Say NO to online social networks.

Thanks BBE for accepting the challenge; may the better debater win! Well, I pretty much like the categorization you've done but would like to mention an important point that you've missed to observe -- a user usually enters as a casual user and then gradually becomes a hardcore one as starts exploring various so called "cool" features of OSNs. Studies on OSNs have shown that people spend hours in these virtual worlds browsing other user's profiles, reading about their interests and events in their personal lives (whom they don't even know and mostly not going to meet in their lives). This time is nothing but a waste, isn't it? What possible difference is going to happen in my life if I don't know what some unknown Shelly (from London) and some unknown Michael (from Italy) did on their weekends? People keep on browsing through other's albums and watching their birthday videos -- why? just because they are posted there! As you pointed out, the worst part is when they become hardcore users -- live on OSNs! By the way, it's not just about getting overweight my friend; it's about being socially isolated. Further it's about committing suicides due to the depression that comes with social loneliness. There is a disturbing correlation between time spent in online social networks and intensity of social isolation -- social isolation is found(1) growing exponentially with time spent on OSN! As per Durkheim's theory of egoistic suicide, social isolation and loneliness can cause depression. And his theory points out that less integration with society and community around us often leads to suicide (2). So instead of wasting time getting farther away from real world, why not to go out and meet real people? May be its not that easy to "poke someone" or to "add as a friend" in real world ... may be it takes more confidence, liveliness and skill to make connections in real world ... but finally, the life is here my friend, a real world around us! Because no one in their neighborhood comes to them and extends a hand for friendship, they prefer to build worlds largest friend-list on "www.facebook.com". It might make them feel important temporarily but reality is going to knock doors in the afternoon or may be in the evening, for sure. Then what? Online world will never be an alternative. Even after spending hours in virtual world, one can't get that peace of mind or a feel of refreshment that comes with spending quality time with your real friends in real world activities. We're real human beings ... and so, by nature, need company of real people. It can't be simulated by some software. OSNs have (supposedly) been build to bring people closer but what they do is to create socially isolated individuals with a millions (may be more) "names" listed in their friends-list there -- whom they rarely interact after adding to the list! Now about the specialist users. Well, online social networks are built for masses and so respond best when used in general. You find thousand people who doesn't share any interests with you before finding one that does. Again, by design, OSNs are not for specialists -- if designed with a specific interest in mind then that would impact their chances of attracting other large population. If you're specifically looking for people whom you can share a specific interest (say, like to debate) then you've to search for platforms designed specifically for that purpose. On OSNs, its hard to make those sort of connections because there people come to do general things -- a "time-pass" kinda stuff. It's like installing windows operating system to use calculator functionality ... isn't it better get a calculator itself? It's better to find a platform designed for specific purpose as it will be limited to only people that you're interested in interacting with and also will be feature rich for that specific interest -- moreover as they're designed for that specific purpose, you're implicitly asked to do that something specific and so at the end -- something useful. As an example, you've suggested that people may want to create events and invite others by using OSNs-- why not to use "www.evite.com" which is specifically designed for that purpose? If you miss your assignment, drop to your friend's place or use the email-alias to communicate with other students in your class. If you like music, join a music class or go to musical events -- you will definitely find more similar-minded people there. OSNs are jack of all (good for nothing specific) and that's why a waste of time. Now coming towards another major issue (after social isolation and waste of time) -- private information exploitation. As a matter of fact, information posted there by users can be (and has been) exploited in variety of ways. Well, someone may say, they're not bound to reveal their information but there are two reason that people do it. Firstly they are not aware of possible ways that their information could be exploited (and we can't simply expect them to be because all are not tech-savvy). All newbies there are too overwhelmed by "cool" features of OSNs that they forget that there exist a word called "privacy" and write everything in their profile, even their private relationships and beliefs. They think it makes their profile more "cool". Secondly, OSNs, by design, ask people reveal as much information as possible -- to create "complete" and "attractive" pages showing what they like to do, whom they like, their photographs, their videos, what they did today etc. At the end, more the people reveal, more other people would like to visit their pages (and so more traffic on OSNs). As you've already mentioned about some information exploitation possibilities, I don't need to to stress further a point that we already agree upon. Now my friend, if you're just relaxing because the percentage is small today then that's dangerous. There is a known threat and so we can't ignore it just because not "enough" incidents have happened or published -- "yet". Ultimately, as far as relationships are concerned, Internet's vantage point is it's asynchronous nature. It's better to use it for that advantage. It can be used to keep in touch with friends and family whom you can't call up regularly or may be it's better to use email/instant message if you just wanna say "hi! whassup?". That's it. But when it's considered as replacement for some real world activities or relationships, it's certainly waste of time (and further dangerous) -- and that's what's a goal of OSNs -- so we should just say NO to them! (1) Stanford study chart: http://cse.stanford.edu.... (2) Egoistic suicide: http://en.wikipedia.org... (in suicide section of the article)