With the profound groundbreaking invention of the internet, social networking sites have become an indispensable part of each individual’s lifestyle. It is stated that a proportion of people spend their time chatting online with their peers rather than attending face to face social meetings. While there are certain benefits of online interaction, there are a number of drawbacks that should be mentioned too.
On the one hand, social networking sites provide the opportunity to interact with people from different corners of the world. In other words. Individuals can arrange a variety of online meetings when the chance to hang out is out of option due to distance, work obligations or time scarcity. Particularly, for high school students who choose to study abroad and wish to stay in touch with their friends, it is a great tool to do so. Furthermore, people with health problems and disabilities can have endless online chatting with other persons just with a click of a button. For instance, hospitals and clinics supply the patients with devices to come in contact with their beloved people, in order to prevent the transmission of hazardous diseases. Hence, with the use of online chatting, both patients and surrounding people are positively impacted.
On the other hand, people cease to develop essential social skills when they talk online. Precisely, they lose the sense of communication and the ability to express themselves naturally as they replace their feelings with digital expressions behind a keyboard and a screen. Based on recent data, the majority of young people nowadays, are unable to express themselves when confronted with their peers and prefer the avoidance of social interaction. Additionally, a list of health problems are developed due to the sedentary lifestyle. Even though people enjoy having online conversations or playing online games, they forget to maintain a healthy physical status. Not only do they become obese but also develop subsequent conditions that put their health in compromise. Therefore, while they become addicted to online chatting, a variety of serious health conditions arise that could have detrimental results.
Taking everything into consideration, social online networking can yield both positive and negative impacts on the users. In my opinion, I believe that the flaws outweigh the advantages as online use can become easily uncontrollable with catastrophic consequences.