Nobody can argue that social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook, have an enormous impact on American society because news often travels through these sites faster than it does on FOX New and users are able to be real-time witnesses and, in come cases, participants, in events happening around the globe.

Want an example? Here’s one. On the night of September 30, 2012, at around 6:15, Kara Alongi, a high school student from Clark, New Jersey, tweeted a disturbing message. Her tweet said, “There is someone in my hour ecall 911.”

When her parents returned home they found an empty house and called 911 to report their daughter missing. There was no sign of forced entry and the Clark Chief of Police, Alan Scherb, said there was no foul play visible in the house.

Kara’s tweet went viral and within hours she had thousands of followers. Many followers were helping in the efforts to find her by hashtagging “#helpfindkara”. Others who were more doubtful were online mocking her by referring to the popular action movie Taken and tweeting jabs such as, “They’re going to take you, I want you to tweet everything you see.”

Nobody was quite sure what happened to Kara until Chief Scherb dispelled the rumors of her kidnapping at 11:55 p.m. on September 30 with a report that the tweet was, in fact, a hoax. A k-9 unit, according to Scherb, had followed Kara’s scent out her back door, through a neighbor’s yard, around the corner, and then back onto her block where her scent went cold. There was also a call to a local taxi company asking for a cab at Kara’s address. When questioned the taxi driver reported that he had driven a customer to the train station; he later identified the girl as Kara Alongi. Kara is still missing, but she is now considered a run-away.

As of October 1, Scherb said the state is not pressing charges and that everyone is just hoping for her safe return.

There is no doubt teenagers seek attention, whether it be negative or positive, and some will seek it through sites like Twitter. Twitter is a worldwide phenomenon that doesn’t allow any privacy. Are social media sites hurting our society by taking events such as Kara’s apparent hoax onto a global level. Years ago an incident such as this would be local, today it is worldwide. Register your opinion on the poll below.