Social Networks is the new “PRADA” for us girls and “MARC JACCOBS” for the boys, if you don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account than you are not my friend or you’re considered a “Loser”. For those who don’t know what Facebook and Twitter is then you are definitely from a different planet or have no friends to keep you updated. Facebook has nearly 850 million users worldwide and is known to be the largest encyclopaedia. Twitter is also an online social networking service and microblogging that enables its users to send and read text-based posts, known as tweets. They are also a communication and media distribution tool up-to-date ever created. It’s the simplest way to learn about someone or something and is public for all to see, meaning if aliens were to dominate planet earth it wouldn’t be because they have stronger weapons but it will be because we let them get to know us on Facebook and Twitter. Think about it, we let the whole world know who we are, who we’re dating or married to, what we eat and what we’re doing every second of every day. YES, some people make their pages private but that isn’t going to stop people hacking into our pages, let alone aliens morphing into us (that can just happen). Thanks a lot Mark Zuckerberg and the members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation for making me a Facebook and Twitter addict, and for allowing alien invaders into my life! The following points that will be covered in this essay are; what makes Facebook and Twitter so addictive? What are the pros and cons of social networking? What will we see in the future of Facebook and Twitter? And how can we prevent alien invasion from becoming a part of our lives?
Well first we are humans and it’s in our nature to let other people know what we are doing and how we feel, so it’s basically bragging about ourselves and what’s the best way in doing it but to go public and post it as a status or tweet and let the whole world get involved in our lives. This is why we are addicted to these social networks, it’s a direct tool that we can use to communicate we don’t need to call one friend at a time so they can pass the message on but can we let everyone know by just hitting the send or post button. Some may see it as an advantage or something positive, ‘pay less to get more attention’ meaning that you won’t need to spend a lot of money buying credit to text and call your friends, imagine if you had more than 100 friends? What a nightmare, especially if your parents top up your phones.
This brings me to my first point, why are we addicted to these social networks? It’s a faster and cheaper way of communicating, through online chatting especially if you want to be in contact with relatives and friends who live overseas. Not only that but we can make friends, also find friends that we have not been able to stay in contact with (for example your primary and intermediate friends). Other reasons will be to stalk famous people online since all the latest gossip and information is being updated every minute. On twitter we can ‘follow’ them but in order for us to do that we need to either subscribe or follow them so we know what they are thinking or what they are doing every now and then.
Moreover, what are the pros and cons of social networking? Well first let’s look at the pros of social networking, as stated before we can stay in contact with families that live overseas, we get to know what the latest news from all around the world is. Sometimes people don’t watch the news but they have updates from the statuses of those who like to post about what is happening on their side of the world. And this is how most of the news stories are being updated. Also businesses like to promote their daily specials they have to offer to people. And it’s an advantage that help people view what kind of products different businesses have, that way it can save them from jumping from different sites when all they can do is look up on Facebook or Twitter to get the best results. The cons would have to be bullying, known as cyberspace bully when kids or teenagers get bullied online from students from their school. This is common nowadays but it’s more popular when one of your friends hate someone and it will be easier to get to them on these social networks to abuse them. Also some people create fake pages and they can use those pages to befriend other people they don’t know. This can create cyber stalking and they can become obsessed over somebody and can cause harm to the people that are being stalked. Peoples pages can be hacked if you do not log off properly, this can cause other people to log in and can use your identity to fool other people and prank them. Example of this can be when someone hacks into a page and use another person’s identity to ask someone out and that someone might be your best friend.
What will we see in the near future for Facebook and Twitter? I can still remember when I would write letters to my friends overseas, and need to buy credit to call loved ones overseas now Facebook and Twitter are invented we can contact with them every day (depending on the times though). But of course it is obvious that these social networks are going to update their methods so more people can sign up with them. Maybe in the near future we might be able to talk face to face on Facebook and Twitter, like have something similar to Skype on the social networks instead of chat. Also there might be a possibility that group talks may be possible, instead of chatting to one person you can be able to video conference call on Facebook and Twitter, wouldn’t that be a great idea to be able to talk face to face with people from different countries?
And finally my last point, how can we prevent alien invasion from becoming a part of our lives? Easy, we can deactivate our accounts so our world wouldn’t come to an end. Everyone has become too dependent on these social networks that its part of our daily routine to go on and check our notifications. So if you don’t want aliens and other people to take over your life then stick to your emails.
In conclusion, although a lot of us love to spread or talk about our lives it’s safe to not post everything about yourself to the whole world. Also don’t let hackers take advantage of your page so make sure to log out properly before you get off a computer. And add only people that you do know on Facebook and twitter. That way you’re saving your identity from the world and help to scare the aliens away.
