News focus: The good and the bad of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter

Mar 18 2010 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Sarah Jane Robinson, principal lecturer in psychology at Huddersfield University for the last four years, said there were both positive and negative aspects of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The social psychologist said: “There is a need for people to communicate with each other.

“Within social networking sites you can accumulate friends, sometimes in the loosest term, and they can learn about each others hobbies and interests.

“But of course there are some negative things about social networking sites.

“They can be detrimental to society, they can lead to poor interpersonal communication.

“There is a loss of face to face social contact skills too – we communicate as much through body language as we do in what we say, which sites like Facebook and Twitter do not allow. So humour or sarcasm can be misunderstood in the same way it can in text messages or emails.

“There is also the tendency for us to say things more spontaneously, without thinking about it.

“Another potentially dangerous aspect is that people will say things that they wouldn’t normally say to a person. It can raise an issue which wouldn’t be raised during face to face contact.”

Sarah Jane believes someone’s social networking site is a projection of how they want to be seen by others.

“Within seconds news and opinion can be broken on sites like Facebook or Twitter and shared among many other people.

“What they do and say can have an immediate response – good or bad.”