Benefits and evils of a very popular network
Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
huge network, easy to keep in touch with friends and family |
| Disadvantages: |
non selective membership, too many applications, addictive |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
I have a love hate relationship with facebook. I'm the type of person that rarely calls people to talk, yet I want to keep up to date on what's going on in the lives of my friends and family. This program is great for me because it makes it easy for me to know what major events are happening with my friends and it lets me stay in touch. It's probably lame that for some of my friends my only communication is on their facebook wall, but it's easy and convenient. Plus, a ton of my friends are still in college and I find it to be a very appropriate way to communicate with my busy friends, so that they can respond when they have time. When I first started using face book I was obsessive compulsive about it. I would spend hours on it daily, inviting every person I'd ever met to be a friend, and going through other people's profiles with a fine tooth comb to learn everything about them. For me, the obsession slowly faded and I now have a healthy relationship with this network. For the most part I like to log on periodically and check to see where my friends and classmates are going to graduate school or where they are working now. I recently became facebook friends with some of the people I work with, and I would say I find that to be a little bit odd. My facebook profile is who I am with my friends and to have that available to the people I work with, who I would prefer respect me and think highly of me, makes me a little uncomfortable. I think in this situation it breaks down some of lines between coworkers. I don't mind being facebook friends with the people I work closely with, that have the same position as me, but I find it odd being friends with my superiors and those people that are significantly older than myself. Even with that bit of akwardness, I still find that I like the network. What I don't like is all of the applications! I have a friend whose profile goes on for days because he added every single application facebook has ever seen. It takes five minutes to scroll down to his wall because of all the junk he has on the page! As it goes for applications, I recommend only having a select few that you really enjoy. My favorite is the bumper sticker application, because it's fun to send my friends little bumper stickers that remind me of them or can uplift them on a bad day. There are even some applications that claim to donate money to a cause as you use the application, send invitations and gifts to other friends. I have an application that claims to save a square foot of rainforest for every 10 times you send a "plant" to someone on facebook. I wonder if the rainforest is actually being saved by facebook? Maybe, maybe not, but I guess in the end awareness is raised in some small way. When I began using facebook, it was restricted to college students. Then high school students got on the network. I did not like this whatsoever. I coached highschool softball, and suddenly my players are adding me as a friend. That I found to be highly inappropriate. In addition, I know professors that had facebook and were friends with students. I think that it is too easy to cross boundaries with this program. And now it's even open to anyone with an email adress. That opens the door wide open to several dangerous situations. I know it was never "safe" to use facebook, but now I think it's a real danger. Especially with the number of young people on the network. If you're a parent I would recommend keeping an eye on your child's facebook activity. You can learn a lot about what they are really doing with their friends and hopefully keep an eye on who they are communicating with. My 15 year old cousin met some guy on facebook, and she ended up runing away to california to meet him. So keep an eye out, you never really know who is on the other side of the computer. In conclusion, I would say that for people like myself facebook is a good network. But I consider my usage of it to be healthy. For younger people the program can become a quick way to waste a lot of time and even end up in potentially dangerous situations. I think there are some extended social ramifications to the program as it affects life off of the computer. Important boundaries can be crossed, and lead to other difficulties later. But, as long as you use the program knowledgably and rember who you are and who the other people are, it's a good program
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision?
Rating guidelines
|
|
Add to list 
Recommend it 
Receive review alert 
Write a review 
Publish video review 
Make a comment 
Print it 
