In recent years social media has become deeply integrated in our everyday lives

In recent years social media has become deeply integrated in our everyday lives. The concept of social media itself includes several categories: blogs, live journals, forums, chats, dating sites and, of course, social networking sites or SNS. Essentially, they all are platforms for people’s remote communication, i.e. exchange of different types of information: text messages, music, photo and video content. The most popular with the young people are social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vkontakte and so on. On the one hand, a social network is a very convenient tool for a quick message exchange, searching for old friends and making new acquaintances, keeping important information and discussing pressing issues in groups, right in the comfort of one’s home. On the other hand, psychologists and psychiatrists of the world ring alarm bells: social networking addiction too often becomes the cause of serious mental and nervous disorders, such as depression, social isolation, autism, and even suicide attempts of teenagers and young people. To my mind, social networking sites can be both useful and dangerous depending on who and how uses them. And I want to try to analyze their advantages and disadvantages.