WE can but should we Use of quick response codes in health care Research Paper

WE can but should we Use of quick response codes in health care - Research Paper Example In order for a first respondent to access an individual’s data on the bar code during an emergency, the smartphone or other enabled devices can be used to scan the bar code. Although this technology in health care might play a big role in emergency cases, there are various concerns such as privacy concerns, raised by its use, which might discourage most health care institutions and individuals from adopting it. The history of the quick response codes is traced in Japan. This is where the Japan-based company Denso Wave Corporation invented this technology, back in the year 1994. However, initially, this technology was not meant for or used in health care. Instead, the company invented this technology to help in tracking Toyota vehicles and vehicle parts, during the process of manufacturing. However, in the most years, packaging companies and consumer advertisers have been responsible for the infiltration of the quick response codes in the United States of America. Today, quick response codes are found on the internet, on mails from advertisers, on books, and on billboards. In this case, the bar codes have data about the advertised products and the company, as well as the URL’s of the company. Most recently, quick response codes have crossed the border from advertising and marketing industry to the health care sector. In health care, this technology is still new, therefore, has not been adopted by many health care institutions today. Knowledge of the technology and expertise still lacks, since this technology is still in its initial stage of implementation in the health care sector. For instance, in the United States of America today, only countable health care institutions have adopted this technology, and these

Civil Servants in Cyprus and the United Kingdom Research Proposal

Civil Servants in Cyprus and the United Kingdom - Research Proposal Example Though both countries are members of the European Union, they have quite different histories. Cyprus's past has been more turbulent in the past several hundred years than the UK. Great Britain was, of course, the most far reaching empire in the world - as such it developed an extensive civil service during the Victorian era. The UK's civil service has undergone many policy changes over time. This paper's focus will be on the changes and administration of the past half century, especially that from 1993 to the present year. The rational for this paper is to propose and guide future research. As such a preliminary literature search has been completed. Other steps and methods in this research process will be discussed in this paper. These steps and processes may include: (1) further literature search, particularily intenal government doucments and reports, and internal civil service literature such as departmental newspapers, (2) one or more suverys, and the analysis of those surveys, and (3) interviews if and where possible. This paper begins with a discussion of the details of the preliminary research, then continues on to discuss the three other steps and approaches above. Scholarly information on Cyprus is much m... As information is limited on Cyprus, a discussion of training methods of civil servants will be included as a way to further understand the evaluation of civil servants in Cyprus. Information on Cyprus, like the United Kingdom has gone through several changes in human resources management training and evaluation practices since the 1960s (Mann , 2001). Using information from Mann's 2001 article, and from sources that Mann cited in that article, this paper will discuss three topics for each time period. The first topic will be the reason(s) that training is provided (What is the purpose of training) (Mann , 2001). The second topic will be how the training is designed (What approach is taken to training) (Mann , 2001). The final topic will be what the training covers (What is the focus of the training) (Mann , 2001). More attention will be given to the last topic, as it is at the heart of what the civil servants will be evaluated on later. United Kingdom An inital literature search was done on the United Kingdom, as the orginal plan for the research was to compare civil service evaluation methods between Cyprus and the UK. However, like many research processes, the orginal plan has changed to just focus on Cyprus. The information on the UK will still be used on occasion in the finished paper and so has been included here - both to document the work completed to date, and to discuss information that might be used in the final paper. There is a wealth of information available on the civil service in the United Kingdome. Of particular interest to the proposed paper are: Tony Bovid and Ken Russell's 2007 article in Public Administration "Civil Service Reform in the UK, 1999-2005: Revolutionary Failure or Evolutionary

Violence and Media Essay

