Social networking online - Good or bad?

We were all at college / high school levels when we were introduced to a gadget (now, yes...but then it was an apparatus) which was called a computer, which, we were told, would simplify a lot of things, which used something called software to run tasks, and also something called firmware , which used your inputs to tell the software to run the task programmed to produce an output (sounds like the house that Jack built). We were lucky to escape college with a small dose of this, but this spectre continued to haunt us through our everyday lives.....Nowadays the computer and software have migrated from the hallowed domains of research & development and education right into our drawing rooms, bedrooms, and with the advent of the smartphones, become an extended part of oneself.
This harangue is by way of introducing the subject......we used to go out to meet friends, relatives, we used to gather round, make new friends....socializing used to mean meeting people face to face....Now with all these gadgets around, one simply "logs on" , "chats" with partners, "pokes" his/her friends, "likes" someone's comments, and, my word, this goes on for hours at a stretch. Mind you, I'm not complaining....far from it, I do "log on " to Facebook, "make" friends, "invite"s new friends...and with the kind of connectivity that Internet gives you, the world has indeed become a smaller, and a very likeable, place.
But....lekin (a very interesting anecdote on this word, however, you have to read my friend's blog, this is a complete aside), like all things, there is, shall we say, a dark or grey side to this. How secure, how safe, how clean is this whole new world? Any amount of parenting, schooling, advising, haranguing....falls flat when you face the teens......has been the case then, and is so now, and will always be. Such being the case, how should one look at these sites? Children are under pressure from their peers to have Facebook accounts......to understand what it means to be viewing these social networking sites (lots of good and bad things float around), I guess the elders will have to be savvy enough to understand, sift, weigh and school!!!
Welcome your comments, one and all....

The art of reading....

This is a well-flogged subject...with the older folk (I can include myself in this lot, I think) in general lamenting about the lack of the reading habit amongst the young, or the kind of "trash" that these "young" read!!! At the outset, let me range myself decidedly alongside the "young" lot, I'll come to the whys later on...

We've been generally brought up in what I can only term as the Golden era of literature. It used to be so natural to curl up with a nice book, regardless of age, starting from the famous Enid Blyton, then boys and girls choosing their paths, with Hardy boys or Nancy Drew, or Louisa M Alcott....the list is endless...and then coalescing into the ambrosia of literature....all this was part of growing up, and life moved along at a much more leisurely pace than the jetsetting of now. There even used to be extempore debates on Sir Walter Scott, or PG Wodehouse over dinner at home, those days...

Cut to today's youth, with the frenetic pace of life, and the myriad activities that these youngsters are up to. What with shunting them from one activity to another, and helping them keep pace with their education (which is also galloping), one would think that this lot would burn out in no time. But..no, sir, not only do they take all this in their stride, but they also read....Yes, if we were hooked on to stuff like King Arthur, The Crusades, and suchlike during our times, now it is Narnia, Eragon, Harry Potter.....but the reading habit is alive, and in safe hands.

Am putting this up for discussion, so would welcome your views on the subject....