Social Domains lead to benevolence ?

We are all familiar with the negatives of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and other social domains. Since their inception, these social interactive networks have received a vast amount of negative feedback from parents, teachers, team coaches etc. It actually makes me wonder that if kids weren't bludgeoned over the head with the notion of it being so wrong to have a MySpace, would the still do it? All of this on top of the fact that in almost any newspaper, you can find an article about someone who met someone else on Facebook and got raped, or gave away too much information and got kidnapped, it almost seems as if there is no positive benefit to being a member of one of these social networks. But there is.

The thought that these social networks could actually lead to kids becoming nicer is quite outrageous at first. However, if you delve more deeply into the thought, it becomes not that out of the question after all. We all know the pressures of making new friends. We all know how nice and even fake you can call it we act when we try to make new friends and impress someone. This stems from us not wanted to reveal too much for fear of being shot down. Anyways the only thing that these networks are doing is bringing this to a new medium. But they are also, through a slew of applications and fun little tidbits, making us appreciate each other more and more. 

I can only speak from experience but i know that it feels good when you log on and see that you have a comment, or a friend request, or even a bumper sticker. It just shows that someone out there is thinking about you, or better yet, caring about you. We are all guilty of this, it explains why some people take great pride in their advanced flash pages, or thousands of friends, or mix of hilarious and meaningful bumper stickers. These networks are a reflection of the ever advancing digital world we are being catapulted into. This is how friends are being made now and this is how people are showing their kindness to each other, by sending them a bumper sticker, leaving them a comment, writing on their wall, or poking them.