assignment2 108203高思婕

Social Network Service
According to the statistics released on April.24th, the number of monthly active users of Facebook had inreased to over 900 million. Some people say that if Facebook were a country, if would have the 3rd largest population, through which we can have a knowledge of how big the popularity Facebook enjoys. When it comes to the Internet, social network websites such as Qzone, Facebook, Twitter, Renren and microblog can never escape people’s attention.
On one hand,there is no denying that social network service plays an amazingly active role in this age of information. It strengthens the interpersonal connections as well as facilitates the information exchange. Social network service provides people with a good platform on which they can not only maintain but also expand their own interpersonal relationships through “friending” others. Then they upload articles, photos, vedios, or anything else they desire to share and update their personal remarks to express their own feelings or ideas with a simple click of the mouse or even a touch on the screen of a mobilephone , waiting for attention from others. In addition, many organizations or constitutions can establish their official microblogs so that they can release and share information, for example, their recent activities, more easily. This convenient access to information taken for granted by people nowadays was totally an unimaginable miracle decades ago.
On the other hand, the random and free environment of social network sites has also raised some concern which we can not turn a blind eye on. The problem of privacy cannot be overlooked. With social network sites being part of many people’s life, they tend to expose what used to be personal to the public. The boundary between what should be kept as privacy and what can be shared is becoming increasingly vague and ambiguous. Sometimes people share something so personal that make others dumbfounded and even embarrassed. Despite the right of speech one is entitled to, he still should take into consideration the feelings of others and avoid challenging their tolerance by speaking and behaving properly. Another problem worth attention is that people have difficulty distinguishing a truth from a lie due to too much exaggerated and false information deliberately released by irresponsible bloggers or users. Bombarded with astonishing and sensational information without reliable origins, people are easily put into a dilemma. They might either be laughed at for being credulous to readily believe what they have seen online or be condemned for being indifferent to turn a blind eye on them. Instead of testing people’s judgement, isn’t it more urgent to regulate the somewhat chaotic network environment ?
All in all, the social network service has the power to bettter our life to a large extent. Whether we can maximize its benefits to us and meanwhile minimiz and even eliminate its potential drawbacks depends on ourselves.
1048203
高思婕