Impact of Social Networking on Indian Youth

Introduction:

Social media is a really convenient and important communication network for all the people nowadays.

We can use it to know friends and keep contact with friends that came from different countries. We can

also share our ideas so quickly so that all the things could develop so fast because people could tell

us their ideas and we could improve it immediately. We could also learn new things on social media by

watching or reading the things that people shared onto social media. People could also sell things on

social media freely which could reduce the expenditure of advertisements. 

There are more advantages for using social media; however, there are always advantages and

disadvantages for a thing. As social media is too convenient for people, almost most of them don't

even have to 'speak out' to communicate with people. No longer, people will lose their communication

skills. The more serious problem is many people utilized the power of social media and used it to bully

someone. The power of social media is also the same as the one in real life.  A global media survey

report on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ presented statistics as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Social networking statistics

Social  media	Active users	Daily users	Leaders	15-34 ages	Indian users
Facebook	171 billion	113 billion	169	91%	142 million
Twitter	320 million	4.5 million	139	79%	28.5 million
LinkedIn	450 million	100 million	930	56%	37 million
Google+	300 million	1.6 million	89	83%	10 million

The increased use of social networking culture and social networking sites by youth has helped bring

friends and family closer for those living in distant locations, low additional cost of connectivity,
sharing information, voicing opinions and updating each other on happenings in their lives.

Social Networking Aspects:

There are many positive aspects of social networking, but there are equally as many dangers and

negative aspects that come with the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+,

Instagram, gaming sites, and blogs.

 1 Positive Aspect:  Some of the positives arising from social networking are listed in Table 2.

 2 Negative Aspects: Some of the negatives arising from social networking are listed in Table 3.

Table 2: Social networking Positive Aspects

Education	- Helps in better collaboration and communication between teachers and students;  - Access to online resources helps students to learn better, faster;  - Student grades improved along with reduced absenteeism in online sessions;  - Educational topics and school assignments being discussed on social sites.
Awareness	- Information dissemination is faster than any media  - breaking news spreads fast;  - Access to previously inaccessible resources for academic research;  - Helps inform and empower individuals to change them.
Social benefits	- Social media allow people to communicate with friends and this increased online communication strengthens those relationships, friendships; - People making new friends - 57% online teens report making new friends online. - Helped find and keep in touch with friends who are geographically far off.
Job - Opportunities	- Great for marketing professionals - connect and find business opportunities. - Employers find candidates and the unemployed find work faster. - Social media sites have created thousands of ecommerce jobs, new avenues.

Other more...

Table 3: Social networking Negative Aspects

Lack of Privacy	- Young people often give out personal information when online without reading the fine print privacy policies and unaware about misuse by third parties.  - Exposure to corporate and governmental intrusions  - Insurance companies use information gleaned from social media. - Online advertising policies are an invasion of privacy. If clicked”like” for a brand, browser cookies give the company information and access about personal information and preferences.
Users Vulnerable to Crime	- Cyber-attacks like ransomware, hacking, identity theft and phishing are common problems faced by end users. - Criminals browse social media to know user whereabouts and are known to commit crimes when away on vacation
Social Detriment	- Less time for face-to-face interaction with loved ones. - Youngsters are prone to feeling isolated, disconnected from real world and face higher risks of depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders - Cyber-bullying or use of electronic communication to bully someone by sending intimidating or threatening messages is commonplace online. This causes emotional trauma and sometimes even leads to suicide
Misinformation	Enables the spread of false rumors and unreliable information: - Self-diagnosis of health problems and following amateur medical advice; - Befriending someone to gain information;  - Revealing reconnaissance data unknowingly to the public;

Other more….

Time spent on social media sites,

Conclusion:

Social media changed our life so much. Our life became more convenient because social media is

a very useful tool for us in the 21st century, it could help us to improve our life. However, we have

to be aware of how we use them. If we could use social media smartly, having social media will

become a good change for us.