In truth, almost 90 percent of the world’s population uses social networking sites. Wherever I go, Facebook is everywhere. Be it wireless internet connection through mobile phones or even in classes where people are supposed to be concentrating on the subject but instead fixate their time on it.
I understand why it has become popular with many people nowadays. It is place where people get to together and chat. It is a place where old friends (possibly enemies) can re-unite again. It may even make it less awkward when talking to the people you do not know but has added them on Facebook. It can be even a dating site to the extent that it is a social networking site.
“It is quite obvious that a trade off is happening between the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook. While it increases the communication and connection between friends and the online community it also increases the risk of procrastination and makes it easier for others to stalk a user. Worse, some are actually punished for what they put on their profile and would claim that it was there only for fun.” -
Source (¶ 5)Image by TomPreston at Deviantart.com
However, what about the estimated 10 percent? Surely with all the good reasoning here the 10 percent would join Facebook. But they have their opinions on the matter.
Addiction
Facebook is something like drugs (sort of). Every moment when one logs on to a computer, the first site people go to would be Facebook to check their notifications among other things. It seems like an addiction that no one can stop.
There is a Singapore show: Singapore Talking and there was a topic regarding the addiction or constant use of social networking sites. A sneak peek into an office of a company was filled with employees with Facebook in front of their screens. An interview with the head of that company ended up with him saying:
“You can’t stop the use of social networking sites in the office.”
“What we can do is to set boundaries and limits.”
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Image by Cobalt-Ace at |
Just recently in a newspaper article, Email gets junked under the Lifestyle section of the Sunday Times, Natasha (2011) reported that “Experian Hitwise, a global information services company that tracks internet usage, ranks Facebook in Singapore as the top searched term over a 24 week period last year.”
This shows that many people search for Facebook almost every single day, even multiple times during the day itself!
Do I know you?
I refer to a news paper article entitled “So how true is the Facebook flick?” I presume you all know of the movie The social network. Well the author seems to think that not everything about the movie and facebook itself is true.
“Then there is the persistent oversharing by people you barely know. Normally, you would have no idea what sort of work day they were having and you would be blissful in your ignorance. After all, you’ve only met the guy once at a party. You don’t even know why he added you as a friend.”
“Now he is spamming your Facebook with updates about how bad a day he is having, while intermittently poking you, recruiting you to his zombie army and inviting you to a farm.”
“Not cool, Facebook, not cool.”
- Jeremy, A.Y. (2010, November 6). The straits times. Life, p.20
JesseNewhart March 11 2009
Stalking
In some cases, people have used this social networking site to stalk people either by looking at other people’s profile one too many times or to see what other people are up to.
In retrospect, almost everybody uses Facebook and says what they really feel but be careful of what you see that might offend others or they would take it the wrong way. I saw a Singapore website that talked about a woman in the United Kingdom that simply said “My job is boring.” The next day, she checked her Facebook and found that her boss commented on her status, saying that she was fired due to her comment.
"Following your comments made on Facebook about your job and the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy and do not enjoy your work, we end your employment with Ivell Marketing & Logistics with immediate effect."
nigahiga October 1 2010
After all that, I am not encouraging anyone to heed of the disadvantages to a serious note but just to consider what your actions may lead to in the future.
So let me ask you this:
Do you think you can live without Facebook for at least a week?
Do you have that many friends (e.g. 1000) that you actually know?
Do you write anything sensitive to the work or subject you do?
I definitely agree that living without facebook for a week is difficult, on the verge of being impossible.As facebook is now an integral part of my life,facebook is cloud computing.Allowing you to integrate your friends feed,websites,mobile applications all into one site.
ReplyDeleteFor instance I now use facebook as an alternative to openID, allowing me to log in to forums/website just by linking and using my facebook account to log in.
I can live without facebook for 1 week definitely because i only use it to play games. I agree that i do not know some of the people that add me but i later found out they were my friends cca junior. I still have no idea why they add me for. - Rui Yong
ReplyDeleteI believe many will have withdrawal symptoms if Facebook were to shut down!
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that "almost 90 percent of the world’s population uses social networking sites" - where did you get the figure from?
You have raised some useful points about the negative aspects of Facebook and also touched on some examples of them. Do you have any more specific case studies or examples you could share with us?
It's useful that you provided some relevant quotes and also included some mention of the sites/articles you read. You could use hypertext links to link the sites/articles themselves.
Do share more of the research links with us.
Btw, nice touch with using the Facebook colour scheme for your blog as well.
To jazzper (aka Jasper):
ReplyDeleteUsing Facebook to log into forums, websites and checking your notifications (there will always be one waiting for you when you log in) once in a while is good. Just don't get addicted.
To Zenoex (aka Rui yong):
Just playing games on Facebook is ok (unless you are a game addict). It is best to talk face to face with people before adding them on Facebook.
To newmediascapes (Ms Serena Low):
Thanks for your comment on matching colour and word font. I try to have relation to Facebook so that people can relate to it better. I propped the figure of 90% out of my head because of the people I know, everyone has an account. But when I looked at the comments when I searched for the youtube video "Why I deleted 200 friends", I read it and saw that people commented: "Nice video", "I plan to delete 'friends' as well", "That's it. I deleted my Facebook account". So not everyone uses Facebook so I gave a rough estimate.
An specific example I can give is in Temasek poly. Every computer that is on, the first website I see on it is Facebook. Everywhere I go, I see it on Laptops and desktop computers. That right there is addiction.
