Social networking has become very popular in the past few years and whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, or even Instagram, people’s social skills are becoming worse thanks to these social network sites and texting. All these options to indirectly talk make people increasingly more socially awkward. Some people think “who needs social skills” when there is social networking and this is not ok. More and more people are losing their sense of how to interact with people in person because they’re so focused on the latest social networking sites. It seems like people nowadays have to try harder to live up to the person they’ve created online rather than who they really are in person.

As addicting as they are, social networking sites are bringing down society. People’s social skills are weakening. It’s hard to hold a conversation with someone now that isn’t texting someone, tweeting or updating their Facebook status.

Sure, lots of people rely on their cell phones for lots of things, however, it’s still rude when there is a conversation needing to be carried out and someone is so absorbed in what’s going on in the social networking world that no attention is being paid to what’s being said.

There are also dangerous aspects of social networking sites. There is no way to tell who’s really who online. Students get bullied all the time online and there’s nothing anyone can really do to stop it. Sure, presentations can be given in schools about why it’s bad and why it should be stopped but there’s really nothing anyone can do because there will always be those people who decide to “live above the law” so to speak. People tend to think they can do whatever they want online because it doesn’t affect anyone and they won’t be punished for their bad choices. Social networking can also be dangerous for obvious reasons dealing with adults trying to contact young children.

While there are downsides to social networking, they can also be very helpful and used for helpful things. Facebook, for example, can help people reconnect with each other and can help with coordinating events and parties with the groups feature. But, let’s be honest, they’re so addicting.

It’s undecided whether or not social networking has become a good or bad thing but the public sure seems to love them.