Social media: a double-edged sword

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ8AUBn-4DY

                During the last 20 years, the way in which we communicate and establish relationships with others has changed dramatically thanks to internet: some people use it not only to keep in contact with their near ones but to meet new friends and even couples. This increasing phenomenon is called social networking, and the web sites designed for this purpose such as facebook, twitter, and twenty are so popular around the world; in fact, it is estimated that each of them receives millions of visits every day.

The success of social media can be attributed the fact that they offer their followers multiple and interesting applications by free—chat rooms, games, photo and video galleries. The problem is that they can become dangerously addictive. In this sense, it is calculated that each users spend an average of four hours per day just on social network sites. That means they are investing not only most of their resting moments on that but also a part of their job/study time. Indeed, it is not surprising to find people choking their user’s account while they are supposed to be working or carrying out important duties.

It seems that people’s need for being constantly connected to the Net has reached an extreme level, and probably they have not realized that they are wasting most of their leisure time in front of a computer reading and commenting about others’ lives instead devoting it to more meaningful activities, such as sharing with the family,practice their hobbies or just resting. Now the question is are we suffering the same sickness?