INTRODUCTION Social media refers to the means of interactions among people in which they create, share, and exchange

information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Furthermore, social media depend on mobile and web-based technologies to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, discuss, and modify user-generated content. It introduces substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities and individuals. Social media differentiates from traditional/industrial media in many aspects such as quality, reach, frequency, usability, immediacy and permanence. There are many effects that stem from internet usage. As internet users continue to spend more time with social media sites than any other type of site. At the same time, the total time spent on social media in the U.S. across PC and mobile devices increased by 37 percent to 121 billion minutes in July 2012 compared to 88 billion minutes in July 2011. Much of the criticism of social media are about its exclusiveness as most sites do not allow the transfer of information from one to another, disparity of information available, issues with trustworthiness and reliability of information presented, concentration, ownership of media content, and the meaning of interactions created by social media. However, it is also argued that social media has positive effects such as allowing the democratization of the internet while also allowing individuals to advertise themselves and form friendships. Most people associate social media with positive outcomes, yet this is not always the case. Due to the increase in social media websites, there seems to be a positive correlation between the usage of such media with cyber bullying, online sexual predators and the decrease in faceto-face interactions. Likewise, media seem to be influencing kids' lives in terms of exposing them to images of alcohol, tobacco, and sexual behaviors. This issue is becoming even more prominent as kids are starting to engage with such media sites at younger ages. Instead of giving a kid a toy at the dinner table to keep them quiet, parents are now resorting to IPads and other technological devices that are more advanced. Kids are thus learning how to operate technological devices at ages where they are able to become experts as infants.

Modern social media first surfaced in the early 1990s. One of the first social media sites was created in 1994, and it was called "Geocities." The concept was for users to create their own websites, characterized by one of six "cities" that were known for certain characteristics. Decision making (decision from Latin decidere "to decide, determine," literally "to cut off," from de- "off" and caedere "to cut") can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice.[1] The output can be an action or an opinion of choice. Human performance in decision terms has been the subject of active research from several perspectives.

From a psychological perspective, it is necessary to examine individual decisions in the context of a set of needs, preferences an individual has and values they seek.

From a cognitive perspective, the decision making process must be regarded as a continuous process integrated in the interaction with the environment.

From a normative perspective, the analysis of individual decisions is concerned with the logic of decision making and rationality and the invariant choice it leads to.

Yet, at another level, it might be regarded as a problem solving activity which is terminated when a satisfactory solution is reached. Therefore, decision making is a reasoning or emotional process which can be rational or irrational, can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions. Decisions are likely to be involuntary and following the decision, we spend time analyzing the cost and benefits of that decision. This is known as "Rational Choice Theory," which encompasses the notion that we maximize benefits and minimize the costs. One must keep in mind that most decisions are made unconsciously. Jim Nightingale, Author of Think Smart-Act Smart, states that "we simply decide without thinking much about the decision process." In a controlled environment, such as a classroom, instructors encourage students to weigh pros and cons before making a decision. However in the real world, most of our decisions are made unconsciously in our mind because frankly, it would take too much time to sit down and list the pros and cons of each decision we must make on a daily basis Logical decision making is an important part of all science-based professions, where specialists apply their knowledge in a given area to making informed decisions. For example, medical decision making often involves making a diagnosis and selecting an appropriate treatment. Some research using naturalistic methods shows, however, that in situations with

higher time pressure, higher stakes, or increased ambiguities, experts use intuitive decision making rather than structured approaches, following a recognition primed decision approach to fit a set of indicators into the expert's experience and immediately arrive at a satisfactory course of action without weighing alternatives. Recent robust decision efforts have formally integrated uncertainty into the decision making process. However, Decision Analysis, recognized and included uncertainties with a structured and rationally justifiable method of decision making since its conception in 1964.

Wikipedia states that a social network is a social structure made of nodes(which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations (Social network, 2007). With the rapid growth of people who use or have access to the Internet, social networking websites are a must for the Internet community to stay in touch with each other. Social networking web sites help people keep in touch with old friends, make new friends, distribute new data or product, and many more aspects of our everyday lives. The first official social networking web site was Classmates.com which was founded in 1995 (Social Network, 2007). What followed was a slow but steady growth in numbers of social networking websites to the overwhelming number of sites we have today. The reason that social networking websites work so well is that, like their inception, they start of small and then grow exponentially. The site starts off with a few people who then tell their friends about the site, then those friends tell their friends about the site and soon the site is a huge database of users connected by friends, acquaintances, or just random people. The web sites are made to allow users to create a "profile" describing themselves and to exchange public or private messages and list other users or groups they are connected to in some way. (Social Network 2007). Most social networking websites are often designed to fit a certain type of community such as the college community being mirrored by Facebook.com or a music/party community mirrored by MySpace.com. With the rapid growth of social networking web sites and their global scale usage, whatever one feels concerning social networking web sites is irrelevant because social networking web sites are on a popularity rise and are here to stay.

