Facebook Disadvantages

Social networking websites provide web-based tools for users to interact or share information about themselves, and to find, meet, and converse with other members. One of the most popular and largest social websites is Facebook, which was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his friends. Getting start at Harvard University, Facebook currently has millions of active users around the world. The power of the “friends,” “pokes,” and “likes” functions have had tremendous successes around the world in manipulating their users of all ages, from grandparents to teenagers, or even children. Strom pointed out that “Customer Reports magazine found that more than 7 million active users of Facebook were under the minimum required age of 13; over 5 million were 10 or younger” (Strom 49). With Facebook’s increasing popularity, there have been controversies about its negative and positive effects to its users. Some negative effects suggested that users spend too much time on it and find it addictive, as well as have difficulty protecting their privacy and security. Adversely, the positive effects are that it could help people to disperse information and connect with their family or friends from all around the world.

First, one of Facebook’s disadvantages is that many people spend too much time on it and find that the social networking website is addictive. Bugeja stated that “Nationwide, Facebook tallies 250 million hits every day and ranks ninth in overall traffic on the internet” (Bugeja 399). People have spent excessive time browsing or viewing other people’s pictures through Facebook, sharing one’s comments on the website, uploading pictures, chatting with their friends, and being extremely concerned about updating, creating, and encouragin...

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...ers, former teachers, college friends, or different people from anywhere in the world. Roger mentioned that “These sites also enable people to keep in touch with a wide circle of friends and colleagues” (Roger 49). Therefore, Facebook is effective in allowing people to stay in touch with their friends and family, which contributes to the positive effect of social networking.

Facebook has changed the way people communicate and share information with others around the world. One of its benefits is that it enables people to communicate around the world. Where, on the other hand, people experience that Facebook might be dangerous as it does not guarantee their personal information is safe, as well as users’ safety. Moreover, Facebook is time consuming as some users find it hard to put down, they cannot stop using it, or even distracting for some employees and students.