HOW DO ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS AFFECT COMMUNICATION Assignment

HOW DO ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS AFFECT COMMUNICATION - Assignment Example Most of the users are teenagers to young adults who spend several minutes to hours of online networking with relatives, friends, and even complete strangers. Still, no matter how or whom these users interact with in this OSN world, the main reason is to interact and communicate. 1 For those who lived in a world prior to the advent of the internet and social networks, socializing mostly involves face-to-face communication. Release of private and personal information was limited to close friends or relatives, and never given to strangers. Now, people see information such as family trees, sexual preferences, mobile phone numbers, and even addresses, posted online. Despite the so-called control given by these OSN sites to keep the account private or viewable only to a limited group of people, it does not guarantee the safety of such information. Private thoughts and personal activities are posted as status messages, creating an image and feeling of closeness, openness, and reaching out a mong members of these OSN sites. Before, individuals share thoughts among close friends, limiting the responses within their circle.