In today’s society, billions of people across the world are accessing the internet multiple times a day. Why wouldn’t they? Many people have the internet on their smart phones, and at the touch of a button can check their email, their Facebook, their bank account balance, movie times, you name it. One of these things, however, usually consumes more of the user’s time than the others. Yes, you guessed it: Facebook. Any social networking site or application, actually, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or something similar, seems to easily suck up hours of a person’s day.
Young children and teens are accessing these sites while at school, and as soon as they get home from school. Adults are accessing these sites while at work and those who are married or have children are often choosing to spend time checking their “walls” or profiles rather than spending time with their loved ones.
There is no doubt that there are certain social benefits to these sites; many people say we need them to keep in touch with friends. However, the benefits do not outweigh the problems they cause. Social networking causes children and adults to be lazy and overweight, less productive at school and work, and, ironically, causes them to be anti-“social.” For these reasons, social networking is bad for society and should not be used.
The first reason that social networking is bad for society is that it makes people lazy and overweight. About two decades ago, when people were bored, they would go outside and do something. You could go ride a bike, take your dog for a walk, play a round of baseball, or hit the gym and exercise. Nowadays, many people just go on their phones and “tweet” about how bored they or scroll through a friends new pictures and click the “like” button a few times. Sure, social networking might give you something “to do,” but really, you aren’t doing anything!