Social Implications of Facebook

1433 Words3 Pages

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...

... middle of paper ...

...essed 23 March 12].

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.

Open Document