1. Good morning honourable adjudicator, time keeper, my
beloved team, my beloved opponent and member of the
House. Let me introduce myself and my teammate. I’m
VIMALAN SON OF SELVARAJU as first speaker;
ASHIMAH BT ASHAMUDDIN as second speaker; and
the last, TAI WEI YAO as third speaker
Well, audiences...
Our motion today is Social Networking Sites Have
Adverse Effects On social Graces.
A social networking service is an online services,
platform, or site that focuses on facilitating the building
of social networks or social relations among people who,
for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or
real-life connections.
Two little words - "social networking" - have become a
giant buzz phrase over the past couple of years.
According to e-marketer, global social networking
revenues will exceed $10 billion 2013.
Most social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter,
Tumblr, and many others offer their services to members
for free, yet still net significant income. In fact,
according to Mashable Business, Facebook earned $1.6
billion in revenues in the first half of 2011, and was on
pace to achieve more than $3 billion in revenues by year
end. If the services are free, then, how do social
networking websites earn such staggering sums of
money?
The answer is that you, the social network user, is the
product these online giants sell to generate revenue.
According to BBC News, social networking sites are
uniquely positioned to make money by matching people
to products. Social networking can result in negative
outcomes, some with long-term consequences. Social
networking like Facebook, Twitter, playing games and
chatting can be harmful for others.
Honourable judges, teachers, friends & worthy
opponents, I would like to give my points for the subject
"effects of social networking sites ".
One of the issue associated with social networking is
cyberbullying. Cyberbullying involves the use of
information and communication technologies such as e-
mail, instant messaging, and personal websites to

2. support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an
individual or group , that is intended to harm others.
There have been some surveys done in the United States
to get a better understanding of just how many students
are being cyber-bullied, and how many students are
cyber-bullying themselves. 1566 students from grades
four to eight were surveyed to find out their experiences
with bullying online. Cyber-bullying has spread widely
among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been
victims, according to a 2010 CBS News report.
Over a 34% of young people have felt depressed because
of something they have seen on a social network site and
14% have been victims of cyber bullying, according to a
YouGov survey commissioned by the Prince’s Trust.
Young woman are more likely to be negatively affected
by posts they have been seen on social networks.
Research had demonstrated a number of serious
consequences of cyberbullying victimization.
Victims have lower self-esteem, increased suicidal
ideation, and a variety of emotional responses,
retaliating, being scared, frustrated, angry and depressed.
Cyberbullying are sometimes so damaging that victims
have commited suicide. An example is on 17th
October
2006, Megan Taylor Meier, who was an American
teenager committed suicide by hanging three weeks
before her 14th
birthday. Her suicide was attributed to
cyberbullying on MySpace by her friend’s mother, Lori
Drew
Another issue associated with social networking is
encourage the poor use of grammar and also spellings, as
students mostly use slang or shortened forms of words.
students and the general public are beginning to embrace
shortened "text-speak" as part of an overall trend of
using bad grammar, bad punctuation and bad spelling–
all for the sake of convenience and speed. In speaking to
students, we often see that the shorthand used in social
media and texting can be carried over into the classroom.
Brandon Kessock, a high school freshman, said he's
experienced an overlap. "he get so used to texting that he
mess up a lot of easy words. Using twitter as an

3. example, twitter limits its users to the use of 140
characters; therefore users will have no other option than
to abbreviate their words as much as they can, just to
enable their thoughts fit into the 140 character
provision.“There is, after all, only so much information
that can be obtained in 140 characters.
While the option to dig deeper may be present through
embedded links in Tweets, for example, there may be
little reward in pursuing those connections for
students.”. As a result of the excessive use of
abbreviated words and slang by students on social
networks, they start to rely on the computer grammar
and spell checkers on their devices. This results in the
reduction of their command over English language and
also their writing skills.
Ladies And Gentlemen ,
A huge advantage of these social communities has a
reverse side effect that is also a big disadvantage of
social networking : they reduce or eliminate face-to-face
socialization. Because of the autonomy afforded by the
virtual world, individuals are free to create a fantasy
persona and can pretend to be someone else. It is hard to
say no, be rude, or ignore someone when you are
looking them in the eye. It's incredibly easy and quick to
unfriend or unfollow someone or simply block their
efforts to make a connection.
Just one click of the mouse and your problems are over.
Unfortunately, this feature of online socialization cheats
people of the opportunity to learn how to resolve
conflicts in the world outside the Internet and it could
retard or cripple one's social skills developments. Teens
are at higher risk because those years are when they are
learning to interact with others or build and maintain
relationships.
A report from the National School Boards
Association shows that of the children in these age
groups that use a social network, 41 percent spend their
time posting messages. They are not spending this time
in face-to-face interactions with their peers or others nor
are they developing the necessary social skills for future
success.