Leets look at the positive of Social Networking. Thanks to it people can show who they really are, where in reality they are affraid to do so. They talk to the people that in normal life they don't or can't. They reveal thair true identities. Also social Networking is good for comunicating with your friends that are far away or that it is not possible to communicate with them in any other way. In Second Life people interact with other people virtually and they can be whoever they want to be. Disabled people can "live" in the Second Life world without any disabilities. Like June-Marie Mahay said in the Second Life Teaches Life Lessons aticle from wired.com "Many of the real-world challenges are bypassed in Second Life". Life is easier in the virtual world than in reality. It also helps some organizations or schools to better interact with the target group of people. Social Networking can also help for example in fund raising. President Obama successfully used a network site www.my.barackobama.com, which is known as MyBO, to raise money for his campaign and to gain more supporters. So Social Networking have many positive aspects.
As there are many benefits from the Social Networking, there is also a dark side to that. Many people are becoming more and more addicted to the internet. Everyday they spend more time on-line than in reality. The only way they socialize is through the Internet. Also as people show their true selves there is other group of people that do the opposite. There are predators and stalkers that hide their identity and try to find their prey. Also any information that a person puts on the internet can be viewed by everyone, so everybody should be very carefull with the information that they post online, because the results could be really bad in the future. Also many people are cyberbullying. They are affraid to say something in he real life but in virtual life many people are abusing, insulting other people. Also many parents have no control over what their children do on-line, mainly because they don't know how to use a computer. Also the parents-children relationship can be shattered because a child spends time only in front of the computer not with their parents.
So social networking has many benefits and drawbacks, but it is depending onto the person if it's good or bad for him. For sure it will still exist in the future or even be more and more popular (if it is still possible).
