Sahar-Ul-Nissa Haroon
Communication is the basic skill of human beings while living in the society. It might have different modes but has an omnipotent importance in one’s life. Communication is basically a mean of interaction with others enhancing one’s social behaviour.
Due to the change in technology we change our life styles according to them in order to adapt ourselves with the change. The most significant change in the life style nowadays is the access to internet nowadays.
Two-third population of the world has access to internet and visit social networking sites. So a change in interaction through the internet with a plethora of social media sites has redefined communication.
A widely popularized way of communication adapted by people today is online networking. Day by day internet users are increasing in number showing the entrance of technology in our lives.
Communication is a skill learnt by a person through the interaction with others. There are various positive effects of social networking communication but negative effects outdo the negative ones.
As we all know man is a social animal and an important aspect of society. He knows how to interact, make relations, and always tries to reach out.
Research has proved that people switch on to social networking sites in order to build and maintain relationships with others and pass time. The primary concern here is to highlight the over-use of social networking sites and its ill effects on our social bonding and isolation of personal corner.
There is a first and foremost risk of getting connected to dangerous people who can affect the social as well as the personal well-being of a person. Various surveys pointed out that youngsters spend much of their time on social networking sites to overcome boredom which in turn weakens the ties with their family.
Family is a biggest social support for every human being. So for healthy living we have to maintain healthy family relations which help us to develop.
Conversations and face to face interaction is becoming rare and people are becoming more and more dependent on digital media. This digital media has brought a change in our social practice.
The social interaction between people was previously private and limited to those who were available on the scene and above all it was undocumented.
The data capacity of social networking sites has changed interaction into a documented file giving threat to our security. Social networking has become a display show of one’s life experiences.
It’s an over-sharing of personal experiences which make people to peep into one’s personal world with their own perceptions which may affect the person concerned.
Social networking sites have a drastic effect on personal lives of people as a recent survey showed that 40% of the divorces are among social networking site users.
The biggest threat is for the misuse of photos and data privacy. It was all about the primary effects of the social networking sites but the secondary problems highlighted by the American Psychological Association Report that teenagers who use facebook more often show narcissistic tendencies, antisocial behaviours and aggressive tendencies has gained an upperhand.
It is only because of the over-use of social networking sites that youngsters suffer from anxiety, depression and many other psychological disorders.
Social networking sites reduce the real human contact and those who are active on social sites seem not to have enough time for the real life interactions.
The real life interaction rate has been lowered by the social networking sites and people love to spend time on networking sites than dealing with relations face to face.
Its one effect is on our language and creative writing skills. The Facebook or SMS language is common term language used on social networking sites.
It affects our socialization making us more isolated and alienated from society. People waste a lot of time on social networking sites which could otherwise be used for the development and progress of humanity.
Health issues are also the matter of concern. Drug addiction and social networking addiction can be equalized in its effect on the health of the addicted.
There is always a proper time and management of things. The unwanted and uncensored things get exposed to our young ones which ultimately have negative effect on their development and bring them up as antisocial elements for the society.
Too much personal information pose a threat to one’s security which make people prone to exploitation and harassment. Bullying and cyber crimes are also the products of social networking sites.
There are many positive aspects of the social networking sites but that need a proper guidance from parents and censorship of various things.
This might be the darker side of the coin but a fact which we ignore and will have a long lasting effect on our social world which is very important to one’s over all well-being.
( The author is research scholar, Aligarh Muslim University. Send your contributions to [email protected] )
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