The purpose of Myspace and Bebo was to bring people from around the world closer together. But what are the costs of bringing over 71 million (and counting) strangers together?

A minor problem is thatSocial Networking sites have made it ridiculously simple to find people with similar interests and nowadays it’s common to encounter people with more online friends than real friends. This is worrying because it means that people are spending more time online on sites such as MySpace than they are out in the real world. This results in people having low self-esteem and generally not having a clue about what goes on outside their house! This is only a minor issue though and it can be argued that Television has been contributing to this happening for generations but the internet is aiding the acceleration of this process! The main problem is something far more sinister that has the ability to change society as we know it but this is undoubtably serving as a catalyst!

Unfortunately, because people have a lot of online friends it has almost become acceptable amongst todays youth to travel across the country to meet each other and often times not just for mere friendship. I’m talking about something more than that. Not only is this dangerous but it is also in most cases carried out without the knowledge of parents – the older and wiser generation. If I told my mother that I was going up to Dublin to meet a random stranger for sex then all hell would break loose in the house which should get across the point that this is unacceptable behaviour. However, if I lied to my mother and told her that I was going up to Dublin with a friend for a spot of shopping then my mother would be none the wiser and not in a position to warn of the dangers (let a lone stupidity) of doing such things.

The people who do this though obviously think it’s okay to do so. If I think it’s okay to do such a thing then I’d tell my child that it’s okay to do it. Teenagers are notorious for disobeying authority though. So if my mother says that I can stay out until midnight then I’m going to stumble in the door at 4am. Now if I tell my child that it’s okay to go out and have sex with random strangers then imagine what they’d do when they (inevitably) disobey you and try to push the envelope! This is where the problem lies. Because teenagers can be in relative secrecy on the net they are operating with no guiding light, no authority and no advice. It really is a disaster waiting to happen and I really do hope that in the future such things won’t be acceptable!

[tags]bebo, bebo dangers, society change, society, myspace, myspace dangers, casual sex, social networking, anarchy[/tags]