Are social networking websites really necessary for youngsters ? Работу выполнила ученица 10 класса Лицея- интерната для одаренных детей Г. Буинска РТ Аникина Лия Владимировна

Plan: - Introduction - Relevance of my theme - The aim of my research - The history of social network websites -Advantages of social network websites - My observations -Disadvantages of social network websites - Conclusion

Introduction In our modern world we can hardly imagine our lives without Internet. We can find all necessary information there. We use popular services and sources every day. One of the most popular sources is social nets. It is worth mentioning, that social network websites like Facebook or Twitter have a great influence especially on young people. That is why, I am sure this problem is really worth discussing.

Social network websites by all accounts are very popular among teenagers. But there is an opinion that social networks are a waste of time, because they can not replace real communications with people. So, the main aim of my research is to find out the positive and negative parts of social networks and their influence on youngsters.

But do youngsters know anything about the origin of their favorite websites? The first social network website Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and a fellow Harvard University student Eduardo Saverin. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States, different corporations, and by September 2006, to everyone of age 13 and older with a valid email address. Nowadays, Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world.

It is goes without saying, a social network is a very useful invention of the 21st century. It is an Internet site that gives a chance to support various contacts, keep friendly relationships with classmates, friends. Moreover, functional social nets allow us to watch photos and video films, to listen to music and so on. There is a possibility to enter different interesting groups. Just imagine, there are even social nets which connect people according to a general interest, for example, book lovers are combined into a social net. May be that is why, social networking services have become so necessary for young people.

The useful perspective- it is easier to discuss something with friends and understand that it costs nothing. The friendship perspective- social networking sites are places where young people can make new friends   The learning perspective- social networking sites are places where young people gain important IT competences such as HTML design, layout and graphics. The network perspective -social networking sites are places where young people learn the crucial importance of being able to network which they can benefit from in their future professional life. The democratic perspective- social networking sites are places that allow young people to have a voice in society. Here, they can be heard and express their opinions. The group work perspective- social networking sites reinforce group work mechanism and young people often work together on profiles and are often willing to help each other.

1) What are your favorite social nets? In order to know more about the influence of social network websites on young people I did some observations. Thanks to my schoolmates who agreed to answer my questions I have some outputs: 1) What are your favorite social nets? It is a pity, that not so many students like social network websites for studying. But they really enjoy chatting ones.

How much time a day do you usually spend in social nets? The first group consists of 33% pupils who use social nets less than 1 hour a day. The second group consists of 47% pupils who use social nets 1-2 hours a day. The third group consists of 15% pupils who use social nets 2-3 hours a day. The fourth group consists of 5% pupils who use social nets 3-4 hours a day

It is noticeable, that students who do not use social network websites too much are more active in everyday life: they are successful at school, have a lot of good friends, all they have interesting hobbies. This teenagers are sure that social nets sometimes can be very necessary. «But we should not pay too much attention to them», they say.

Naturally, I agree that teenagers have a great opportunity to make new friends and to chat with them over the Internet. But I really do not think that these online friends will help youngsters to cope with shyness in real life. People who use networking sites too much just start to lose their real life. Addicted youngsters become lazier with every day: they do not want to study, to go for a walk, they have no time to their parents. But will these online friends help them when they`ll be in trouble? I guess they will not…

· The generation-gap perspective-Social networking sites are creating a greater gap between young people and adults such as their parents and teachers who do not understand the youngsters’ need to be online all the time. · The language perspective-Social networking sites aggravate the written language of young people. They develop bad habits of misspelling on purpose, which makes them unable to write correctly. · The public perspective-Social networking sites are “open diaries” of young people, but they do not think about the fact that the whole world can read their text and see their pictures online. · The time consuming perspectives-Social networking sites are places where young people spend way to much time preventing them from preforming healthy spare time activities such as sports and outdoor time. · The anti-social perspective-Social networking sites make young people anti-social and incapable of communication with others face to face. They lose important social skills

The fact is that for young people today social nets have emerged to become the most important media in their lives. Websites such as Facebook, MySpace help them to make new friends, and as a result have some positive impact because teens can escape from the difficulties of everyday life. Furthermore, my research indicates that spending time on social nets only leads to negative impacts on young people’s psychosocial development when it replaces more important and more meaningful activities like spending time with family and friends or studying. Conclusion