Businees Communication

Effect of snss on youth
By building on previous research in computer communications, this article attempts to explain the effects of social networking sites on the youths of America by raising two crucial issues concerning the same. 1) To what extent the social networking sites have influenced the lives of the American youths. 2) Whether the social networking sites have had more negative effects than positive ones. To respond to these questions appropriately, research that involved statistical analysis as well as integration of the views of various parties was carried out. While the results show that the social networking sites have had diverse effects on the younger generation, the balance between the positive and negative effects was roughly struck.
Social networking sites are arguably the greatest invention of the 21st century, bringing together the American youths as well as the older generations around the globe. Some of the more popular social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Friendster, Orkot and Xanga. Facebook came into wide usage in 2007 and has since then grown to become the most popular social site. The popularity of social networking sites is evidenced in statistical surveys which indicate that more than 70% of young adults in America use social networking sites. A survey by Lenhart (2007) also indicates that 55% of American teenagers between the age of 12 and 17 years use social sites.
In as much as social networking sites have facilitated a wider network of interactions and the creation of more friends; they have led the youths into driving a life of individualism, creating a self obsessed younger generation in America. This can be attributed to the fact that a major portion of the youth end up enclosing themselves in their rooms for more than eight hours in a free day chatting and interacting with their online friends. As a result, offline socialization has been adversely affected by online socialization, with the kind of...