The Social Network: Irk or Perk?

“You don’t get to five-hundred million friends without making a few enemies.”

The tagline of Sony Pictures’ new box office hit, The Social Network, the quote above describes a commonality found amongst millions of people today. With movies such as The Social Network hitting the big screens, racking in almost fifty million dollars opening weekend, it is safe to say social networking has come to take precedence in today’s society.

Socializing has taken on a new form in the midst of the twenty-first century. It no longer consists of weekly ” hops” down at the local ice cream parlor. No need for mixers and special occasions to meet a new batch of potential friends. No, no need for that…at least not with sites such as Facebook, MySpace, or Friendster around. But are these new forms of intrapersonal contact banes or boons to modern day society? It is clear technological advances have become the cornerstone to daily living; however, have we come to intermittently intertwine technological advancement with social development?

With such a question in mind, it is necessary to also realize the varying groups that are affected by social networking. Unbiased as to weight, height, sex, ethnicity, interests, and marital status, the social networking realm consists of at least five essential groups:

1. Those who use social networking as strictly that

2. Those who utilize social networking as a means to an end – entrepreneurial efforts

3. Those who exploit social networks, using them as modes of illicitly or explicitly posting, sending, or commenting brash remarks to friend or foe

4. Those who use social networking as imperative, personal connections to an otherwise very wide world

5. Those who make use of social networking’s capability to re-connect long lost relationships, or better yet, create new ones.

It is clear the functionality, capacity, and accessibility of social networking. However, with every pivotal entity such as that of the social networking phenomenon comes an inevitable reciprocity.

Within the hypertext to follow, I will delve into the varying standpoints of the social networking realm, as well as sharing narratives of personal experiences regarding the topics at hand.