Violence and Media Essay The effects of Media violence can cause physical aggression to the people, especially the youth. Media violence is described as the portrayal of physical action that hurts or kills. It might draw thoughts that lead one to believe that aggressive behavior might be attained in certain situations and might bring certain benefits. Violent entertainment is not only gained through television shows, but also in music lyrics and videos, commercials, video games, and movies. Most people are into violent movies, especially the adults. There are three reasons why people are attracted to violent entertainment. First, violent entertainment may hold an interest for some individuals. Second, people may experience post viewing enjoyment from viewing events, characters, and themes that appear in violent contexts. Lastly, violent media may contain themes that the audience may enjoy. Teenagers who become violent adults are those who are aggressive and involved in some forms of antisocial behavior. There were two different reasons on the effects of media violence on aggressive behavior. First, the harmful effects of media violence are probably learned by the individual through multiple exposures. Second, short-term effects are highly linked to the imitation of violent visual images. People witness, read, or hear of an event through the mass media. There are many effects of media violence that not all people know of. These effects can damage a human beings thinking, especially a childs. I. Violent messages in the media Violence in the media occurs in music videos, television shows, video games, and movies. Entertainment media contains a stabilized amount of violence. Good drama revolves around conflict, and violence is one of the most common consequences of conflict. A study made by Armstrong in 2001 analyzed 490 gangsta rap songs released between 1987 and 1993. The results show that 22 percent are comprised of violent lyrics. Eminems top-selling album in 2000, named Marshall Mathers LP was reported to have contained violent lyrics in eleven out of the fourteen songs in the album. Furthermore, research on music videos was more focused on the images rather than the lyrics. A study was conducted by Smith and Boyson in 2002 that analyzed 1,962 videos that were drawn randomly from three channels, namely BET, MTV, and VH-1. The results showed that only 15 percent of the videos featured physical aggression. However, rap (29 percent) and heavy metal (27 percent) were more likely than other genres (rock, 12 percent; rhythm and blues, 9 percent; adult contemporary, 7 percent) to contain violence. In conlusion, rap or hiphop is usually more violent than other music genres. Furthermore, there were a series of five experiments reported recently by Anderson, Carnagey, and Eubanks (2003) about the effects of music lyrics on mass media violence. In their studies, there were seven aggressive songs by seven artists, and eight nonviolent songs by seven artists, utilized to be certain that the results were not because of one or two specific songs, artists, or genres. The experimental studies propose that comprehensible violent lyrics can increase the violent thinking and affect the youth, but there were no published studies of the effects aggressive violent lyrics without video or the violent music videos. In the study of children growing up, Huesmann et al. (2003), there were differences in the types of violence affiliated with early childhood exposure to media violence. Indirect aggression in children increases, because of early exposure to violence. An example of this is telling lies to get others in trouble and taking other peoples things because of anger. George Gerbner found out that prime-time TV contains a large amount of violence. Childrens shows contain more violence than any other type of programming. The shows designed for kids have about 32 violent acts per hour. In relation, American Psychological Association (APA) reported that in the course of a lifetime, an average child will view more than 8000 murders and over 10000 acts of TV violence. Nearly 60 percent of all television programming contains an amount of violence. From the ages of 3 to 16, children spent more time in front of the television set than they spent in school. Heavy television and media use leads people to identify reality as consistent with the portrayals they see on television. Furthermore, annual reports of television status done by Gerbner and his colleagues were consistent over time. Approximately, 70 percent of primetime programs contained some violence. 94 percent of childrens shows contained violence. In other words, programs targeted to young viewers have the most violent content. Another study done by the National Television Violence Study (NVTS), documented that 69 percent of childrens programs contained more violence than that of non childrens programs, which only contained 57 percent of violence. Approximately 100 percent of slapstick programs like Road Runner and Bugs Bunny contained violence, and almost all of superhero programs which contained only 57 percent. Advertising has in its dynamics no motivation to seek the development of the individual or to convey qualities of social usefulness. It has no social goals and no social responsibility for its influence will affect (According to Potter). According to the report of the Federal Trade Commission, the average child sees 20,000 commercials a year, or about 3 hours of TV advertising a week. Many children regard advertising as just another form of programming and do not tell the difference between programs and ads. In an advertisement for Dominos Pizza, they invented a cartoon character named Noid. He finds ways to make pizza cold before people could