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Patricia Topping
Sheldon Hand
COMG 153
11/20/22

Impact of Social Networking on Today’s Society

Networking can be a great way for people to connect and for businesses to grow, but it also has its

drawbacks like people lacking in interpersonal skills and cyberbullying. Through the years the way people

connect has changed. It went from handwritten letters sent over miles to emails and text messages sent in an

instant. With progress comes change, both good and bad.

Some of the positive things about networking is the ability for faster communication. People can talk to

each other more quickly and get a response within seconds. People can use Facebook to show pictures and to

tell of things that are going on in people’s lives. Being able to market one’s goods is also an advantage when it

comes to selling or buying things. It can build businesses by getting their information out to the public in a way

that millions of people can see and respond. Businesses can offer more of their products and links to their

websites. They can also get more followers and more exposure. Families and friends can also keep in touch by

sharing photos as they grow and keeping up to date of what everyone is doing.

Some of the negative things is that inappropriate content is also freely flowing on social media sites.

Young children can get exposed to something that can damage them mentally. Not all content can be caught

quickly. Social media can also limit how we are communicating with others. People can put their input out there

and argue with faceless people about topics that are debatable. It can become a political free for all. People also

spend more time on their networks to see if they are trending or to read positive and negative comments that can

be upsetting. People can also become addicted to their phones, not having a healthy limitation to how much

time they are spending on there. These people can become disconnected with their families and friends, losing
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themselves in the ridiculousness of what other people think instead focusing on people in the real world

(Behrens, 2018).

One undeniable affect of social network sites is people’s mental health. People get so concerned about

what other’s think that. Instead of people cuddling up to that someone special, they are too busy reading feeds

and posts of what people are doing and thinking that other people have better lives then them. The problem is

that people can’t see past the pictures of everyone enjoying life and constantly having a good time. But images

are more than what people think they are. Anyone can smile in a selfie and pretend their lives are amazing. This

obsession about everyone else has led to a digital loneliness epidemic.1 People also get involved with

extremism, race, and hatred. Now suddenly everyone is voicing their opinion and it can hurt someone else

(Frietag, 21).

So, though social networking has many benefits, it also has some drawbacks as well. If people can

monitor these sites better, and if people can monitor themselves, the internet might be a safer place.

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This focuses on the rise of depression and loneliness as it relates to social media use.
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Works Cited
Behrens, A. (2018, 8 10). Behrens. Retrieved from Positive and Negative Impact of Social Networking.
Frietag, C. (21, 11 19). Frietag. Retrieved from Social Medias Impact on Society.