The Side Effect of Online Social Networks.............

The side effect of Online Social Networking.............Social Dysfunction.

With all this technology, and the increased demands on peoples lives there has been little thought, in my view to what if any of the side effects there might be to all the social networking that people do online. Side effects? What side effects you ask. Well one for one with the increasing use of technology for communicating people are less, and less relying of face to face communication to interact with others. In most extreme cases of this notion people are side by side busy texting each other rather than actually talk each other. In this case it's easier to hide behind the smart phone or Blackberry device to communicate rather face to face. Such is often the case when it comes to communicating via online social networks. People are able to hide behind their PC's to communicate or “friend someone”, or even “like” someone or some organization. The biggest disadvantage to all this online social networking is the fact the people loose the ability to confront or deal with others in person. This becomes another cost that society will in turn have to pay in the form of companies having to have training sessions for their employee's in how to deal with others. We might even might to make personal conflict training a of the public school curriculum. Whether it's online or in the class room we might have to teach the next generation how to interact with others in person rather than try and seclude themselves behind a computer screen. In the worst case scenario people seclude themselves either in their homes or apartments, and limit their face to face contact with others to times that they go to store for groceries. Though in time this notion of going to the store for groceries might become out dated too. Thus because of online social networks the dysfunction of people in society will only increase. Or rather let me rephrase it. The number of people with a social dysfunction will increase because they will not have developed the skills to properly interact with live people, as opposed to virtual people who inhabit the those same virtual worlds in which they too traverse.

Eric