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Social Networking: The Anti-Social Element?

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Social Networking: The Anti-Social Element?
Social Networking: The Anti-Social Element ?

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Launched on 4th February, 2004, Facebook is a social networking service and website having 600 million active users (as of January 2011).

On March 11, 2010, Computer scientist, Dr. Irwin King told the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, "If Facebook is a nation, it would rank "third" in the world. Imagine the mass. Imagine what you can do to reach the "third" most populated nation in the world."

Phew!!! With six hundred million registered users, this community is the "third" largest "Nation" in the world after China and India.

It is not just about Facebook. In this developing age of social media and networking, people who don’t have even a slight idea about Twitter, hi5, Friendster, LinkdIn and of course, Facebook are considered as if they are some “out-of-the-world” thing.

There is no point, just reading this article. You notice it daily. Look around and chances are that you will find people buzy, with their heads down, at a bus stop, in an elevator, or even when sitting in their friend circle, Tweeting about how they enjoyed at a party, updating one liner humorous status on Facebook, or suggesting some newly added friends on LinkedIn.

Obviously, the creativity is so inherent in these new technologies of social networking that it appeals to our mind and we don’t even realize when we get addicted but the real concern is that this may lead us to lose our enthusiasm of real life interactions and sadly our desire to connect with people in person.

Alex Jordan was a PhD student in Stanford's psychology department. Jordan observed his friend's reactions after using Facebook. After a few observations, he deduced that his friends started feeling contemptible about themselves after days of rigorous involvement in facebook. They used to scroll through their friend’s photo albums, attractive bios, and lively status updates and posts. "They were convinced that everyone else was leading a perfect

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