young teens have been killed, forced to commit suicide, and abducted by child predators while using their social networking site. Although these incidents are horrible acts, they do not happen on a regular basis. Many such sites have raised their age limits and security to ensure better safety for networking users. Social networking disadvantages can be safely dodged if the sites are used properly.