| Home | Title Page | Introduction | Advantages | Disadvantages | Conclusion | Bibliography |
Engagement in social networking nowadays provides individuals with boundless advantages and opportunities to build better ties and expand one’s social circle. At the surface level, social networking allows its users to gain a sense of community with a collective social space and the ability to stay in touch with friends, relatives, and colleagues. That being said, social networking serves as a convenient online medium to connect with people across boundaries without the hassle of long distance charges and calling rates. The building of knowledge networks through blogs or web logs also facilitates communication among subject-based communities and provides access to information for popular topics and current events. In turn, this helps knowledge exchange become more widespread and accessible to a large scale (Kimball Rheingold, 2003). In today’s society, information about an issue can spread and become viral in a matter of seconds through video and news sharing sites such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
In addition to establishing social ties and meeting new people, social networking services are now seen as an online venue for employee recruitment, internship searches, and building professional relationships with corporations (Kriescher, 2009). With the rapid development in social media and networking, businesses and corporations have started to look into these sites as valuable and innovative tools for future generations. Furthermore, social networking stands as a convenient and cost effective way to promote companies and market services to a wider scope of people through advertising and creating business profiles. Creating a social or professional profile also increases one’s visibility online and therefore generates traffic to open up more opportunities for employment (Kriescher, 2009). In addition, recent studies show that students who use social networking develop useful technology and communication skills. For example, a 2008 research study at the University of Minnesota concluded that students who use online social networking sites gain more proficiency in technology systems, editing content, and stimulating online creativity (“University of Minnesota,” 2008). In sum, users of Internet and social media sites have the ability to reap the many forward thinking benefits which online social networking has to offer.