eat it. Dominos Pizza boasts of their fast delivery and special packing method that guaranteed the delivery of  hot pizza. Their ad slogan was: One could avoid the Noid by ordering from Dominos. One thing they didnt know is that there was a man named Mr. Noid, he was a troubled person and he didnt find yet find out what TV was all about. When Mr. Noid saw the pizza commercial that told the whole world to avoid the Noid, he was furios. The next thing people knew is that a man whose last name is Noid, held hostage the customers and employees at one of the Dominos Pizza stores. He demanded to discontinue the avoid the Noid commercial. Moreover, fictional violence is escalated day after day, program after program. Television is full of violence and it has not changed since the early 1970s. TV violence is a cause of aggressiveness, not the cause of aggressiveness. Movies on the other hand are quite violent compared to other types of media content. According to the NTVS, approximately 90 percent of movies contain more violence whereas drama series only contain 70 percent, 35 percent of comedy series, and 35 percent of reality series. A study made by Yokota and Thompson in 2000 examined G-rated (General-rated) films showed between 1937 and 1999. The results showed that 74 movies at least contained one act of violence. Youths watching aggressive scenes display more violent behavior, violent thoughts, or violent emotions than others (Anderson, Berkowitz, Donnerstein, Huesmann, Johnson, Linz, Malamuth Wartella). Bjorkqvist (1985) let a 5 year old and a 6 year old Finnish child to watch either a violent or nonviolent films. Conversely with the children who had watched the nonviolent  films, those who had viewed the violent film were assessed much higher on physical assault (hitting other children, wrestling, etc), as well as other types of violence. The exposure to media violence can cause to increase physical assaults who watched violent movies. To summarize, movies frequently feature aggression, and there is some evidence that they are becoming more violent over time. Movies feature more violence than television programs do. Even comedy and horror films contain violence. Many theatrically released movies target male adolescents, and, therefore are highly likely to contain action, adventure, and violence. Over the years, graphics have evolved. It has become so advanced that it is almost hard to tell whether a person on the screen is an animated image or a real human character. The game characters move in ways that are close to human movement. Many of the games seem to be more than exercises in virtual killing. The media have trained children to associate violence and killing with delight. Video games that require a player to shoot a gun and react reflexively with the shooting response are teaching the entire generation of children to associate shooting with pleasure. Violent video games are transforming young people into homemade sociopaths who kill reflexively. Some teenagers are being influenced by video games, because they cant separate the fiction they see on TV from the reality. Furthermore, playing aggressive video games can have short-term negative effects on the game-players emotional state. The outcome the studies showed that playing violent games increased the adolescents violent behavior. Pinching, kicking, hitting is considered as physical violence between boys who had just played either a nonviolent or violent video game. The rate of violence per minute is much higher in video games than in most violent TV programs or movies. For instance, Funk and Buchman (1996) found no difference in gender in overall preference for violent video games because girls and boys preferred violence. Girls chose the fantasy violence, whereas the boys chose the human violence. There was also a report of Cantor (1998) that males were more affiliated to justice restoring violent programming like Batman than females, but both was equally attracted to comedic violence. In conclusion, violence is more persuasive in video games (68 percent) than on television (60 percent), it is commonly found in movies (90 percent), and rarely seen in music videos (15 percent). However, certain genres in each medium are more aggressive in nature. These are childrens cartoons, animated movies, rap or hiphop music, and Teen and Mature-rated video games. Many of these genres are targeted to the youth. II. Factors that contribute to the effects of media violence Gerbner has noted that portrayals of violence on TV are not violence, but just mere violent messages. When violence is portrayed by an attractive character, it is more likely to be learned and imitated, when violence appears to be condoned, when it is realistic, when it is rewarded, and when it results in giving small consequences to the victim. Both males and females are influences by media violence, although the effects may be stronger for males (Paik Comstock, 1994). Children who had seen more TV violence can be adults who commit more serious crimes, but not all children child who watched large amounts of violence on TV end up getting involved in a crime. Rowell Huesmann pointed out: Aggressive habits seem to be learned in early life, and once established, are resistant to change and predictive of serious adult antisocial behavior. If a childs observation of media violence promotes the learning of