BECKENHAM: Are Social Networking Sites Damaging? (From News Shopper)

BECKENHAM: Are Social Networking Sites Damaging?

7:06pm Monday 15th March 2010 in

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Do YOU have a Facebook account? What about Bebo? Myspace? Twitter?

All of the above?

The amount, and indeed the appeal, of social networking sites such as these have increased dramatically over the past few years. It seems that everyone, whatever age they are, wherever they live and whatever they do, has to have at least one account on a social networking site.

Statistics show that as of the 5th February, 2010, Facebook has over 400 million users. This had increased from 350 million only two months before, and shows that whatever faults Facebook may have, people all over the world are still flocking to sign up and become a part of the phenomenon.

But what about the other social networking sites? Sites such as Bebo, which has seen a decline in users since Facebook became popular, but is still the second largest social networking site in the UK, are struggling to regain the power which they once held. Bebo saw an increase of over 50% after a recent re design, but many people, including a fair amount of teenagers, consider it to be redundant for their needs now that Facebook has such a hold over the nation.

So there are endless amounts of social networking sites, and their demand is increasing all the time. But, as more and more people sign up to them, is there a chance that they could become addictive and even damaging?

A survey showed that 20% of parents were worried about the amount of time that their children spent on networking sites, and worries about addiction and long term damage have begun to surface.

So is a site such as Facebook just harmless fun? Or can there be serious issues with it, and the amount of time spent on it? What do you think?