A presentation on Social Networking - a boon or bane? The presentation takes a person through the history of social networking - how people interact today as compared to earlier times and mentions the social networks used by today's generation. Then it reviews the advantages and disadvantages of Social Networking and follows up with some Do's and Don'ts.

1. Social Media & Networking
Boon or Bane?

2. What is it?!
• Social Relation or social interaction, as described in social
science, is any relationship that exists between two or more
individuals.
• Social Network is a social structure made up of a set of social
actors (such as individuals or organizations) and a set of the
dyadic, i.e. two-way ties between these actors.
• Social Networking is the grouping of individuals into specific
groups like small communities or neighborhood subdivisions.
Although social networking is possible in person, especially in
the workspace, universities, and high schools, it is most
popular online.
• Social Networking Service (SNS) is a platform to build social
networks or social relations among people who share
interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.
• Social Media is the interaction among people in which they
create, share or exchange information and ideas in virtual
communities and networks.
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3. A Brief History in Time
- Social Networks have been supported via computer-
mediated communication since early online services,
including Usenet, the ARPANET, ListServe and Bulletin
Board Services (BBS).
- Many prototypical features of today’s social networking
sites were also present in early web services such as
generalized online communities and forums.
- Focus was on bringing people together to interact with
each other through chat rooms.
- Users were encouraged to share personal information
and ideas via personal webpages by providing easy-to-
use publishing tools and free or inexpensive web space.
- User profiles became a central feature of social
3networking websites, allowing users to compile lists of
“friends” and search for other users with similar interests.
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5. Types of Social Networking
I. Social Networks – These are the most popular way of social
networking in the world today. Services that allow users to connect
with other people of similar interests and background. Usually they
consist of a user profile, various ways to interact with other users,
ability to set up groups and much more. The most used social
networks are Facebook and LinkedIn.
II. Social Media Sharing – Services that allow you to upload and
share various media such as pictures and video. Most services
have additional social features such as profiles, commenting, likes
or dislikes. A majority of these sites run strong recommender
systems and make extensive use of machine learning. The most
popular are YouTube, Flickr and Vimeo.
III. Microblogging – Social networks focused on short updates that are
continuously pushed out to anyone subscribed to receive the updates or followers.
The most popular services are Twitter and Sina Weibo of China.
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6. IV. Social News – Services that allow people to post various news
items or links to outside articles and then allows it’s users to “vote” or
“upvote” on the items. This voting is the core social aspect as the item
with the most votes are displayed most prominently. Hence, the
community decides which news items get seen by more people. The
most popular are Digg and Reddit.
V. Bookmarking Sites – These are services that allow people
to save, organize and manage links to various websites and
resources around the internet. These links can then be tagged
to make them easy to search and share. Most commonly used
are Delicious, StumbleUpon, Pocket and FlipBoard.
VI. Blog Communities & Forums – Online forums allow members to
hold conversations by posting messages. There have been sites
which have become social networks for Blogs and forums. The most
popular are Tumblr and Pinterest.
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7. Personalized Social Networking
A form of social networking made famous by instant messaging applications
on mobile devices. Initially led by BBM, the kind became widespread when
WhatsApp burst on the scene. Google’s Hangouts is used for group chats
and video conferencing. Skype is used for making internet calls while
Yammer is used for Office chats.
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A great personal ephemeral app is Snapchat which overcomes the privacy
issues by deleting your photo and video messages after a particular
amount of time, generally ten seconds. Foursquare is another unique
mobile app which classifies places in real-time based on their locations.

