Advantages and disadvantages of social networking

What is social networking

Social networking is the virtual networking of people. People can share photos, videos, and their life activities on social networking sites.

If you are an artist then you can create a free account on Instagram and share your art online. People who have an interest in your art can comment on your posts. They start knowing you and you can get like-minded people around you using Instagram.

Pros and cons of social networking

Some advantages and disadvantages of social networking are explained below:-

Advantages of social networking

Make friends:

You can make new friends by joining social networking sites. Almost all social networking sites are free to join. You can start posting on these sites and people start knowing about you. If you post regularly on these sites then you become known to many people. They start interacting with you and in a few days, you start making friends. You can share your thoughts on different posts and you can get replies on your posts also. This way you can spend your time in fun.

Grow your business:

There are billion of people who use social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Linkedin. You can reach these people on social networking sites and promote your business. All social networking sites have advertisement options. You can create ads on these sites and get your customers easily. While creating ads you can choose the people to which your ads will be displayed. You can filter out people by age, location, interests, and gender and show your ads to only targeted people.

Help students:

Students can interact with other students and complete their homework together. Students can create groups on Facebook and then discuss their study work. Teachers can give lectures on social media and students can attend the lectures and also students can ask questions to the teacher.

Getting the latest news:

In old days you sit on TV for hours to watch the news and to know what is happening around the world. But today all TV channels have their accounts on Youtube and Facebook. You get the latest news from the TV Channels through Youtube and Facebook. Most News Channels broadcast their news Live on social networking sites. You can also see short clips of news when you log in to social sites. Some people also share news about what is happening around them.

Communicate with anybody:

You can communicate with foreign people that are in other countries. You can learn about their cultures and also friendship with them. On social sites, there are no restrictions about the country border and you keep in touch with foreigners easily.

Disabled people:

People with any disability can communicate via social networking sites easily. They don’t have to go outside to meet people. They can use social sites to share their information with others.

Web traffic:

You can get a lot of social traffic on your website or app. If you make videos on Youtube then you can give a link to your website in the video description. Also if you have a Facebook group or Facebook page then you can get good traffic from it.

Disadvantages of social networking

False information:

People can send false information on these sites and these posts also get popularity in no time. So many people get mis leaded through this false information.

False identity:

Any person can upload another person picture on his profile and can add another person information. This way the wrong person can post whatever he wants. For example, a male person can upload a female picture on his social profile and hide his original identity.

Time wastage:

Students can spend hours of their time on these social networking sites. By spending too much time students get low marks in exams. Students also get into wrong habits and their personality changes after using social sites.

It is seen that employees in the office can consume some of their time on social networking sites which affect their productivity.

Health problems:

Using social sites for a longer period can cause health problems like anxiety, depression and loneliness. When you see people on social sites that are better than you then you may feel depressed. You can also get sleep problems when you use social sites for late hours.

Get donations:

Health and crowdfunding organizations use Facebook to collect donations. Also, if any patient is short of money then he can get his donations from people around social networking sites.

Examples of social networking websites

Some examples of social networking websites are:-

  • Facebook
  • TikTok
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Snapchat
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest

Conclusion:

It is good to spend some time on social sites but spending most of your time on social sites is not good. You can spend your time with your family. Only use social sites for your work and business and don’t waste extra time on it.