aggressive habits, it can have harmful lifelong consequences. Consistent with this theory, early television habits are in fact correlated with adult criminality. (Sparks, Effects of media violence 89) Furthermore, the amount of TV violence children viewed enabled researchers to account for less than 10 percent of the crimes committed by children as they matured over the 22-year period. Children must really see violent content in order to influence their behavior. Angry people and media violence is a volatile mix. If angry people always watch violence on TV, then they are more likely to act aggressively. Children and teenagers with aggressive personality may search for violent content because it helps them to justify their behaviors. People live in a world in which there is more violence than there might be without mass media. People are less trusting of their neighbors and more accepting of violence in their core. Children from middle-to-upper socioeconomic status (SES) watch less TV violence than those children from households of a lower SES. The more television violence a person watches, the more that person can become aggressive. Parents who are violent in the home are encouraging and aggressive behaviors for their children. The risk of a child behaving aggressively can be heightened especially if there is violence in the home (Bauer et al, 2006). Moreover, a national study of more than 1000 children aged 6 to 12 found that violent television viewing and violent electronic game playing are associated to family conflict (Vanderwater, Lee, Shim, 2005). In addition, children who had troubled relationships with their parents and children who were classified as aggressive were more likely to turn to television for fantasy. TV violence can induce an aggressive effect only for the most susceptible individuals like boys from disadvantaged homes. Perhaps there was something else about the families of the children that predisposed them to watch either violent or non-violent programs at an early age. This may lead the children to either a life of crime or a life of civic responsibility. Moreover, childrens early TV viewing very likely did contribute to the criminal activity later in life. III. Media violence and aggression Early experiments were criticized for applying fabricated measures of aggression, for setting up situations in which adult models seem to condone aggression. Since then, field experiments have been conducted in more naturalistic settings and have found that watching television can increase the childrens real-life aggression against peers in  social situations like playgrounds (Friedrich Stein, 1973). TV shows like cartoons and non-animated programs can stimulate youth aggression at once after viewing, and that this effect can happen after exposure to even a single episode of a violent television show (Boyatzis, Matillo, Nesbitt, 1973). Moreover, a concern about copycat violence focuses on the effects of televised wrestling events. Lionel Tate, a 13-year old boy, was convicted in 2001 for killing a 6-year old girl by lifting her in the air and dropping her onto the table. If a child watched a person on TV who seemed very appealing and who received rewards for acting aggressively, then the child will more likely follow the characters behavior. On the other hand, if a child saw a character who received punishment for acting aggressively, then the child might abstain from showing any aggressive actions in real life. There is a tendency for children who watched higher levels of TV violence to also have a higher score on the ratings of aggressive behavior. There are certain things about TV violence and children that need to be understood. First, viewing TV violence could cause children to act more aggressively, particularly if the violent characters were appealing and receive awards for their actions. Second, the effects appeared most strongly for boys, not for girls. Boys turn out to be more sensitive to the effects of media violence. Lastly, the presence of appealing characters who receive awards for acting aggressively seems to advocate more aggressive behavior in children. Video games have produced a controversy in the public arena after the Killings at Columbine High School in Colorado. This was done by two teenagers that attacked their classmates and teachers. They soon found out that the two teenagers were fond of playing Doom. In relation, a study was made back in 1988. It reported that children who played Jungle Hunt, a game involving a character who would jump from one vine to another in such a way that he would not fall, tended to play with a jungle swing toy. On the other hand, those who played Karateka, a game involving a protagonist who was controlled by the player and had a mission to hit, kick, and kill enough villains to save a damsel in distress, tended to play in an aggressive way with the karate bobo doll. Rod Serlings movie, The Doomsday Flight (1966), was about a jet plane which took off and established its flight path, a report then came in that the plane was carrying an altitude bomb. A terrorist had set the bomb to explode if the plane descended below 5,000 feet. In the end, the plane managed to land in Denver, which was barely 5,000 feet above sea level. The plan averted disaster and everyone lived happily ever after. Well not everyone, because even before the movie ended a bomb threat was phoned