"Social networking- generally a website (ex. Facebook, Myspace) where people can add "friends"and communicate with them through multiple ways such as leaving comments on posted pictures or blogs, or perhaps sending them a message that can read when they sign into the site at a later time."- Urban Dictionary. .
Social networking seems like a completely harmless matter, twitter especially; however this is not the case. It is everywhere, it has evolved from becoming an after school activity into an obsessive need to make sure you didn't miss anything. It makes one feel the need to constantly keep up with their peers' lives and never miss the latest gossip or dispute via Twitter. It can be helpful if used properly, however with the youth of America, it is simply being abused. It can control one's life, people put social networking before other things.
Teachers believe that Twitter along with other social networking sites "are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a short attention span and live for the moment". (Facebook 2) Social networking isn't just affecting our face-to-face communication; it's also affecting the development of a child/teens brain and their education. There aren't any grammar rules on twitteryou get 140 characters to write whatever and however you want. Given the fact you only get so many characters teens shorten things up with other slang. They use it as an opportunity to not have to use any proper punctuation or spelling. In fact it's "cool" to not follow proper rules of grammar. Some will try to shorten up words, for example, instead of saying because they will shorten it to "bc". Some will even say it in person. "Less sophisticated children will find it hard to differentiate between social networking communication and real world communication".