8. The Internet Effect
Why social networking is explosive on the Web?
The Internet is a global channel uniquely propositioned for mass
communication between people living in different parts of the
world.
i. Reach – The Internet has the potential to reach everyone
connected to the web in just a matter of hours, and on a
massive scale. Charlie Sheen had 900,000 followers in just
under 24 hours
ii. Simultaneity of Reception – The ability to transmit messages
to your audience at the same point of time as receiving a
query or request.
iii. Anonymity – It’s the only place on Earth where the sender and
the receiver can remain truly anonymous in a heterogeneous
group of people.
iv. Dual Outreach – The Internet can be adapted for both narrow
and mass audience depending on the individual’s needs. You
can send a private text or broadcast a message to the whole
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9. Mobile Meets Social
Why Mobile is better for Social Networking?
• Smartphones: The growing ubiquity of cell phones,
especially the rise of smartphones, has made social
networking just a finger tap away.
• Location-free: The main reason for social networking
growth on the mobile platform is its availability on the
go. People can now connect to the web wherever
they want and not just in the comfort of their homes
or at the office.
• Anytime: Another major advantage for social
networking on mobile is that its available whenever
you want and not just while you’re sitting on a
computer.
• Cross-Platform: Since social networking is internet
enabled, it doesn’t matter whether an app exists or
not. It works on all mobile devices irrespective of the
version or operating system.
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10. Social Benefits to Mankind
Government Applications
• Quick and easy way for the government to get public opinion.
• NASA has also taken advantage of a few social networking tools,
including Twitter and Flickr to aid the Review of U.S. Human Space
Flight Plans Committee
• Government also uses social media to inform of Earthquakes before
they happen, ex-When a 5.9-magnitude earthquake shook the
Northeast in 2011, many New Yorkers learned about it on Twitter -
seconds before the shaking actually started.
Business Applications
• Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial
for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contact
bases.
• Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of
banners and text
• Brand networking is a new way to capitalize on social trends as a
marketing tool
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11. Dating applications
• Many social networks provide an online environment for people to
communicate and exchange personal information for dating
purposes.
• Social networks do not necessarily have to be for dating; many
users simply use it for keeping in touch with friends, and colleagues
• However, an important difference between social networks and
online dating services is the fact that online dating sites usually
require a fee, where social networks are free.
• The number of Internet users in the United States that visit online
dating sites has fallen from a peak of 21% in 2003 to 10% in 2006
Educational applications
• The National School Brands Association reports that almost 60% of students
who use social networking talk about educational topics online, and more than
50% specifically about schoolwork.
• Social networks are also emerging as online yearbooks, both public and private.
• Sites are being built to foster relationships that include educational blogs, e-
portfolios, formal and ad hoc communities, as well as communication.
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12. Medical & Health Applications
• A new trend is emerging with social networks created to help its members with
various physical and mental ailments.
• For alcoholics and addicts, SoberCircle gives people in recovery the ability to
communicate with one another and strengthen their recovery through the
encouragement of others who can relate to their situation.
• Some social networks aim to encourage healthy lifestyles in their users.
Social & Political Applications
• Social networking sites have recently been of immense value in
heralding social and political movements.
• Activists have credited social networking sites with providing a
platform for planning protest and sharing news.
• By presenting a platform for thousands of people to instantaneously
share videos of events featuring brutality, social networking can be a
vital tool in starting revolutions on a large scale.
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13. Marketing
• Social Media Marketing is a trial and error business, so
it would be advisable to put into place experiments
and do a lot of research before putting all of your eggs
into the Twitter basket!
• A success story is Dell and their recent Internet
Marketing strategy. Their outlet site sells refurbished
PCs, and they post details about the newest ones on
their Twitter feed. The company has generated
$6.5million in revenue from this venture.
Entertainment
• Going hand in hand with the ‘social’ element of Social Networking,
people sometimes go on purely for entertainment purposes.
• The newest craze is on Facebook, where all the game applications
that have appeared over the last couple of years. The most popular
of these is a game called Farmville which has managed to acquire
72.9 MILLION users per month.
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14. Other Advantages
• Social Networking can be a powerful engine for job
searches.
• Social networking can be used to counteract terrorism and
organized crime
• Social networking can be used to memorialize and honor
dead persons to keep memories and history that would
otherwise fade alive.
• Social networking can be used to get difficult personal
issues out of the closet in front of others so they can be
examined and evaluated, and people in trouble can garner
support from their friends.
• Social networking can provide an extremely accessible
medium for self expression to those with access to
computer technology.
• Through Social Networking, students can establish contact
with entrepreneurs, corporate people and can gain valuable
information from them.
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15. Man’s “Social” Misfortune
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Privacy Concerns
• Think once before you publish something online.
• These give rise to issues like Cyber bullying or
Internet harassment.
• Scientists consider internet privacy (or the lack of it)
one of today's serious social issues.
• Sociologists believe there is a need for legislation
concerning social networking privacy.
• The laws would help but public awareness is also
very important.
• The question is - Has it become necessary to
constantly be on guard?

16. Cyber Bullying
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• Cyberbullies post damaging information on
blogs or websites.
• They might steal a classmate's online name
and spread lies or write hateful comments
about them.
• Being embarrassed has a detrimental effect
on a person's self-esteem.
• A story was on internet where stalking-type
emails were sent to a 16-year old, who
ended up committing suicide.
• At least a dozen suicides have been linked
to internet harassment in just the last few
years.
• Published information from the National
Crime Prevention Council indicates that half
of all American teens are bullied online.
Cyber Bullying, is a form of harassment that
makes use of the latest electronic technology.
Primarily the harassment occurs on the web,
but today's smart phones are being used to
harass people, too.

17. Disinformation on Social Sites
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Many people are confused by what they see
or read on social networks like Facebook and
media sites.
• How to know the truth?
• How to spot the liar?
The answer :
• To be Skeptical
• When see a story, look for more reliable
sources.
• Non-Journalistic sources should have
some kind of verifiable credentials.
Think before Click!
• A post on Facebook that seems incredible,
Google before you click!
• Some posts are designed to send viruses
to the system you are working on.

18. Psychological Ill-Effects
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• With increasing popularity, people have been
spending an excessive amount of time on the
social networking sites. And Internet addiction has
become an actual clinical disorder.
• Sites like Facebook and Twitter may provide
people with a false sense of connection that
ultimately increases loneliness in people and can
foster feelings of sensitivity to disconnection.
• Networking activities that do not facilitate face-to-
face interactions tend to erode trust and
negatively affect subject’s well being.
• High online interaction leads to loss of social skills.
• A sizeable portion of the online population (about
28%) doe end up having a negative experience,
some leaving scars for life.

19. Other Disadvantages
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• Negative impact on employability – People may end up losing jobs
because of exposing inappropriate content
• Trolling – defacement of deceased person(s) tribute pages, name
calling, playing online pranks on volatile individuals
• Workers’ Rights – The types of speech on social networks which the
workers are protected from being fired for.
• Virtual Identity Suicide – Due to the privacy issues and negative
aspects of social networks, people decide to kill their online
identities and maintain complete abstinence.
• Break-ups – Sites such as Facebook are increasingly becoming
popular tools for ending relationships or blocking the other
individual
• The dark side of Social Networking Service (SNS) usage is called
“Social Overload”, which is cause by the extent of usage, number of
friends, subjective social support forms, and type of relationship
(online-only vs offline friends) while age only has an indirect effect.

20. Do’s & Don’ts on Social Networks
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21. Thank You
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