Resolved: That, on balance, social networking Web sites have a positive impact on the United States.

Thank you for your acceptance of this debate. To begin, I would ask for consideration of the actual impact of any negatives of social networking. My opponent contends businesses are negatively affected by social networking sites because employees use working hours to go onto social networking sites. However, if one looks at the sources my opponent has presented (http://www.net-security.org... and http://mashable.com...), it will become apparent that it is very easy to block such undesirable social networking sites, *reducing their impact to negligible levels* (a statement which I assume my opponent agrees with based on his sources). As I presented in Round One, rather than being harmfully impacted by social networking sites, businesses have benefited. Companies like Comcast, Best Buy, and IBM have been successfully using social networking to increase their customer satisfaction (thanks to the ease of personal care and more readily available help with social networking forums) and increase their employee retention rates (since employees are more inclined to feel like they "belong" when interacting on social networks). In fact, according to Graham Jones, an "Internet Psychologist," Best Buy has seen its turnover rate drop to a mere 8% after implementing their employee social networking system (compared to the 60% industry average turnover rate seen previously in Best Buy). In addition, I would like to reiterate that of those employees using social networking tools in the workplace, 65 percent say that it has made them and/or their colleagues more efficient, and 45 percent forty-five percent say that it has sparked ideas and creativity for them personally. As such, far from being detrimental to businesses, social networking sites have far-reaching benefits. My opponent also mentions that social networking leads to an increase in sexual predation towards teens. However, according to Michele Ybarra, the founder of Internet Solutions for Kids, "There has been a recent concern about the risks posed by social networking to young people, but we found that instant messaging [and chat rooms were] more frequently cited than social networking sites as places for unwanted sexual solicitation and harassment." According to Harvard.edu, 43% of unwanted sexual solicitations occurred via instant messaging and 32% occurred in chat rooms. In addition, social networking (and even the internet as a whole) is *not* the catalyst for a rise of sexual predation. According to Time Magazine, "only 2.4% of arrests for sexual assault are against Internet predators." This translates to only .6% of arrests for sexual assault being caused by social networking sites. Evidently, have little impact when considered in the big picture. Contrary to my opponents belief, many experts in the field advocate social networking as beneficial towards self-confidence levels. Emma-Jane Cross, Beatbullying's CEO, explains that "[t]hrough this technology, so many young people, ripe for bullying at school, have found a community they can call their own and have benefited so powerfully to become emotionally resilient young people with renewed self confidence and greater life chances." BusinessWeek writes that "[w]hen people are bullied they often don't feel confident about speaking to people face to face about what is going on - whereas doing it online is quite easy." Social networking Web sites can help shy people come out of their shells by teaching them how to interact with others in an online environment. Also, I would like to note my opponent agrees with my "educational impact" contention that I explained in Round One. In summation, social networking sites have a positive impact on the United States because 1) They are great tools for businesses to reap large rewards 2) They provide substantial benefits in the education of America's youth 3) They allow an increase of self-confidence among Americans 4) Sexual predation is extremely uncommon on social networking sites, ergo having minimal impacts 5) The impact of the few amount of hours lost at work thanks to employer's blocking undesired social networking sites is far surpassed by the other benefits provided to businesses by social networking sites.