Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism

Essentially, a social network is a social arrangement created by individuals or organization linked to each other by varied kinds of interrelationships such as friendship, believes and kinship. Recent technological developments have seen an exponential growth of a number of social network sites among others face book and my space which are very famous. Despite having improved numerous spheres of life, these sites have a great bearing on the futures of community and friendship. The effects of these sites may be negative or positive.    

Social network site facilitates the development of connections between various people. People can connect with friends, colleagues or meet new people. Also various categories of people such as manufactures and politicians can reach voters or consumers. Rosen vividly explores these issues in her essay “Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism.” According to her essay the democrats seem to be good at socializing with active membership in several social networks as compared to their Republican counterparts of whom some subtly acknowledge the existence of the sits. Advertisers also have their pages on these cites from where they can convince the member of the online community to try their products. Though the sites are in their infancy, they are a clear indication of how close the society is interwoven into one global community.

Social network sites also eliminate people’s privacy, certainly a negative aspect of these cites. Rosen refers this as “indecent exposure.” People don’t know how much about themselves that they should display on the pages of these social sites.  As Rosen notes vulgarity and coarseness are the order of the day on social sites. Users have to find a way of setting themselves apart from such madness. Exposure of intimate information by the social sites users who deem more committed to self exposure can be very dangerous. Some information can attract criminal child molesters and pedophiles that target children using social sites.   Rosen on the other hand attribute indecent behavior to young users who are still naïve and do not know which information should be discreet and what should be shared. Indecent exposure is however not entirely negative. It can be very beneficial to us as we get to know the people we are involved with. As Rosen explains, we get to know to know our friends and our friends’ friends.   

Social network sites also provide an arena for people seeking recognition and approval from other to try and become darlings of people. Rosen notes this and refers to it as “status seeking.” She likens them the affluent that chose to preserve and express their affluence through portraits. Such individual create fake celebrity profiles on the social networks sites in order to bask in other peoples glories. Ironically, attracting new friends, getting status and compliments are some of the responds for development of these social sites. Not being a member of social network sites therefore leaves one out of place.

In sum, social networks will general revolutionize friendship and community structures in the current era. Friendship will generally be enhanced through improved communication and easy networking. This will turn the world into a single global village where everyone is interconnected. Certainly, these sites have become an integral part of life and people can drive all sort of social sites ranging from friendship, status, companionships, networking or making new connections.