Custom «Dark Side of Social Networks» Essay Paper Sample

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, My Space and Tagged among others have taken the children, youth and adults by storm. These networks have brought about interactive horizontal communication networks giving rise to a new form of communication over the internet and wireless networks across the world. But despite their good side they are a social evil and have led to many activists opposing them at every turn. First it has led to students wasting so much time, they barely spare enough time for their studies because most of the time they are face booking or twittering. Employees have also been wasting time twittering or face booking instead of doing productive work. Employers also use the social networks to find information about people who have applied for work in their companies so that they can tell whether they are telling the truth. These social networks have also lead to family and friendship break ups. Lastly they have led to increase in crimes such as smuggling, sexual harassment and drug dealing.

Students who are signed up with social networks spend a lot of time on the internet chatting with friends and spend less time studying. This has led to low grade point average students and studies have been done which have positively linked bad performance with networking sites. Most students have made chatting with friends an extra curriculum activity. Academics has ceased to be a priority and most students rarely have enough time for finishing their assignments in time and this has led to lower grades, though the social networks cannot be wholly blamed for lower grades, they usually contribute a very large role in it. The social networks are a huge distraction for students. Employees have also been spending a lot of time on these sites and spend less time doing the work that they are supposed to do. These networks in a way seem to have affected the productivity of most companies.

Crime has also been on the rise because of the social networks. Most people usually fall prey to phishing attacks from hackers and fraudsters. Most people usually submit their personal information and thus anyone can access it, people with ill intentions have been taking advantage of this and accessing people information and using them for evil purposes. The social networking websites have led to a hotbed for online criminals since they can reach people worldwide and millions of active participants from all walks of life. Some people have also refined their range of tactics and have infected so many computers with computer viruses and malwares. Social networking fans are usually tricked and the fraudsters may use tactics such as launching breaking news about celebrities and serious global occurrences. Sexual harassment is also another evil of these networks where some criminals use personal information accessed from these sites to harass people and stalk them. Crimes such as drug smuggling are also planned and carried over these social networks.

The social networking websites has also destroyed ties between families and friends. They have weakened ties between parents and children since most of the children spend very little time talking with their parents. In other cases it is the other way round where some parents spend so much time chatting and don't usually have enough time for their children. Couples have also broken up since they are people who are usually out there to destroy thriving relationship, which may be out of jealousy or out of fun.

Most people have become social networks addicts and they spend so much time online, they only see the good side of these networks what they don't realize is that these networks have an evil side which can harm their relationships, studies and also make them more susceptible to criminal attacks. People using these social networks should thus be wary of such evils.