Social Networking: Better Or Worse Than The Real Thing?

Introduction

Social networking is the communication of individuals employing technology. Examples of such are sites like Xanga, Myspace and Facebook. It permits people to discover one another and get linked without even having to meet face to face. Facebook has changed the way we communicate with each other. It has cut the remoteness between us and opened up fresh doors but at the same time, it stole our privacy and in a way isolated us. Now the problem is, is this good or bad. This analysis on social networking will discover the differentiations between “real” and technological networking in the social environment. The focal point will be on whether or not social networking employing technology is better than face-to-face social communication.

Discussion

Over the past few years a great deal of media attention has been given to online social networking, especially networking Web sites heavily used by teens, such as MySpace and Facebook. Many people believe that the growing use of these sites is causing changes in the nature of social relationships that will, perhaps, have a profound effect on society. The question of whether this new form of relationship is good or bad has become increasingly controversial.

Social networking activities — including sites, blogs, chats, forums and wikis - are emerging to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing among adult online learners. The loneliness of the Web 1.0 is passé and the read-only, passive mode of adult learning is fading away. The term Web 2.0 has been used to describe all the new applications useful for a new collaborative or social approach to sharing and repurposing Web content to learn. Just as communities were important in prehistoric times, today online communities are an inherent and critical part of the Web learning experience. Implicit in most Web 2.0+ applications are social activities which help users network, share, create content, seek or research information, or contribute and interact with others. Youthful online learners are a driving force in this new social change, a change that adults can learn from and embrace. Our young Web users find technology is second nature and are unconsciously changing the paradigm of online learning as they communicate and socialize in a variety of new ways on the Web. Many adults are already following this trend. However, these ways of learning can only become mainstream only when many more adults who are responsible for adult learners learn to use the host of networking tools available. Moodle is an example of a popular open source application used successfully by many around the world. Understanding how to support collaborative online learning activities successfully can offer a huge leap towards greater online learning confidence, contribution and achievement. More is yet to come to change the paradigm of online learning and social networking in the future. (Boyd, 28)

Social networking sites have sparked a revolution of how people connect to friends, family, and "friends"—relative strangers, friends of a friend, or people with shared interests suggested by the ...