One of the obvious benefits of Facebook is that it allows people to strengthen current relationships and create new ones. It makes sense since Facebook’s service is based around the idea of letting you connect with friends, family and acquaintances which would be difficult to do even with modern technology such as cell phones or e-mail. While a cell phone allows you to quickly contact people, it can be laborious to keep tabs if the social group becomes too large. Facebook allows this in a quick and efficient manner. We now can create and keep relationships that would otherwise fall apart. When we leave one off-line community and move to another it doesn’t mean that we want those relationships to dissolve. In fact, one study came to the conclusion that “online interactions do not necessarily remove people from their offline world but may indeed be used to support relationships and keep people in contact, even when life changes move them away from each other” (Ellison). Without Facebook, we would need to spend a large amount of time and energy maintaining or creating long distance relationships but with Facebook, we can easily see what they’re doing, how they feel, what major events are going on in their lives and overall what is going on in their lives and do it efficiently. It doesn’t mean that people are forgoing off-line relationships for online ones, it means that people want to keep the relationships they have, not break them off when they are no longer able to see the person consistently.
Some would argue though that while Facebook allows us to create and maintain online relationships easily, it comes at the cost of weakening our relationships offline. That when we spend time building and maintaining relationships online, ...
... middle of paper ...
...oes it does well and the benefits, and the potential that Facebook has on our lives greatly outweighs any negatives or risks that may be imposed when we use this service. The fact that Facebook allows users to build and maintain relationships, increase social capital and give the ability to push for political change is incredible. Without this website and the ones like it, we would not have the amount of relationships we have; we would not have the ability to organize and demonstrate so easily. Facebook gives power to the masses, something that we have not always had. Facebook in terms of other technology and services is relatively new, but its potential is great. As people and organizations use this service more, it will serve a more important role than messaging friends and updating our status. As it grows and is refined it will be a tool to bettering our society.
Henry Adams, a famous historian, once said “Friends are born, not made.” Is this true? One curious woman, author Kate Dailey, wrote “Friends with Benefits: Do Facebook Friends Provide the Same Support as Those in Real Life?” published in 2009 in the Newsweek, and she argues that Facebook is able to provide and create “friends”. Dailey argues that while Facebook serves as a great alternative for real world’s social life, Facebook is not a replacement to the same support as those in actuality. Dailey starts building her credibility by incorporating personal stories and using reliable sources, quoting convincing facts and statistics, and successfully using emotional appeals; however, towards the end of the article, her attempt to summarize the other side of the debate ultimately undermines her platform.
The idea of needing social networking sites to connect with everyone else knows or may meet have become embedded in American culture throughout recent years, especially among the teenage population. Facebook is easily one of the most popular sites, to the point where it would be considered unusual for someone attending high school to not have a profile on the site. However, does Facebook actually create a stronger connection between people, or does it simply creates the illusion of a healthy social life, while really creating distances a distance between them? Facebook can function as a placebo for some users in the place of genuine, healthy social life. Users with massive amounts of Facebook friends, but sub-par social lives can become pre-occupied
However, as far as I am concerned, the above authors fail to mention the positive effects Facebook has on our lives. Facebook is also very useful. It enables us to keep in touch with friends and family all around the world. A modern journalist, Adam Piore in his article, “What Technology Can’t Change About Happiness,” also argues that “The overall effect of technology is to overcome the constraints of time and location that would have proven insurmountable before” (Piore 9). Piore’s purpose here is to tell people that technology can be a good thing as well. I also believe the same: with the video call function, we are able to see each other’s face and talk with ease. If some people are not familiar with video call, they can even voice message others, making communication easier while reducing the hassle of typing. No doubt, Facebook has greatly changed our lives with both positive and negative effects. And I also believe that it is when we find the balance between technology and relationships can we enhance our happiness level and relationship with people. That is, we need to go out and have face-to-face conversations with people while using technology to help us keep connection with
The 21st century has brought a lot of modern ideas, innovations, and technology. One of these is social media. The invention of Facebook has completely changed the way we communicate with one another. Instant messaging, photo sharing, and joining online groups have created a way for families and friends to connect. Some argue that Facebook is the greatest invention however, while it is seemingly harmless, Facebook has created an invasion of privacy. The accessibility of Facebook and its widespread use has created privacy problems for users, teens, and interviewees by allowing easy control to viewers.
