Thinking Twice About Social Networking Websites

People have established varying relationships with technology. Some rely on it for the purposes of financial gain, while others use it for social networking and Internet dating. There are many people who would prefer to seek love on the Internet, rather than conducting a search in real life (by which method they would have a better chance of interacting with people).

Imagine this: I am sitting in a classroom, sending text messages to my Facebook friends and writing on their walls. By doing this, I am not interacting with and paying more attention to the students around me, and, as a result, I am not befriending new people. In my opinion, the Internet does not fill the gap between people—instead, it simply enlarges the distance between to a greater degree.

I have more than one hundred people on my list of friends on Facebook, but in the real world, there are less than five people with whom I regularly hang out. Although there are people who regularly interact with me on Facebook, many of them ignore me in real life, which is quite odd. I suppose the new culture is developing new methods of social and physiological interaction, which might not be very beneficial to human beings.

In reference to the idea of Internet dating, I believe that individuals who engage in such behavior exhibit weakness—they choose to hide behind monitors while expressing their feelings and chatting with anonymous people (who are generally oblivious to the legitimacy, physical status and psychological status of the individuals with whom they speak).

A friend of mine once began an Internet relationship with an individual who resided in France. Without even seeing him, she fell in love with him and decided to travel to his country to finally visit him. However, she shockingly discovered the fact that he was 27 years older than her, which was a fact that he had hidden from her.

I believe that people should become fully aware of the potential disadvantages of Internet dating and social networking. They should not allow the Internet to overwhelm and control their lives; people

need to try to develop their personal relationships, especially in places like schools and places of work, where real people actually exist. After all, technology is supposed to be accessible for the human pleasure, not dissatisfaction.