Facebook: Good or Evil

Nearly everyone has Facebook these days. This relatively new form of communication brings new problems into our social culture. Problems such as, who do I “friends”, how do I contact this person, When do I change my status from single to in a relationship without freaking out my new partner. These unwritten rules of Facebook have the ability to cause an abundance of confusion among the online social networking population.

With the ever growing popularity of Facebook I am finding that a lot of older people have given in to this trend. People like my boyfriend’s mother, my aunt, and my friend’s grandmother have felt the need to join Facebook. I had no problem adding my boyfriend’s mother and my friend had no problem adding her grandmother. I was slightly reluctant though to add my aunt. After adding her I had to always double check when commenting or posting something on my siblings walls (they also added her, she will be able to see what I post) as well as when I updated my status. I was worried that my aunt would take something the wrong way and report it to my mother. I have known people to avoid this problem by either making their profile completely unavailable to strangers (or in this case unavailable to people they do not wish to add) or by convincing their mother that Facebook keeps deleting her from their friends list. People have also been known to change their profile name so that people will not know who that person is unless the individual chooses to tell them.

Another person that people have to worry about finding them on Facebook is their boss. If you call in sick and then change your status to say “Awesome shopping trip!” and then your boss sees it chances are you will be in trouble for lying to them about being sick. People have been fired over this and also for joining hate groups against their company or boss.

Even if you have nothing to hide and you add your boss, mother, or mother-in-law to your Facebook there is still the chance that you will get tagged in pictures that you may not want them to see. You might be at a party and a little tipsy, someone could take a suggestive picture of you and post it on their Facebook and tag you. Unfortunately you do not have any control over who posts pictures of you on Facebook. The best you can do is un-tag yourself and pray that no one saw them.

Another unfortunate thing about Facebook is finding out that your friends are annoying. For example, you may have friends who tag you in unflattering pictures or friends who feel the need to update their status every time they do something. People who post too many things can get annoying because it floods the news feed and then you cannot see what anyone else is up to.

These are just some of the many problems people encounter with Facebook. Yes it lets you communicate easily with people we wish to keep in touch with. However, now some individuals do not check their e-mail, MSN, text messages, or phone messages. This causes you to have no clue about how to get in touch with someone. We all know Facebook has made a part of our lives a little easier but when you look at all the other problems it is associated with is it really worth it? Do you need to know every detail of your friend’s lives or feel rejected when someone deletes you? Yes, I use Facebook, I wish I didn’t but I need it to communicate with people who can’t or don’t feel the need to pick up their phone or answer their e-mail.

- Elizabeth Williams (Posting for week 7)