Social networks:Advantages and disadvantages

Tugba Bastürk, Polina Urbanskaya, Kevin Makiadi, Deva Canatan HH610

ContentsI. Introduction: What are social networks?

II. Facebook as the most popular social network in Germany

1.) Short history, number of users

2.) Advantages

3.) Disadvantages and possible risks

4.) How to protect yourself from dangers

III. Conclusion

What are social networks?

- grouping of individuals into specific groups- like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision

Different social networks

- Twitter - Wer-kennt-wen.de- MySpace - StudiVZ

- Facebook - MeinVZ - Lokalisten.de - SchülerVZ

Facebook as the most popular social network in Germany

- Most popular social network - July 2011: more than 800 million

active users

Facebook is the most used social network. About 50% of the users visit Facebook.

At least weeklyAt least monthlySeldomer

Using of Facebook

Unknown

No facebook using

User

Short history

- Launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg- born on 14 May 1984 in White Plains,

New York- studied psychology and computer science at Harvard University Cambridge

Advantages of social networks

- Fast communication- Direct communication- Low costs- Meet celebrities- Be informed about your friends

- Share your experients (music, video etc.)

- Keeping contact with family, friends and colleagues

- Building new/ old friendships- Sharing interests and hobbies

–Exchange with people around the world–Employees are searched by

companies (good profile)–Can play games

Disadvantages of social networks

- Photos, comments etc. that we post will be forever on the Internet

- Private is suddenly no longer private

- Will be accessible to the general public

- We spend a lot of time on PCs

- Cases of online mobbing (Cybermobbing) and stalking

- Poorly regulated- Name, location, age etc. can

be used to commit online crimes

Risks of a social networks

–Cybercriminals can easily get private data –Targeted attacks against the users–For example: personalized spam and

phishing attacks

–Hacker infect the computers of users with viruses– try to lure recipients with newsletters etc.

to websites

- viruses and trojans are deposited on websites

- potential employers might find information about you that is not appropiate (photos etc.)

Thank you for your attention