The Impact of Social Networking Websites on the Education of Youth

Literature Review

Jeff Cain (2008), in the research paper “Online Social Networking Issues Within Academia and Pharmacy Education” has discussed that Facebook is a tool that aids students in developing their identities and finding their ‘‘fit’’ within a college community. Helping students connect, establish a network and stay in contact with old and new friends is the centre of attraction and significant benefits of Facebook. Making connections on campus which help them feel that they belong may be an important factor in student retention. These capabilities along with the many facets of communicating with their friends make social networking sites very appealing. Although extremely popular, especially among younger generations, social networking sites are not without their issues. Controversy surrounds the use of these sites, specifically in terms of privacy, addiction, safety, responsibility and attitudes toward revealing personal information to the world. Most of the press concerning these sites has been negative in focus. Newspapers and magazines related to higher education are replete with cases of college students who experienced negative repercussions from questionable activities that were made public online.9,15-26 The list of incidences are long and revolve around a myriad of issues related to photos, posts, and/or personal profiles.