to one of the major airlines. Four more threats were phoned in during the next day, and eight more were reported by the weekend. In some cases the callers threatened to use exactly the same kind of altitude bomb motive depicted in the movie. Fortunately, none of these threats turned out to be real. The callers had been the victims of the copycat phenomenon, where people imitate the exact behaviors that they see depicted in the  media. When these behaviors are violent or illegal, this b ecomes a significant social problem. Another example of the copycat phenomenon is when The Burning Bed, a movie in 1984, starred Farrah Fawcett Majors as a battered wife who felt so desperately trapped by an abusive husband that she soaked her husbands bed with gasoline while he slept. Then, she set the bed and her husband ablaze. The film triggered some copycat consequences. Days after the movie was aired, several women around America who were victims of abuse decided to copy the behavior of the main character. They murdered their husbands by dousing the beds of their husbands with gasoline and setting it on fire. Furthermore, children who were exposed early to television violence predicted subsequent adult aggression (Huesmann, 1986). It has been associated with an increased risk of adult aggression, even after for controlling family income, childhood neglect, psychiatric disorders,  neighborhood violence, and parental education. An illustration by Ostrov, Gentile, and Crick (2006) asked 60 parents about their preschoolers exposure to television programs, movies, and videogames over a two-year period. For boys, exposure to violent media predicted an increase in observed physical, verbal, and relational aggression four months later. For girls, violent media exposure was associated with a subsequent increase in verbal aggression only. Conclusion The harmful effects of media violence bring psychological impact to the minds of the youth especially in todays generation. They do not know that these things can greatly affect their attitude and behavior as a person which might be a result of violence. They try to imitate what they see and what they hear from televisions, music lyrics or videos, movies, and video games, because of their curiosity. Most scientists agreed that parents can be a strong force in reducing such media violence. They should let their children share their thoughts and fears about killings or death. Parents should also know the main risk factors of media violence to the youth and familiarize the programs and video games their children watched and played. They should avoid exposing their children to too much video games and television so that it would it would reduce violent behavior of their children. No matter how strong the tendency to think otherwise, it is important to know that content does not equal to the effect. Media violence is certainly not the sole cause or even the most important contributor to youth aggression. Parents can actually reduce the risks associated with media violence by reducing exposure to television and videogames.

living in basement :: essays research papers

Living in a basement is definitively associated with numerous inconveniences. Yet, after having spent almost two years in such location, I managed to find one feature distinguishing basement from other apartments in a way that recompenses all of its nuisances - the window. A view from the narrow gap which is positioned merely few inches above the pavement provides remarkable experience of learning the city’s life. The view my window offers may not appear intensively interesting at first, as, for the most part, it consists of wayfarers’ legs moving in opposite directions. However, after several hours of observation, it is possible to notice that the pace of people is at variance not only according to hour of the day, but also shifts throughout the week and year. And the pattern in the manner of how the passer-by’s gait changes embodies the city life’s rhythm. As the day commences, footpath is congested with citizens hastening to their workplaces. From their tread one can scent somnolence, and lassitude. There are however individuals bursting with the energy and sense of fulfilling their ambitions. As time passes many of the pedestrians become children and students. They toddle without hustle, still with a dose of excitement. Later on, in the midday hours the crowd dilutes, as if preparing for the rush of the afternoon. The pace of people returning homes indicates their fatigue and hope for finding time to calm at homes. Evening is definitively the time of the young people. Roaming teenagers and students are filled with jaunty and light thoughts, and the positive energy surrounding them spreads among all the surrounding. The later it becomes the more chaotic and disordered the moves of the striders become. Finally, as the dawn draws closer streets become deserted, save for the communal service workers, and whole cycle is ready to restart. Another dissimilarities in people’s way of walking can be observed with the shift of the seasons. Wayfarers tend to saunter much slower in summer, due to the high temperature’s influence on our mood and energy supplies. A perceptible amount of caution characterises feelings of pedestrians in winter, since the pavements become treacherous and dangerous places when covered with even the thinnest layer of ice.

