Social Networking

I - Lazy Americans a. Though people don't write letters nearly as much anymore, this is more for convenience than anything; though letters might take days to arrive, a message sent through a social networking site such as Facebook allows nearly instantaneous transmission; and, despite what my opponent would have you believe, social networking has not erased the postal service or the phone companies; many people still retain home phones, cell phones, and, as far as I am aware, I still get bills, reports, and other things through the mail each day; there are some things that you simply can't ship through a social networking site, so we can clearly see that networking hasn't made us 'lazy'. II - Privacy v the Right to Know a. My opponent has misunderstood my argument. What I was referring to was not the parent sitting over the shoulder of the child every waking moment; I was referring to the fact that, on these sites, many parents will create accounts and add their children as friends; this allows them outside access to the account, which allows them to see the personal information posted, the pictures posted, and anything else on the outside that would seem insecure; thus, I stand by my statement that social networking sites allow parents to maintain their child's safety without the necessity of a direct invasion of privacy. b. As far as private messages are concerned, if a child receives anything that seems a bit strange in the inbox, then it is the child's responsibility to report this to a parent, or the site staff, or some other responsible adult; if they insist on keeping this a secret, then this is only the fault of the child, since no one else was alerted to these happenings (the site staff obviously can't take action against a possible threat that they don't know exists). III - Online safety a. My opponent fails to understand that, with chat rooms, a person can seem cool at the time, and so it seems fine to give away an e-mail or IM address; after that, it's far easier for a person to harass someone over an IM conversation, since, when the window is closed, the conversation magically disappears, leaving no evidence behind; with Facebook or MySpace, the messages clearly remain in the inbox, and posts will remain clear on the wall or otherwise; I'm not saying that IM, e-mail, etc. are bad; I'm simply saying that networking sites streamline the benefits of these services while also providing a bit more oversight; remember, the security of social sites can always be bolstered; IM, on the other hand, is generally left out in the cold. b. Look back to argument II a; as I've stated, social sites allow parents to create accounts, and oversee the pictures, personal information, etc. that is posted by their children, which allows parents to regulate it; this means that children are still allowed to socialize with friends, while being better protected from predators; the only harm here would be the children deliberately keeping secrets from parents, and in this case, the fault is entirely the child's for choosing not to report something suspicious. On the flip side with Con's case: 1. Education a. The problem is, the children ultimately have the choice to log in, or to do their school work; it is the child's responsibility to get this work done, as I'm sure my opponent and I can agree; the child knows full well that the work isn't getting done while on Facebook, and so the child is consciously shirking responsibility; however, this is entirely non-unique to social networking; the same could be said for hanging out with friends, or online gaming, or playing outside, or whatever recreational activity you choose; ultimately, the blame for not completing the work does not lie with the sites or the other activities; it lies with the child, who gave into temptation as opposed to carrying out his/her responsibility. b. Many teachers are taking advantage of these sites, and are creating accounts for themselves so that they might hold their students accountable for actions, and also update them on assignments, tests, etc. In fact, one particular open-source networking site, Elgg, allows students and teachers alike to create profiles, blogs, and is entirely intended to enhance the educational experience by giving students a place to go outside of class to contact teachers, keep current on assignments, projects, and quizzes, and to ensure, to the best of their abilities, that they don't shirk responsibility; if anything, the adaptability of networking sites is doing more good for education than anything. 2. Sexual Predators a. The fact is, these accounts, as my opponent tells us, were deleted; this proves that many of the oversight measures were effective in dealing with threats; further oversight would include concerned friends, and a watchful parent; again, if a child is being sexually harassed, somebody needs to be told for action to be taken; after all, police and ambulances aren't going to show up if you don't call 911 first. 3. Computer and Financial Harm a. As my opponent points out, many of these sites have trouble with viruses, bugs, glitches, phishing, etc. ; however, my opponent also unwittingly points out that these sites have DISCLAIMERS that WARN users about these kinds of dangers; obviously, if a site has taken the time to put out a warning about this kind of danger, users would be far past incompetent not to heed those warnings; any risks taken against the disclaimer are at the user's own risk. 4. Time and Obesity a. Exactly; every hobby takes time; however, this does not mean that a person has to be on their account "constantly", as my opponent would have you believe; social networking is simply like many other hobbies, nothing more; my opponent doesn't see the fact that, for the person using the site, being able to easily socialize with friends online and plan outings is beneficial to them; plus, as my opponent also unintentionally reveals, any hobby would take away from the possible time needed to exercise or read a book; this is entirely non-unique to networking sites. b. Obesity, as far as I am aware, isn't directly caused by social networking; it's caused by things like a poor diet, slow metabolism, gross lack of exercise (even people who use Facebook can take 20 minutes from their day every once in a while), and pure genetics; so, the argument about obese Americans, while true, doesn't really correspond to social networking. 5. Harmful information a. This is not the fault of social networking sites; a lot of information can be taken from a lot of places, just because of the internet's open nature; people have things stolen like their social security number, their credit card number, their bank account information, etc. So, with using the internet, there's always an imperative to keep information safe; plus, on most social networking sites I've seen, users are (generally) smart enough not to post direct addresses on their profiles, somewhat eliminating this risk. b. Users have to exercise a certain amount of discretion when posting sensitive information online; again, look back a point my opponent previously mentioned; these sites have disclaimers warning against this kind of situation; so, as I've proven, the responsibility to avoid these risks and post only safe information lies solely with the user. *Addendum* With few characters left, let me remind everyone that my opponent entirely DROPPED her argument from round 1, so this definitely goes Pro. Now, I look forward to my opponent's response, I again wish her good luck, and with that, I'm off to lunch. :)