SOCIAL NETWORK SITES (SNS): A DEFINITION We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to: (1) Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. While we use the term "social network site" to describe this phenomenon, the term"social networking sites" also appears in public discourse, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. "Networking" emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. While networking is possible on these sites, it is not the primary practice on many of them, nor is it what differentiates them from other forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC). What makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between "latent ties" (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some offline connection. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them "social network sites." HOW DOES Social Networking Sites (SNS) WORK While SNSs have implemented a wide variety of technical features, their backbone consists of visible profiles that display an articulated list of Friends who are also users of the system. Profiles are unique pages where one can type oneself into being. After joining an SNS, an individual is asked to fill out forms containing a series of questions. The profile is generated using the answers to these questions, which typically include descriptors such as age, location, interests, and an "about me" section. Most sites also encourage users to upload a profile photo. Some sites allow users to enhance their profiles by adding multimedia content or modifying their profile's look and feel. Others, such as Facebook, allow users to add modules("Applications") that enhance their profile. The visibility of a profile varies by site and according to user discretion. By default, profiles on Orkut or hi5.com are crawled by search engines, making them visible to anyone,

regardless of whether or not the viewer has an account. Alternatively, siteslike MySpace allow users to choose whether they want their profile to be public or Friends only." Facebook takes a different approachby default, users who are part of the same "network" can view each other's profiles, unless a profile owner has decided to deny permission to those in their network. Structural variations around visibility and access are one of the primary ways that SNSs differentiate themselves from each other. After joining a social network site, users are prompted to identify others in the system with whom they have a relationship. The label for these relationships differs depending on the site popular terms include "Friends," "Contacts," and "Fans." Most SNSs require bi-directional confirmation for Friendship, but some do not. These one-directional ties are sometimes labelled as "Fans" or "Followers," but many sites call these Friends as well. The term "Friends" can be misleading, because the connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday vernacular sense, and the reasons people connect are varied (Boyd, 2006). The public display of connections is a crucial component of SNSs. The Friends list contains links to each Friend's profile, enabling viewers to traverse the network graph by clicking through the Friends lists. On most sites, the list of Friends is visible to anyone who is permitted to view the profile, although there are exceptions. Most SNSs also provide a mechanism for users to leave messages on their Friends' profiles. This feature typically involves leaving "comments," although sites employ various labels for this feature. In addition, SNSs often have a private messaging feature similar to webmail. While both private messages and comments are popular on most of the major SNSs, they are not universally available. Beyond profiles, Friends, comments, and private messaging, SNSs vary greatly in their features and user base. Some have photo-sharing or video-sharing capabilities; others have built-in blogging and instant messaging technology. Many SNSs target people from specific geographical regions or linguistic groups, although this does not always determine the site's constituency. Orkut, for example, was launched in the United States with an English-only interface. While SNSs are often designed to be widely accessible, many attract homogeneous populations initially, so it is not uncommon to find groups using sites to segregate themselves by nationality, age, educational level, or other factors that typically segment society, even if that was not the intention of the designers.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Social Media As it relates to social networking in the workplace, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Benefits of social networking platforms vary based on platform type, features and the company itself. Social networking platforms may allow organizations to improve communication and productivity by disseminating information among different groups of employees in a more efficient manner, resulting in increased productivity. While it is not meant to be all-inclusive, the list below outlines some of the possible advantages and disadvantages. Possible advantages:

Facilitates open communication, leading to enhanced information discovery and delivery. Allows employees to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions and share links. Provides an opportunity to widen business contacts. Targets a wide audience, making it a useful and effective recruitment tool. Improves business reputation and client base with minimal use of advertising. Expands market research, implements marketing campaigns, delivers communications and directs interested people to specific web sites.

Possible disadvantages:

Opens up the possibility for hackers to commit fraud and launch spam and virus attacks. Increases the risk of people falling prey to online scams that seem genuine, resulting in data or identity theft.

May result in negative comments from employees about the company or potential legal consequences if employees use these sites to view objectionable, illicit or offensive material.

Potentially results in lost productivity, especially if employees are busy updating profiles, etc.

Social Networking User Policy Social networking use policy generally includes the following elements:

Defines what social networking is particular to your organization, so employees know exactly what is meant by the term.

Establishes a clear and defined purpose for the policy. Communicates benefits of social networking and of having a policy. Provides a clear platform for educating employees. Takes into consideration any legal ramifications of not following laws. Refers to confidentiality of employer trade secrets and private or confidential information. Talks about productivity in terms of social networking.

Provides guidance regarding social networking outside of company time/property that could be associated with the company, employees or customers. Some employers may prohibit posting of company information on social networking sites without explicit consent.

Provides examples of policy violations. Outlines disciplinary measures to be taken for policy violations. What may be the most concerning aspect of social networking platforms is that they encourage people to share personal information. Even the most cautious and wellmeaning individuals can give away information they should not; the same applies to what is posted on company-approved social networking platforms.