Effects of globalization on the politics of China Essay

â€Å"Arguably globalization has served China’s communist rulers well. † (Yahuda China’s Win-Win Globalization) On the political front too, Chinese rulers welcomed globalization rather used it as a tool for the fulfillment of their own purposes. It was suspected that globalization would throw the communist rule out of the country once globalization had set foot firmly in the cultural and economic roots. However, it proved far from it, in fact it promoted the communist rule since all the well balanced economic growth took place in their era and reinforced the existing rulers. The communist party has faced the challenges bravely and tackled them skillfully in order to prove themselves. â€Å"It has accomplished three significant generational changes of leadership – from the heroic founding fathers, to the technocratic Soviet-educated engineers of the generation of Jiang Zemin and Li Peng, and now to the next technocratic generation, headed by Hu Jintao. † (Yahuda China’s Win-Win Globalization) The political front of China has been altogether revolutionized and as its foreign policy. The altered foreign policy has strengthened its international relations and has improved its position which was highly essential for supporting and continuing it’s the success of its economic strategies. Environmental issue [Please Note that this is the ethical issue chosen from a range of women rights environmental etc specified in your order] International trade, economy and politics make it essential for all the countries and regions to abide by strict rules regarding environmental protection. This has lead countries to take effective steps to improve their countries’ environmental conditions to meet the standards set by the international community. Involvement of various states has lead to â€Å"the advent of global environmental challenges that can not be solved without international cooperation, such as climate change, cross-boundary water and air pollution, over-fishing of the ocean, and the spread of invasive species. Many factories are built in developing countries where they can pollute freely. † (Globalization Wikipedia) Hence rules have been made and have to strongly implemented in countries which are possible suspects of spreading pollution. In case of China, globalization has played a vital role in developing the environmental culture. If seen closely initially globalization lead to rapid industrialization which was a major source of pollution. International community with time seemed to give more importance to the environmental issue than to the actual economic growth of a country. It argued that economic growth at the cost of spoiling the environment was not at all acceptable. â€Å"Pollution is invariably one of the first impressions visitor forms of China. From bicycles to cars in 25 years, urban China rarely sees much in the way of blue sky anymore. Rapid and large-scale industrialization only compounds the problem. † (Roach) However, China struggled hard to fight off this problem since international issues got stricter regarding the environmental issue. It is however, highly difficult for China to balance between its economy and the pollution problem it faces. Environmental problem has risen to an extent that China could serious problems if the international community places restrictions on it because of its environmental problem. It is a sorry state of affairs that globalization has lead China to develop into one of the most rapidly growing countries and at the same time it has harbored a much concerned problem for it like environmental pollution. On the cost of its economy it has damaged its own environment for good. However, China has planned a strategy of balancing its economy and the pollution problem in order to reduce the current pollution and minimize future pollution possibilities. Works Cited â€Å"Globalization† Wikipedia. 21 April 2008. Khan, Azizur Rehman and Riskin, Carl. Inequality and Poverty in China in the age of Globalization. 2001. Oxford. Roach, Stephen S. â€Å"China’s Environmental Moment of Truth†. April 4 2007. The Globalist. 21 April 2008. Rothkop, David. â€Å"In Praise of Cultural Imperialism? Effects of Globalization on Culture† June 22, 1997. Global policy Forum. 21 April 2008. Weller, Robert P. Discovering Nature: Globalization and Environmental Culture in China and Taiwan. 2006. Cambridge University Press. Yahuda, Michael. â€Å"China’s Win-Win Globalization†. Yale global online. 21 April 2008. < http://yaleglobal. yale. edu/display. article? id=1017&page=2>

Positive and negative impacts of social networking sites Essay

THE POSITIVE PART Social networking Web sites are helping businesses advertise, thus social networking Web sites are benefiting businesses – economically. Social networking Web sites are helping education by allowing teachers and coaches to post club meeting times, school projects, and even homework on these sites. Social networking Web sites are enabling advancements in science and medicine. Job hunting Stay in touch with friends Positive causes/awareness THE NEGATIVE PART The very nature of such sites encourages users to provide a certain amount of personal information. But when deciding how much information to reveal, people may not exercise the same amount of caution on a Website as they would when meeting someone in person. This happens because: the Internet provides a sense of anonymity; the lack of physical interaction provides a false sense of security they tailor the information for their friends to read, forgetting that others may see it. Sharing too much information on social networking sites can be problematic in two ways: firstly, it