Facebook is currently largest social networking site in the world based on monthly unique visitors – attracting 130 million unique visitors every day (Alexa Inc. 2012). The site’s popularity exploded in 2007 and it bypassed its social networking rival, MySpace, in April 2008 (Phillips 2007). Over the last few years Facebook has impacted people’s social lives in various ways. With its availability on modern smart phones, Facebook enables users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and peers wherever they are in the world as long as they have internet access. It can also group people together who share beliefs and interests and has been known to even reunite lost family members and friends through its enormous social reach (MSN News India, 2010). There is the famous story of the reunion between a father and his daughter after twenty years of separation, having discovered her Facebook profile. Similar stories have proliferated throughout news media in the recent years.
With its widespread use, many social implications have arisen. Many users are concerned about the privacy of their personal information, how it is being used and the general issues of a system that requires users to opt-out of sharing their identity by default. Another issue that will be highlighted is the immersion of the Facebook user base impacting on academic performance and life satisfaction as measured through research journals that have performed social experiments to measure the behavior-changing factors of the site.
Some commentators argue that 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 increase antisocial tendencies because people a...
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CBS News. 2011. FACEBOOK BLUNDER INVITES 15,000 TO TEEN'S 16TH BIRTHDAY PARTY; 100 COPS SHOW UP, TOO - CRIMESIDER - CBS NEWS. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20069457-504083.html. [Accessed 28 March 2012].
Gardner, D, 2010. The marriage killer: One in five American divorces now involve Facebook. Daily Mail, 02 December .
MSN News. 2010. Facebook reunites father, daughter after 48 years. [ONLINE] Available at: http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3570509&=. [Accessed 22 March 2012].
Phillips, S, 2007. A brief history of Facebook. The Guardian, Wednesday 25 July 2007.
Rouis, S. Limayem, M. Salehi-Sangari, E. 2011. Impact of Facebook Usage on Students' Academic Achievement: Role of self-regulation and trust. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, Vol. 9, Issue 3, 961-994.
The audience can empathize easily with Sue and the death of her youngest and this allows the audience to understand the usefulness of Facebook “friends”; however, Dailey’s shift to present the other side of the argument with Bugeja’s forward truth of the flaws in online social networks. Bugeja convinces the reader that reality provides a more intimate level of support that the virtual world can never offer. Dailey could have ended the article on a stronger note that Facebook “friends” only serves as an additive to friendships to reality. In reference to Henry Adams infamous quote, Facebook “friends” cannot be made but built from existing
The attraction of users to Facebook, or social media in general, isn’t that difficult to comprehend. Over the course of the past 60 years, the percentage of people live alone has increased by 17 percent. In the 50’s it was 10 percent, in 2010, it was estimated at 27 percent. The promise of a greater connection seems extremely attractive to those living in solitary. Here is the irony, what Facebook and Social media provides, differs a great deal from what is needed to create and sustain deeper emotional AND Lasting
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
Special, W.P., & Li-Barber, K.T. (2012). Self-disclosure and student satisfaction with Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(2), 624-630.
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.
and family, and also “meet like-minded people” ( Metz, par. 1). In some cases, business people such as Ron West, claim that he uses Facebook “to become acquainted with new customers”( par. 8). Yes, these types of websites are great tools to stay in touch with old classmatesand faraway family members. It is a great source of communication, but there is always a con to every pro. Even though users are connecting with others, users of social networks never know exact...
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.
In Betty White’s opening monologue to Saturday Night Live, she said, “I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never say the people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite.” Originally intended for the use of students at Harvard University in 2004, Facebook grew exponentially to be an online phenomenon in the years following. In 2006, it became accessible to anyone and everyone with internet connection. Aside from the advantages that give the site its popularity, creating a profile comes with a number of significant disadvantages inherit to online social networks. What do more than 500 million active users use their Facebook for? Communicating with long distance friends and spreading awareness of causes are common responses. Unfortunately, Facebook has it flaws, from limiting the privacy of relationships to creating a form of almost unmanageable bullying, making one reconsider their involvement and think, “do I really want my Facebook account?”
I think Facebook is an great tool to connect with others and share creatively, emotionally, and so on. One can communicate with a long lost friend while listening to their favorite music and reading about the latest gossip within the celebrity world. One may find inspiration through Facebook to teach others or help victims of the latest natural disaster by reading a news article relating to the event. Or one my change their occupation by seeing jobs posted through their Facebook or maybe someone just wants to imitate the newest socialite making headlines from their posts. Either way, one uses Facebook to feel connected with the world around them and interact with people they feel that share this same ideal of digital significance. We are still in the beginning stages of this forever evolving digital culture and I am sure we will witness the next great technological device or new source of new media that will change everything. I feel if things progress in the way they already are we will literally be able to do and see anything and everything within minuets from our mobile devices. We will know and see whatever we want and be connected to whomever we want to socially connect to. I am just waiting for the day when we can actually block people in real life or
Social media sites such as Facebook are one of the most popular social media sites that has 700,000-750,000 members joining each day. Connecting with peers shouldn’t be a problem. It’s as easy typing the peers name push search, and some suggestions come up and find your peer you’re looking for and shoot them a message instantly with social media manly targeting young people such as teenagers. Facebook has made it so easy for teens to interact and engage with their peers. It allows teens to come into contact with long, lost relatives and reunite with them. Facebook is a virtual site = which gives teens an endless possibility to engage with peers, family, of maybe even people who they have never meet allowing then to interact making new friends.
which people communicate. How people form and maintain relationships are evolving in light of Internet-based technologies, most recently with the rise of social networking websites. Furthermore, these sites alter previously held beliefs related to identity formation and maintenance, as users may choose to share as much or as little personal information – whether true or fabricated – as they like with other users. These changes impact relationships in the offline world both positively and negatively. Although today people carry out their day-to-day relationships online, social media have weakened the meaning of friendship and emotional connections. In discussion of whether or not social media affects relationships positively or negatively, a differing viewpoint has been offered by William Deresiewicz in his essay “Faux Friendship” and Clive Thompson in his essay “I’m so digitally close to you”. On one hand Deresiewicz ridicules the use of online social networking in today’s society. On the other hand, Thompson contends and talks about how Facebook has positively changed the world.
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.
Few researches found that there is no relationship between Facebook and college students’ academic performance. For instance, Sana Rouis examines that Facebook has no significant effect on students’ achievement (296). In her research, she surveyed a large group of 203 undergraduate students and employed two different types of data analysis (298). Focusing on the same type of participants, Syarif Husin Lubis et al. also found that there is no difference between Facebook users and non users in terms of their academic performance (590). Although Lubis et al. surveyed a smaller number of participants, their research is more thorough than Rouis’ because it employs more control variables (591). Furthermore, unlike Rouis, Lubis et al. are more detailed in their research by examini...
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
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 and its sole purpose is to give people the power to share and connect with the world. With 1.23 billion monthly active members, Facebook has certainly surpassed all other social sites. To put it in perspective that is roughly one-sixth of the entire world’s population. According to his book, Introduction to Digital Literacy Mark D. Bowles (2013) stated that Facebook is “the leading social networking site” where you can update your status, share information like photos, find friends and establish networks (pg. 184). This is exactly why Facebook is so popular amongst other social sites.