<>In the twenty-first century social networking has become a way of life. Things such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, YouTube and MySpace are widely used by anyone that has access to a computer. These networking sites carry positive and negative outcomes for people. The article of “How Obama Really Did It” by David Talbot shows the positive aspects of social networking .It discusses how Obama was able to get more people involved in his campaign and essentially get more votes just by using these social networking sites. On the opposing view a PBS program published a video titled “Growing up online” illustrates the negative effect of social networking on children, and young adults in today’s society.
<>According to David Talbot “Obama created the ultimate political machine” by using social networking sites. Obama was able to get numerous amounts of people involved in his campaign through the internet. That gave him a head start in his run toward being the next president of the United States of America. Obama put up a website which was easily accessible to anyone, and it raised about $340 million dollars in donations for his campaign. With the use of Facebook, twitter, blogging, and YouTube Obama was able to reach a much wider variety of people all over the states, without actually needing to physically be there. All this enabled him to have a better fighting chance in the presidential election and gain scores of supporters. McCain also tried to set up a site to gain more followers however, it was not effectively build and not as easy to use as Obama’s were, so in effect less people used it and contributed to.
<>Judging from the Obama campaign social networking is a positive aspect in today’s society, it gets more people involved with just a press of a button. Nevertheless, that is not the case when it comes to teenagers using social networking sites for their own purposes. The video “Growing up online” raises many negative issues of social networking and how it affects the youth of this generation. Teens use Facebook and MySpace to stay connected with their friends. However, that’s not all that they do, they post up pictures and videos of themselves on these sites as well. What these young adults do not fully grasp is that anything they put out online can been seen by everyone and anyone. This makes way to predators. In addition some videos that they post online can fall into the wrong hands and then the reputation of the adolescent is ruined. Once something is posted into cyberspace it stays there for a long time even if it has been deleted from the individuals account.
<>The PBS video illustrates that in Chatham’s high school of New Jersey it has become difficult for teachers to be able to educate students the way they used to a decade ago, these days children have to be at a computer at all times. To try and follow the trend, smart boards are posted in a lot of classrooms so that teens will pay attention because they are unable to just listen to the teacher talk and take effective notes. It is leading to lack of focus on the student’s part because the only way they can actually pay attention is if it is done with graphics and on the computer. Some teachers feel as though they have to be “entertainers” for the students because otherwise they will not learn the information that they want them to. In addition adolescents have more difficulty focusing, because in today’s world they are very used to instant gratification. This is true for many other high schools around the United States
<>Social networking enables teenagers to take on different personas when they are online. Sites such as Facebook and MySpace allow them to do that without any restraint. They can become anyone that they want .In time some teens actually adopt the new identity as their own. That keeps them more interested in these sites and staying on them for numerous amount of hours per day. Social networks resemble a virtual reality games that are played online. Various articles have been written about virtual reality games and on their great impact on peoples lives. These games have been named “second life”, in this game people are able to make a character from scratch and make it wear and look like anything they want it to. They are able to fly, drive and do anything they can imagine. People that play these games have shown that they would rather spend more time in the game then in the real world. These games, just like social networking sites are taking over people’s lives. These people have become “addicted” to the internet and do not see time passing by when they are playing. This is becoming an epidemic that is moving at an extremely fast pace and there is aboslutely nothing we can do to stop it.