The down side of social networking

The amount of ‘social’ engagement that takes place on a day-to-day basis is large because individuals engage with so many people through hand-held, lap-laid and desk-dormant devices that it would be hard to imagine there being a social recluse among these avid online community members.

But on the opposite end of all the emoticons and exaggerated expressions, not everyone is laughing out loud. Some are being ridiculed, stalked online and even pressured into getting involved in unbefitting behaviour.

Parents were once the ones who were oblivious to this networking innovation and strongly discouraged and even policed its use, during the infamous age of mxit.

Now parents are creating Facebook accounts, adding their children and peers on BBM, simultaneously staying connected on all platforms. All this has done, is blurred the line between convenience through technology and following down-spiraling normalised social trends.

There have been instances of cyber bullying, kidnappings and tragically, even murder cases, all brought on and supplemented by social networks.

The way this new generation finds it appealing to share, expose and invite people into their lives through social media has been alarming. Youngsters pushing their parents to buy them cellphones and all sorts of high end mobile devices, so they can stay more current and produce higher quality insight into their identity and lives.

This infectious and regularly promoted practice is making privacy a thing of the past as more and more people, young and old, sign up to showcase their lives to ‘friends’ and strangers alike.

The innovations of the future have truly figured out how to keep us closely apart. The negative practicality of these social networks has taken the fun out of these amazing mediums which keep people linked at all times.

Now, after all the applications that have been thought up, to use these networks to do wrong and effect others lives, through hacking of accounts, publicised pictures and nasty online fights, is the down side.

It really leaves nothing to the imagination when thoughts of what else could possibly go wrong when social networking is misused in such a dangerous manner.