by Adja Roznic

Created on: January 15, 2009

As renowned political scientist and Harvard professor Robert Putnam said in a recent publication, "social networks have value. Just as a screwdriver (physical capital), or a college education (human capital), can increase productivity, so too social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups." These vital social contacts can be most effectively brought upon by social networking. The main benefits of social networking that will outweigh any of the detriments are:

-Increases in social capital

-Positive educational impact

-and, Economic benefits

Social networking websites, such as Facebook and MySpace, without doubt dramatically increase social capital for HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of users. The importance of social capital has become apparent through many empirical studies.
One such study is that of Michigan State University. Within this study, the benefits of social capital become obvious. For example, it was found that social capital has been linked to a variety of positive social outcomes, such as better public health, lower crime rates, and more efficient financial markets. It has also been found that an organization's success can be dependent on social networking. In this year's election, social networking was a large part of the approach by Barack Obama. This is a prime example of an organization becoming more successful through an increase in social capital. An increase in social capital is one of the imperative reasons why social networking has a positive impact on the United States.

Students can greatly benefit from social networking.
According to a recent survey by the National School Boards Association, 96% of students use social networks. Of this great percentage of students using social networking, more than half of them use it to discuss education. The study acknowledges these the educational benefits and even says that this technology should be implemented IN the classroom.
Only 7% of those surveyed claimed to be cyber bullied, this is a much smaller percentage than that of the amount of those which are being educationally benefited by social networking.
Again, this brings me back to the wording of this topic. More students are being benefited by social networking than are being hurt by it, therefore ON BALANCE social networking has a positive EDUCATIONAL impact.

Another group that is benefited by social networking is that of businesses. Some of the ways they are benefiting are lower costs, gains in credibility and trust, and the building of

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