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December 17, 2012

ProCon.org Asks Whether Social Networking is Good for Us

By Oliver VanDervoort, Contributing Writer

The social networking market is one that only seems to grow. Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter might be considered the kings of the market, but companies like Socl and Pheed have recently joined in to get a share of the market. With many companies looking to get more people socially networking, one company is actively asking whether or not all this online interaction is actually a good thing.



ProCon.org is a website that prides itself on asking questions about some of our country’s most popular past times. The company has recently decided to take on the pros and cons of social networking.


Image via Shutterstock

For its part, Facebook has started to see that there are some negatives to spending the many billions of hours that 47 percent of Americans spend on social networking sites. The company went so far as to actually issue a bit of a warning, telling people that too much Facebook can indeed be a bad thing. ProCon.org is now asking its users whether or not they believe that social networking is a good thing for our society.

The pros and cons of the social networking sites are well known these days. The pros are usually brought up as being able to keep contact with friends and family that might be hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. The cons are that people are starting to use social networking as a replacement for offline interactions with people. It is this particular argument that seems to have spurred the site to take up the issue.

On the discussion and research page ProCon.org has set up, there is also a “did you know” section that relays a couple of startling facts about social networking use. Among the facts is the revelation that people who use social sites are scoring 20 percent lower on tests and have a much lower GPA (3.06 compared to 3.82) compared to those who don’t use social networking. Despite that fact, social networking is becoming more popular, with 35 international heads of state, every U.S. Cabinet agency, 84 percent of U.S. governors, every major candidate for U.S. President, and more than 40 percent of top global religious leaders using some form of social networking.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.




Edited by Brooke Neuman
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