Are social networks a time waster?

[froggyboy604]

I think it depends on how a person use social networks.

You can waste hours on a social network looking at pictures, playing flash games, etc, but it is also true for any other website like blogs, video sites, and photo sharing sites.

There are social networks like LinkedIN for helping people find jobs and references for jobs from people you know which can save you a lot of time when looking for a job compared to going door to door to hand out resume, or sending resume by e-mail or those online forms at job websites which may be more time consuming.

Also, social networks sometimes have useful fan pages, or groups for helping people share useful information like exercise advice, and healthy diet food with other members which could save other members more time since they don't need to use search engines to look through pages of results to find the right info on a topic.

Social Networking inboxes also usually have less spam than e-mail since Spammers usually get banned, and members can set their messages to only accept messages from other members on their friend list, so spam is less of a time waster on social networks.

Some people also found their long lost friend, or family member on a social network which is  quicker than other methods of finding missing people like hiring a private detective.

 

[Lleyn]

Social networks can indeed be useful for the reasons mentioned above, but only a handful actually use these advantages.

The majority of Facebook users just spend hours going through the profiles of their friends for no reason, chat with friends, or play games.

I wouldn't consider this time wasting however, since these people are just doing something they enjoy. Calling social networks a time waster would be the same as calling hobbies and other activities like watching movies/tv shows/anime or playing video games time wasters.

 

[FTON]

I would consider it as a waste of Time, some people think that computers an internet are social network.

 

[froggyboy604]

In a way, Social Networks can save time on hobbies like photo sharing and debating current events since back in the 1990s-2000s, I remeber a lot of people chat on the land line phone with a cord, reply to e-mail, and use pagers, regular cell phones, etc which can be more time consuming since you need to look up numbers in a paper phone book, delete junk mail, and those regular cell phones and pagers were not really easy to use.

Browsing photos on social networks also maybe faster than looking through photo albums with stacks of photos inside plastic pockets or opening attachments to photos in e-mail which can be slow since you need to download photo attachments, and manually open them in a picture program like MS Paint.

There are also social networks like Yammer and Github which let co-workers more easily work together on tasks, and get help with problems online.

 

[FTON]

In a way, Social Networks can save time on hobbies like photo sharing and debating current events since back in the 1990s-2000s, I remeber a lot of people chat on the land line phone with a cord, reply to e-mail, and use pagers, regular cell phones, etc which can be more time consuming since you need to look up numbers in a paper phone book, delete junk mail, and those regular cell phones and pagers were not really easy to use.

Browsing photos on social networks also maybe faster than looking through photo albums with stacks of photos inside plastic pockets or opening attachments to photos in e-mail which can be slow since you need to download photo attachments, and manually open them in a picture program like MS Paint.

There are also social networks like Yammer and Github which let co-workers more easily work together on tasks, and get help with problems online.

I don't know, I'm not sure of the sharing matter as many people have fought with each other regrading religious and political discussions, i've heard a lot in Facebook.

 

[Shortie]

I personally feel it really depends on how much you use them and what for. These people that tend to play a lot of games on them are pretty much wasting their lives away doing so. I use it on and off during the day to check messages and contact friends and family but I never use it to the extent some do on groups and pages using them like forums.

 

[Guardian]

My wife spends at least half her non-occupied time on Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram. So for her at least, it is a huge timewaster. 

 

[Lleyn]

I personally feel it really depends on how much you use them and what for. These people that tend to play a lot of games on them are pretty much wasting their lives away doing so. I use it on and off during the day to check messages and contact friends and family but I never use it to the extent some do on groups and pages using them like forums.

That would mean that most gamers are wasting their lives away I don't see the difference between a Facebook user spending hours playing Facebook games, and a regular gamer spending hours playing GTA V, Pokemon or Animal Crossing. I get that there are extreme cases of people that spend all their free time playing these games, but they are a minority, and similar people exist among those that play console games, watch TV, etc.

 

[froggyboy604]

I agree that console gamers, and gamers who play games on social networks both have extreme cases of people who choose to play games, and ignoring their duties like cooking, washing themselves, and going to work.

I think people make a bigger deal about gamers who spend more time on social networks to play games because more of the gamers on social networks are older women like house wives which society has stereotype as mostly spending  their time cooking dinner, taking care of kids, watching soap operas and dramas on TV and cleaning, so they should not have a lot of time to play games on social networks.

While console gamers are more commonly stereotype by non-gamers as young kids to teens who have a lot more free time for gaming because of a lack of adult commitments like paying the power bill, buying food, getting up early for work, etc, so it maybe more accepted for console gamers to spend more time gaming than social networking gamers to spend time gaming because older gamers on social networks have more duties they have to do like pay rent and buy food.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I do feel they are a waste of time and for many a great secuirty risk. That's not always true but most people mindlessly go on to kill time on FB or twitter.

 

[froggyboy604]

Twitter, and Facebook have a few useful features which are not mindless like using it to contact a company to help you with problems you are having with the company, or ask friends and strangers where there are good deals on food, internet, and gas since the local phone books are sometimes not updated as often as a company Facebook or Twitter page, and If you post, "Which company offer the cheapest internet?" on Twitter, your friends, family, and strangers can offer suggestions for good cheap ISP companies.

I think one of the main reasons the Xbox One got rid of a lot of its online-only gaming feature because  there were a lot of Angry Gamers on Twitter and Facebook posting angry posts about how much Online-Only Gaming stinks, and is not good for anyone.

 

[cpvr]

Social networks are indeed a time waster unless you're using it to chat to family members and friends. I don't play any games on facebook, so I just check everything and close the tab after a couple of hours. All social networking sites are the same, they hook you and keep you on the site.

 

[froggyboy604]

Some of the games on Facebook are starting to become pretty good now that more popular Mobile games like Fruit Ninja, and Candy Crush are on Facebook. I think soon better mobile games like Asphalt 8, or even older console games like Sonic the hedgehog, and Street Fighter maybe hosted on Facebook.

As the average computer, and internet connection becomes faster, we might someday see better Games like Call of Duty, Dota 2, Need For Speed, and League of Legends on Facebook rather than the typical Farmville, and Mafia War games which are on Facebook thesedays.

 

[FTON]

I personally feel it really depends on how much you use them and what for. These people that tend to play a lot of games on them are pretty much wasting their lives away doing so. I use it on and off during the day to check messages and contact friends and family but I never use it to the extent some do on groups and pages using them like forums.

Well, yes and no:
Yes: Games there are pretty fun, you can kill boredom when you play a fb game.
No: Addiction is bad, it is a waste of time.

 

[epicallyfun]

They can be time wasters, it depends.. I use social networks such as instagram and facebook.