"We believe that more relationships provide more opportunity." (Source 2). It has gotten into the minds of avid Internet users that the more people you have retweeting you, liking your pictures, or your status, the more social you become. How many of these followers are actually their friends? The more notifications you have on social media does not equal the amount of friends you have. It does not make you social, it just makes you another active user on social media. Receiving notifications does not help you make friends. Even just having a little chat with people online does not mean you are friends. More relationships with people online do not provide any opportunity of creating any real friendships. Friendship are not created by liking someone's status or retweeting someone's picture. ". . . online Americans tend to have 644 ties on average." (Source 1). There is more focus on making connections, than making real friends. A casual conversation does not automatically create a real friendship. Online you can create a larger group of connections, but this does not make you social. The social ties that the internet offers do not create a real bond between people. Social media connections do not help you create a real relationship with another person. More social ties do not mean you are interacting with more people, it just means you have connections with a larger group. I don’t agree with the belief that
Facebook was causing problems for University IT departments long before it was ever called Facebook. In 2003, Zuckerberg created an Am I Hot or Not? application on his facemash.com site and was accused of “breaching security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy” (Kaplan, 2003). So it isn’t surprising that Mitrano, the Director of IT Policy and Computer Policy & Law at Cornell seeks to warn the Cornell student body of possible consequences of irresponsible use of Facebook in the article Thoughts on Facebook. What is surprising is that IT policy guidance is typically found in an actual policy document, rather than an essay or article. Mitrano sought to provide Cornell IT policy guidance on the ramifications of Facebook via friendly Facebook advice from a credible source. Because of missed opportunities to inform, overriding concerns over policy, and lack of knowledge regarding the controls within the Facebook application, Mitrano’s article was not as persuasive as it should have been.
A person’s life is reflected on Facebook. Because so much of someone’s life is on Facebook, anyone can have a sense of what is going on in their life. This is beneficial for parents away from their children in college or just away from the nest. A visual image is more attractive than reading a lengthy blog about an individual's day. With Facebook someone can post albums at a time and can share a special event that just recently occurred. Instant messaging has improved the speed that users can communicate with each other. If they see that their friend is online all that needs to be done is a message with the word “Hey.” Facebook allows for users to connect with friends time zones away.
This shows that a benefit of using technology is that we can get closer to the people we know even when they live far away. Technology use through social media doesn’t just benefit us in relationships, it also assists us in social support. Yes you may have friends that can be there for you face-to-face, but not all the time. “We no longer lose social ties over our lives; we have Facebook friends forever.” (Social Media as Community)
The problem with this is people need to connect on a person to person interaction. “The argument could be made that we have a mutual affection for everyone we interact with on social network, but those mutual affections in most cases are quite minute and we’re possibly grasping at tiny strings in order to justify the usage of the word ‘friend’.” (Silver 445). What this is trying to show us is our interactions with someone online will never be as valuable as meeting up with someone in real life. Being online is not the same as being face to face with someone having an interaction.
The popular site, Facebook.com, has amassed more than one billion registrants since it started in February 2004. It is another social networking site, just like MySpace.com and Xanga.com, which is common to High School and College students. But this is no ordinary site; people’s lives literally revolve around Facebook. I have a Facebook account and log in at least once a day. I personally believe that Facebook is a fun and interactive site. However, some students may not feel that same way because they have encountered some negative aspects, aside from Facebook’s legal problems.
I think facebook is a good website in some ways for things such as communicating with friends, and talking with each other. There are also some things that are not too good about facebook, and could be bad to someone’s health. There are more than five hundred million people that are children, teens, adults, and also even stalkers on this website so many people in the world use today, facebook.
On the App.”) writes the article basically explaining how great online dating sites and social media are. However, the part that Wortham agrees with is there is nothing better than the actual benefit you receive when in the presence of another person. There are many benefits to the social applications. For example, in the past, when you were many miles away from the one you love or one you want to be with, it was very hard to see them face to face. With new technology, now you are able to see them and interact with them whenever you want.That is one of the key reasons social media was created; to stay connected even if you are miles apart. Studies show that overall it actually strengthen the relationships over time because people still hold the appeal of the other person even after there is no distance between them(Wortham, 396). Wortham includes this statistic, “74% of couples surveyed reported that the internet has a positive impact on their relationship. In addition, 40% of couples in a serious relationship said that they felt closer to their partners because of online technology(369).” Yes, their relationships are building yet, there is still that longing feeling for one-on-one
Facebook can be a wonderful tool for communicating with friends, but should you befriend work colleagues on Facebook? Yes, you may get on really well with certain colleagues but there are things you may want to consider before sending or accepting a Facebook friend request.
“According to Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media” (Jung, 2016). It is not a shocking fact when you notice that it requires much less energy to just sit around and text. It sounds innocent at first but when you realize that people are now spending hours and hours on their screens some concern
Facebook is beneficial to one's social life because they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives, while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies because people are not directly communicating with each other. But some argue that Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. Users can upload pictures, update statuses, play games, get news, add people, like and share photos, videos, memes