can reveal something about you that you’d rather your current or future employer or school administrator not know, and second, it can put your personal safety at risk. Another potential downside of social networking sites is that they allow others to know a person’s contact information, interests, habits, and whereabouts. Consequences of sharing this information can range from the relatively harmless but annoying—such as an increase in spam—to the potentially deadly—such as stalking. Another great issue of concern with social networking web sites is that of child safety. Read more:  Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media Essay Research has shown that almost three out of every four teenagers who use social networking web sites are at risk due to their lack of using online safety. (Joly, Karine, 2007) A lot of the web sites do have an age requirement but it is easily bypassed by the  lying about of one’s age. Even if they don’t lie about their age the average age requirement is around fifteen years old. Predators may target children, teens, and other unsuspecting persons online—sometimes posing to be someone else—and then slowlyâ€Å"groom† them, forming relationships with them and then eventually convincing them to meet in person In Touch with The World Family living abroad can be kept abreast of the latest happenings in your world as quickly as those living next door. Friends who you haven’t seen since school, and who have since moved away, are able to keep in touch. Social networking sites have made the world a smaller place. Conclusions As with most things in life there are positive and negative sides to social networking, both of which we have now explored. Ultimate belief is that when done in moderation, with checks and balances on how younger people in particular are using them, and with a firm grasp being kept on reality at all time, social networking sites are neither evil or a Godsend. They’re somewhere in between. Social networking isn’t for everyone, but it’s now such a massive part of all our lives, whether we embrace or reject the notion, that it can no longer be ignored. Privacy  Social networking sites encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. Because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to bypass the filters they might normally employ when talking about their private lives. What’s more, the things they post remain available indefinitely. While at one moment a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in the context of an employer doing a background check. While most sites allow their users to control who sees the things they’ve posted, such limitations are often forgotten, can be difficult to control or don’t work as well as advertised. Decreased Productivity While many businesses use social networking sites to find and communicate with clients, the sites can also prove a great distraction to employees who  may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks. Wired.com posted two studies which demonstrated damage to productivity caused by social networking: Nucleus Research reported that Face book shaves 1.5% off office productivity while Morse claimed that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to the social phenomenon. New technology products have become available that allow social networks to be blocked, but their effectiveness remains spotty. A False Sense of Connection According to Cornell University’s Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media. By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken. social networking has become a major part of society. Even big businesses and celebrities are jumping on the social networking bandwagon. Many people wake up each day and check social websites first thing in the morning instead of reaching for a newspaper. According to Mashable.com, as of June 2010, American Internet users spend more than 22 percent of their online time using a social networking site. Since people are spending such a large amount of time surfing social networks, it is important to point out some of the positive and negative effects that social networking can have on a society. Helping Small Businesses Social networking can help small businesses in a big way. Traditional mediums such as print magazine ads and radio commercials can cost thousands of dollars that some small businesses just don’t have in a down economy. Social networking allows small business owners to connect with prospects and clients for free, costing nothing but time and energy. Marketers at small companies can post coupons to Facebook groups or run promotions on Twitter. In addition to generating revenue this way, companies also can get positive and negative feedback directly from consumers. Addictive A negative aspect of social networking is that it can be addictive. Spending  too much time on social networking sites can cause people to lose focus on tasks at work or around the house. Social networking needs to be used in moderation. If someone is spending so much time on social networks that they are not sleeping enough hours per night or are ignoring friends and family that want to spend time with them in person, social networking can be a serious problem. Sharing Too Much Another drawback to social networking is that some users are simply sharing too much information. People can lose their jobs or a friendship over leaking information on social networks. Even if a user of a social site has her privacy settings on the highest level, their information can still be passed on by someone on their friends list. It doesn’t take much for an angry follower to copy and paste a status or download a picture if they are looking for revenge.