Social Internet Networks are they the greatest thing ever created or the biggest hassle of everyday life?

It seems that in today’s world everyone and their pet has some form of a social internet account, whether it is Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Connexions, Hi5 etc.  It doesn’t matter, a profile has been created somewhere by everyone who has touched a keyboard.

There are even grandparents and parents setting up accounts now.  Why not?  It is better than email, and as easy to use as a text message since most people have mobile alerts now.  It is such a huge part of everyday life, that even the names of those sites have become verbs and nouns used everyday.  For instance, “I’ll facebook you later,” or “I’ll post that on MySpace,” are phrases used almost daily, in my life.  It is a great way to stay connected with people from your past, but is being connected that easily too hundreds of people, safe and a great tool; or is it borderline addiction and dangerous?

When I was introduced to MySpace a few years ago I thought it was great!  I could sign on, send my friends pictures and e-mails, right from my own personal page, and then I started finding old classmates.  This was great too, since I moved around a lot, and spent my Jr. high years in a different country and then went to a private school, I had lost contact with many people, and it was fun to find them and catch up again.  When I’m really bored I’ll play games with my friends online, it is definitely a major part of my daily life.

However, there is always a down side to that as well.  With the addition of hundreds of friends, comes the massive amount of internet SPAM, and people hacking other accounts, and then there are the people that create fake accounts to cause harm and post hurtful things.  It is disappointing, people should have better things to do, than ruin and waste other people’s time. However, there is always a down side to that as well.  With the addition of hundreds of friends, comes the massive amount of internet SPAM, and people hacking other accounts, and then there are the people that create fake accounts to cause harm and post hurtful things.  It is disappointing, people should have better things to do, than ruin and waste other people’s time.

For new users out there, be careful with what you are posting on your own personal pages, for instance don’t post stuff that would disgrace your parents or your employer. Just because it’s on your account and password protected doesn’t mean that others can’t find a way to see your private things.  I have many friends that have even deleted accounts after college, in order to start their job search.  Once things are on the Internet it is hard to get away from them, and companies don’t want to be represented by party animals and weekend morons or by people who are writing slanderous things towards peers and posting particular slurs aimed at groups of people.  I think my biggest complaint about it, is how easy it is to set one up, people are using false names of others and then posting things without any consequences. 

The Internet is a fun and useful tool, but user be wary, if it is mistreated it will come back and bite you.