Pros and Cons of Social Media

One of the pros of social networking is that social networking sites facilitate face-to-face interaction. People use social media at in-network events and get to know people before personal business or other meetings. (1) I can agree with this statement because more times than likely, the first way of communicating that goes on between me and someone I'm interested in but never met before happens on social networking firsthand. A con of social networking is that social media causes people to spend less time interacting face-to-face. The percentage of people reporting less face-to-face time with family in their homes rose from 8% in 2000 to 34% in 2011. (2) I see more and more of this in my home as well. Most of the time when my both my sister and I are home, we spend more time on our phones then actually socializing with each other or our parents. I also see a lot of social media usage at the dinner table, and my parents are guilty of this as well.

My second source connecting to the con of social networking, in my opinion, is the most reliable of the two. I believe this because it is coming straight from a schools website.This means that the data was probably student based and tested, not just random numbers thrown out. My first source seems like its reliable based on how well I can relate to it, but I am not for sure how good of a source it actually is.

1. Morgan, "5 Ways Social Media Can Facilitate Offline Networking," www.sociableboost.com, May 8, 2012.
2. USC Annenburg School Center for the Digital Future, "Special Report: America at the Digital Turning Point," www. annenburg.usc.edu, January, 2012.