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Jazmin Bermudez
Prof. Jackie Hymes
English 115, M/W 11:00-12:15
November 2, 2014
Social Media Affect
In the article Are social networking sites good for our society? the author discusses the
pros and cons of social networking sites in society and also gives a brief over view of the growth
of social networking sites. Over the years, technology has expanded, therefore so has social
media. Society has been engulfed in a wave of social media and networking which in turn has
cause some good in society and some not so good. Since this wave there has been several people
all over the world that have been skeptical about social networking and there are those that see
no harm from it. Overall one cannot deny that there are some good factors about social
networking but one must admit there are bad factors as well.
The author argues both for and against social networking sites, however there are a few
more cons than pros. The author gives twenty-two pros and twenty-four cons about social
networking. The pros range from topics like social networking helps law enforcement to college
recruitment. The cons range from topics like cyberbullying to endangering the military and
journalists. The author supports the pro and con claims by stating statistics after said pro and con.
For instance the first pro listed states that social networking sites help spread information faster
and is followed by several statistics stating how the information is spread and how many people
us social media to gain information. In another pro stating that social networking improves
students performance in school, the author follows the claim by the statistics of a study done
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showing how much social media improved the school work of students. All the pros stated by the
author are supported by statistics and examples proving the pro, therefore does not state anything
based on their own opinion. The author also uses the same style in stating the cons.
The author uses the same style of stating the con and then supporting it by statistics. The
authors cons however are directly derived from a pro, in other word for every pro there is a con.
However the author does state a con which is followed by how the author believes it will affect
society. The author claims that social networking has caused a loss of productivity in companies
and social networking has caused security concerns. The author then goes on to state how
companies havent been able to separate employees from using social networking for personal
use rather than business purposes. This statement is then followed by the author saying the
possible effects of what this lack of separation can cause the companies which is a loss of
revenue and lack of security. Another con the author lists is how social networking sites make
users vulnerable to being hacked or having identity theft and getting viruses. The author then
goes on to give a statistic of how much personal information of an individual gets put on social
networking sites which can be used for identity theft, which ties into the lack of security. Derived
from the pro of information being spread faster through social networking, the author lists the
con of social media spreading false information. The author then gives examples of false
information that was posted on social media. Another con derived from a pro is how social
media negatively affects students school life by causing lower GPAs and scoring lower on
tests. For every pro there is a con and for every con there is a pro, the author demonstrates both
sides of the view on social media which shows a lack of opinion.
I believe this article was completely unbiased and nothing came across as exaggerated or
illogical. One factor that may come across as biased is that there are more cons listed than pros.
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However every con and pro is supported purely on statistics and facts which doesnt make the
author biased because nothing is based off opinion. However a weakness that can be found in the
article is whether the statistics are true or not. The author supports all of the pros and cons using
statistics but one may question where these statistics were derived from. Overall, the article was
non-biased and expressed the viewpoint equally of both pro and con.














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Works Cited
ProCon.org. "Are social networking sites good for our society?" ProCon.org. 23 Sept. 2014.
Web. 1. Nov. 2014