Advertisers can be in more control of what the viewer likes and what their interests are. According to the Harvard Business School website, “By understanding the social network of users, firms can better understand and influence consumers’ behavior,” says Harvard Professor Sunil Gupta. When putting down personal information, such as: what school you go to, or any type of information in your about me, the advertiser can search for keywords throughout your page. For example, if on Facebook your information shows that you are a college student an ad might show up that is advertising textbook stores or any type of product relating to education.

Businesses can also create a page to help support their business. According to smallbusinesscommuting.com, in mid-June Dell announced it had earned 3 million in revenue just from using Twitter. That is definite proof that social networking can increase sales in products.

According to www.sentrypc.com, “One in five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the Internet say they have received an unwanted sexual solicitation via the Web. Solicitations were defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give personal sexual information.”

A story was written that was published on msnbc.com about the dangers of online predators and how social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook attract online predators. The article is about a 14-year-old from Connecticut that happens to be among the over 40 million members on the popular social networking site Myspace. When they met the 14-year-old was unaware that the boy she had been talking to on Myspace was actually a 21-year-old man.  In the article it’s stated that Myspace officials failed to conduct an online interview but comment and say that they are determined to provide a safe-place for young people, but cannot regulate certain people that use the site. As for the other social networking site, Facebook, they say that they try to shut out people that are not connected to certain schools.

“We protect the viewing of the profile to only students or other people with valid e-mail addresses from those universities,” says Facebook‘s founder Chris Daly.

Some advantages of social networking are that it gives you easier access to fulfill these social interaction needs. It gives you the ability to communicate within long distances. It makes long distance relationships a lot easier within friends, significant others, and family members. It helps you keep in contact with people that you know, but do not now them well enough to talk to them everyday. It makes you feel your social life is more complete. It also helps build relationships that you would not have otherwise it there was no social network to communicate through. It makes this feel of connection, that people as human beings need.

Some disadvantages of social networking may be the non-physical communication that it lacks. Over time not connecting on a physical level can lead to social problems. It might affect the future of many lives, it just connecting through social networking sites. And it might interfere with your career as an adult.  To show a severe case of the lack of social interaction; in the 1970′s the case study “Genie” was a huge psychological revelation that supported the case of social deprivation. Genie was a 13-year -old girl found in her Los Angeles home strapped to a potty chair in her room where police said, she had been since she was and infant. Her mother died after Genie was born and her father was in such depression about her mother that he locked Genie in her room without any parental care. She was never taught how to talk, or encountered any social interaction within these 13 years of her life. Genie acted as if she was an infant child, showing little emotion and the inability to speak. She was labeled mildly retarded due to the lack of social contact.

It is to no surprise that fraud can be a major issue when dealing with social networking. As in any other Internet type social media pedophiles and other types of manipulating criminals can create profiles and connect with users from around the world. As in the late 90s, chat room fraud was a big concern. The same incidents are happening through these social networking sites. Some medias are more secure than others such as Facebook. Facebook provides an application called networks. When applying networks you would have to go through the networks official website to be approved. For example, when getting accepted to a certain college you are applying to you would go to the Facebook networking application and sign up for the network IUPUI student. Facebook then sends the notification to IUPUI where they approve that you are an IUPUI student. That is something that can decrease the use of fraud on social networks such as Facebook. But what about other social networks? On Myspace.com, there is no legitimate way to tell whom the person you are talking to or whose page you are looking at. And when you turn eighteen years old your page is made no longer private. Letting anyone that is a use on Myspace look at your pictures and your page and accept you as a friend. Although Myspace.com was made primarily for music artist, people still use it for personal use. These sites are were fraud is committed everyday.