The Social Networks

Social networks

Introduction:

In 2010, the movie “The Social Network” attracted 1 436 000 spectators in French cinemas. This movie relates Mark Zuckerberg life story, the creator of facebook which is today the principal social network in the world. This passion for social networks is not only centred on facebook. Indeed there are others social networks which developed. A Social network is a website that allows a user to register and to create a virtual identity card most often called “profile”. The social network is called “social” because it makes it possible to exchange with the other members registered on the same network: public or private messages, hyperlinks, videos, photos….. But, the main function of social network remains the possibility to add “friends”, and to manage a contact list. In France the first social network appeared in 2001. However, social networks may present some risks. So, we can ask this question: why can we say that social networks are dangerous for private life? Firstly, we will present the mains social networks, and then we will talk about the problems that they create.

I/ Presentation of the main social networks.

a) Twitter

This social network was launched in 2006 by Jack Dorsey. The head office is based in San Francisco. It aims mainly young people but celebrities also use it to communicate. It allows a user to send free short messages, called tweets, on Internet, instant messaging or SMS. These messages are limited to 140 characters. The principle of this social network is to share his everyday life with all the community. Twitter rapidly gained worldwide popularity because it brings together 500 million active users in 2012. Registration is quick and easy: you just have to enter your name, email address and a password.

b) Facebook

This social network was launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. It aims a lot of people: as well teenagers as adults. If you want to accede, you must have an account where you create a personal page: “the profile” and where you can publish all kinds of information as such photos, videos…which can be controlled by the user Facebook allows finding old acquaintances. For that, you need to type the name and the surname of the required person. Users who are on Facebook can invite other people to participate in events. This social network provides applications that allow playing with friends.

However all social networks can be dangerous for the private life as well for the teenagers as for the adults.

II/ Problems that arise from social networks

a) Social networks and work world

Some people confuse privacy with public life. In fact, these two worlds are completely different. Internet represents a danger for people because their private life become most of the time a public life. This is because many social networks have been developed in recent years. Social networks can affect people even in their jobs. Some employers today don’t hesitate to use social networks to recruit their employees or even to check if they are loyal to their

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