Pros and Cons

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Online social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, Friendster etc.) do not help us make more genuine close friends


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online social networking sites help us to maintain our friendships with friends
ForAgainst
  • social networking sites help us to keep connecting with our friends all over the world with whom regular face-to-face meeting is difficult
  • online social networking sites allow us to send multiple messages to friends and help organize different functions with friends 
     

  
social networking sites help us to collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances all over the world
ForAgainst

  
though the numbers of friends we have on those sites can be massive, the actual number of close friends is usually the same in the face to face real world
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users of those online social networking sites can at least keep in touch with a wider network of casual acquaintances than those who don't use it
ForAgainst
  • instead of replacing "quality" communication with superficial messaging, online networking facilitates light communication where there wouldn't have been any 
     

  
a person's conventional friendship group consists of ~150 people, with 5 very close friends but larger no. of people who we keep in touch with less regularly
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scientists have suggested this figure is determined by our cognitive constraints of keeping up with large numbers of people
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  • larger numbers of close friends require too much brain effort to keep track of 
     

  
by looking at others' profile on the social networking sites, we can meet people with similar interests, and develop genuine friendships with them
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such friendship is not sustainable, as face-to-face contact, which is always necessary to form truly close friendships, is lacking in the picture
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meeting people through online social networking sites helps initiate new friendships that are to be developed in the future
ForAgainst
  • 1/3 of teens surveyed say they are considering meeting face-to-face with someone they've met from the internet and 14% say they've already had such an encounter 
     

  
having an online profile on at least one of those social networking sites is a must for maintaining friendship these days
ForAgainst
  • setting up online personal profile on social networking sites is so popular nowadays, people expect their friends to have one just as they do 
     

  
social networking sites can be obstacles to the development of friendships between strangers or to the reinforcement of already established friendships
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social networking sites allow us to know more about our friends and deepen our mutual understandings with them, thus reinforcing friendships
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online social networking sites allow users to put information about themselves, and shares their daily lives with friends, such as the music they are listening
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  • online personal profiles social networking sites can be deceptive 

  
people can say things or comment on people in a usually more hurtful way that they won't say face-to-face through online social networking sites
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  • this indeeds allows us to speak truthfully about ourselves and our friends, which is crucial to the healthy development of friendship 

  
the problem is particularly distinct among unknown students studying in the same school that are going to meet each other
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the use of online social networking sites adds a complicated dimension to budding relationships among college dorm roommates
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online personal profiles set up by the students may create preconceptions among or distorted images of themselves
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people can easily develop their own idea about a person after seeing the pictures, information, friends' comments on that person's online profile
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  • false opinions are not the unique products of online social networking, they are common even between friends who know each other for a long time 

  
users can easily grow tired of what once was novel, and refrain from putting effort to maintain an active social life on online social networking sites
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social networking fatigue is a common phenomenon among online social networking sites users
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social networking sites have steadily attracted more people these years, according to Nielsen/NetRatings
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traffic to almost all popular social networking sites fell between August and September 2006
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  • MySpace's audience dropped from 49.2m to 47.2m; Facebook from 8.9m to 7.8m ; Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces from 8.2m to 7.8m 
  • the decline may come as an increasing number of sites compete for attention, which means in general popularity of online social networking still increases
  • the losses might be due to the fact that students are returning to school 

  
people usually join a lot of those social networking sites but seldom keep up with them
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users can easily grow tired of what once was novel, and refrain from putting effort to maintain an active social life on online social networking sites
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  • users feel bombarded by unsolicited messages, friend requests and advertisements on those online social networking sites