Social media websites are helpful and not hurtful

THE EDITOR:

Tonight I am going to a party. I heard about it on Facebook. I invited my friends through Facebook. This is simply a fast and efficient form of communication.

I think we can go ahead and not be so scared about Facebook and the new social media. The complaints that I’ve heard so far from last Thursday’s column (“Bring back the old social media,” April 22) and Friday’s letter to the editor (“Much anxiety with many newer social media sites,” April 22) are that Facebook is “lame,” LinkedIn is cold and exploitative, and Craigslist can give you HIV.

Old people are on Facebook, and yes, it is kind of lame. That seems like a big “so what” to me.

LinkedIn is much worse than Facebook, according to the columnist Olivia Blanchard, because there is no pretense of human connection.

Well, LinkedIn is not a social network; it is a business network. You’re not on there to connect with potential employers over meaningful poetry or great basketball games, you are there to advertise your skill set.

In Kayla Harrelson’s letter, she expressed anxieties at the danger of social media. Personals ads existed long before Craigslist. What Harrelson is really concerned about is people meeting face-to-face, which is the opposite of the sentiment expressed by Blanchard.

I have never heard someone say “Party? No thanks, I’m spending tonight online.”



David Deerson
Freshman
History