Do internet social network cause more harm than good

Since for some reason this debate only has 1 round, I will use my space here to go against the arguments put forth by pro and then propose a counterargument as to why I believe social networks cause more good than harm. 1:It's stressful. This is frankly an empty statement with no support to it. How is it stressful? I check facebook, instagram, twitter, and all my emails everyday and I don't find any bit of it stressful at all. I wish there was an explanation so that I can refute this claim- but this is purely subjective at this point. Perhaps my opponent finds it stressful. I do not. 2:It reduces productivity. Again subjective. [1] Above is a link that proves: "Unemployed social networkers spending 3.5 hours a day on social media, versus 3 hours for the employed." Those with more free time go on social networks more often. As a university student I can tell you I do not spend time on social media unless I'm finished with studying for an exam or completing assignments. It does not reduce productivity because it is an act performed mainly when you have free time. 3:It costs money -- and it going to start costing much more as sites find new ways to monetize. Unless you're referring to internet cost- facebook and instagram are free. So is twitter and every other social media site that is immensely popular... 4:It has become noise and clutter, not communication. Another empty statement. I use it to communicate with friends and family that are far away since I am out of state at a university. It also lets me keep in touch with people from highschool. I consider that communication, not clutter. 5:It reduces creativity. How? OP did not touch on this at all. 6:It's no longer real. Ignoring the fact that its impossible to have 18000 friends on facebook- it is up to the user to use social media effectively. Because a select few have thousands of friends on facebook that they do not know in real life does not mean that social media is no longer "real" (which my opponent did not define). It just means that certain people use it in different ways. Many people I know have less than 300 friends on facebook- they only add people from their school, family, and people they regularly talk to. It doesn't matter if you don't talk to all your fb friends every single day- you can still be notified of how people are doing in their lives through status updates and photo albums. "Social networks are being used as a weapon against people." Well then we should educate teens on how to avoid cyber bullying. [2] The first bullet point says to educate yourself. If you get cyberbullied then its either your fault for not stopping it or your parents fault for not teaching your common sense. Someone sends you a hateful message? Block them. Someone posts something nasty on your fb page? Block them and delete the post. IGNORE HATEFUL MESSAGES. If someone's sending you death threats or doing revenge porn then that's already illegal- cyberbullying has nothing to do with those laws. We teach kids how to deal with physical bullying in person- we should also teach them how to deal with cyberbullying since its very avoidable. The problem does not lie within the social media sites- the problem is a lack of education in the matter. Now I will give some main points as to why I think social media sites are beneficial. 1.) Keeps you connected to friends and families This one should be a given but my opponent seems to disagree with me about this issue. Let me go back to my example. I go to school in MA. My family mostly resides in CT. Many of my friends are either in CT or in other universities across America. I know many people from European countries. Its impossible to text each one of them constantly and its a hassle to try and keep up with everyone's lives when they're so far away- I'm busy enough as a college student! Social media makes it possible to interact with others easily. 2.) Helps you get jobs. My opponent mentioned linkln in his post which I believe was a mistake on his part. Networking is a huge component of getting a job- especially if you're about to become a college graduate, are a graduate student, or you've graduated with some sort of degree. Connecting with people from your university and connecting with recruiters will help you get jobs in the long run- it also allows possible employers to view your page and see what experience and skills you have behind your belt. They can get a full resume just by checking out your online profile. If something sparks their interest- you might just land a job. Its helped many of my friends get paid internships at major software companies. Linkln is extremely useful. 3.) Helps you to voice your opinions freely. Let's take one website in specific for this main point: Twitter. On twitter you can be anonymous. There's no obligation to provide your real name, anyone can view your tweets if you have a public profile, and best of all you can add trending hashtags to make sure your posts get read. Let's say you have a radical political view- you can voice that on twitter without judgement from people you know! Let's say you hate Obama- You can voice that on twitter without judgement from people you know or the public if you're well known! Lots of political activists use twitter to push their agenda and voice their opinions. Without social media, their voices would not be heard. In this very short debate I have proved that my opponent has made a lot of subjective claims without objective evidence and that the benefits to social media outweigh the possible negatives experienced by few. I urge all to vote in favor of the strongest argument! Thanks to my opponent for this debate- I just wish it had more rounds. [1]http://www.marketingcharts.com... [2]http://www.cyberbullying.us...