Rogerian Proposal: Online Social Networks

Online Social Networks The topic I decided to choose for my Rogerian Proposal is “Online Social Networks” Online social network sites enable people throughout the world to link with others who share similar interests. Online Social Network allows members the opportunity to post updates, pictures, videos, and other material and share this information with designated recipients. The vast popularity of these websites has produced a number of issues, from privacy and safety concerns to questions regarding the long-term societal effect of online exchanges.
Social networking sites arose in the late 1990s. One of the earliest was Classmates.com, created in 1995. Classmates was an interesting website because it allowed individuals who were looking

Online social networks, say some critics, create a sense of connection with others that is not really genuine. Quick status updates posted by network friends do not provide the same satisfaction as does a real, face-to-face interaction; they are instead superficial and impersonal—even voyeuristic. Describing this effect in the Chronicle of Higher Education, literary critic William Deresiewicz observed, “We have turned [our friends] into an indiscriminate mass, a kind of audience or faceless public.” With online social networks, he wrote, “the friendship circle has expanded to engulf the whole of the social world, and in so doing, destroyed both its own nature and that of the individual friendship

This can sometimes lead to legal troubles as law enforcement officers turn to sites such as Facebook to identify criminals and help solve crimes. A Facebook update was successfully used as an alibi by a man arrested for robbery in 2009. When it was confirmed that the update was posted from a computer at a Harlem address during the time when the robbery took place in Brooklyn, charges against the man were dropped. Said John G. Browning, a lawyer quoted in the New York Times, “We are going to see more of that because of how prevalent social networking has become.” At the same time, however, content on networkers’ sites can be used against them. Browning cited an Indiana murder case in which the defendant’s remarks about himself on Myspace caused suspicion about his character and contributed to his conviction. Divorce and employment cases have also used content from online networks as evidence. However, law professor Joseph A. Pollini, quoted in the same article in the New York Times, pointed out that “with a user name and password, anyone can input data on a Facebook page.” The admissibility of such material as evidence in criminal cases should not be taken for granted.
Though some bemoan the growth of social networking sites, saying that they undermine real personal relationships, the phenomenon continues to grow throughout the world. In the view of many people, the popularity and rapid evolution of social media