I made a typo. It is "A specific example . . . " Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of the negative aspects of facebook you stated. I could survive without facebook without a week, however that would make me 'outdated' of my friends, who constantly go "go look at my fb status and you'll know".
ReplyDeleteSeeing how most fb users do not even change their privacy settings nor bother about them, they WOULD be surprised at the information they give out about themselves.
Sometimes i think they are encouraging people to stalk them when people with smartphones constantly post their location using GPS, uploading it to facebook and twitter.
I believe good practices such as constantly having the assumption that the whole world(literally) reads what you type(unless you set privacy settings(which still may not be very secure)), and thus having constant awareness of your own words and actions
To Eileen_T03 (aka Eileen):
ReplyDeleteI agree to all your opinions (so do yours to mine). If surviving without Facebook without a week makes you "outdated", then your friends are addicted already.
Answers to comment questions.
ReplyDelete1. Been there done that. No big deal. But if the games I play have an event I would probably crumble :P
2. 1000+. Know about 700. I keep the rest in another list with maximum privacy settings.
3. Nope never. The only way I will talk about private stuff is through face to face convo's.
I agree with you completely. The addiction stuff is very very real. I feel I too may have a problem. Hence I try to be on facebook while 'not actually being in facebook'. Part of myself given treatment. What comes to mind is that woman who killed her kid for crying while she was playing farmville. I am sure nobody saw it coming. Problem is, how can we tell who is a facebook addict and who isn't. Drug addicts are way easier to spot as they look like crap on a stick.
Stalking is also a very real problem. My friend was a victim. A very creepy girl was stalking her. She even made a fake email and created a fake account with my friend's previous name. Long story short I helped her severed all connections and got the facebook account deleted *hopefully*.
I'd say, your post, take of the line where you say "I am not encouraging anyone to heed of the disadvantages" as everyone MUST do so. Its for their own good.
To Adeeb (aka . . . uhhh Adeeb!):
ReplyDeleteDo not take heed to a SERIOUS note that you actually hate me for discriminating the world's most visited website.
But one cannot ignore all these disadvantages and pretend it is part of life (some say it has become INTEGRATED into their lives). That's where my question for "What if you cannot live without for a week" came about.
I'm glad you are aware that you are "addicted". I'm not saying that you cannot go there but just to cut down on how frequent you use it.
I do really hope your friend has not stalked by anyone lately. Thanks for your feedback.
I agree that you may not know many of the people you've added/who've added you but I think it's up to personal discernment to think about the pros and cons of such.
ReplyDeleteLike for me, I've never met one of my juniors before but we talked via facebook and are now pretty close friends.
Also, posting information about yourself on facebook is mainly up to yourself as you are the one who has the power to post it, and shouldn't really complain when people "stalk" you.
haha! Nice topic! I might be able to live with facebook if it's just for a week by playing games. haha! I usually adds pretty girls in facebook even if i don't them.. So apparently I don't know some of them in real life. =X
ReplyDeleteTo Sherwin.L (aka Sherwin):
ReplyDeleteYes you do have good points but the only real of first impression and communication (for me) is to talk face to face, get to know the person first hand, then add him/her to Facebook. But good for you for being good friends with your junior!
To nmtp02leo (aka Tan Choong Tat . . i guess):
Then you my friend might be a game addict (like a certain Zenoex).
And I have a friend in my class who does the exact same thing; "stalking' pretty girls and adding them even though he does not know them and looking at their pictures till he drools. :)
I am not sure for a week if I can live without Facebook, but a few days it's possible as I've tried it before; but I would be willing to give it a shot.
ReplyDeleteI used to believe that having a lot of 'friends' added to my friend-list was a cool thing. Somehow later I find it rather pointless as I do not know most of them, so I started deleting people who I don't really know personally.
About stalking, sometimes it's quite hard to fall away from this 'fantasy', especially when you're into someone you like. But nevertheless, try not to stalk to much. It can be sick at times.
To Issac (aka . . . uhhh Issac!):
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading through my blog and thinking of your own actions as well.
Having many friends is certainly not cool (I guess). It's like smoking (people think smoking is cool and that's why they do it).
I'm not trying to control your actions and how spend your time on Facebook but just to warn you on the time that you could be spending doing other things as well (my classmates spend so much time on it that they sometimes forget about homework).
Facebook has already become part of our lives(well, at least for most of us). It is something that cannot be neglected as it allows us to virtually keep in touch with our friends, families etc. It allows us to know what our friends and families are up to recently in brief.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think quite a few of us would suffer from withdrawal symptoms if we were to shut ourselves out from social networking sites, it would probably just feel weird not having a platform to learn about our friends.
I have about 500 friends on my list and after looking through them, I recognise most of them, but sometimes, its really tiring to be filtering your friends list regularly as it would mean you will have to look through one by one and recall if you do actually know them.
personally I do not post sensitive topics on facebook, as sometimes it may get so viral that everyone will start talking about it, if i really need to share with anyone, i would sms, or call my friend to tell them about it. Its safer this way.
To Royston Yap (aka Royston YAP):
ReplyDeleteI agree to your point because there was an article on xinmsn.com on "The top 10 things on would do if Facebook were to shut down". There were somethings people usually did but never do because of Facebook like "talking to one another".
Personally, as I stated earlier in one of my comments, I find that talking face to face is the best platform to getting to know people better, not virtual face to face.
I am an active user of Facebook, and I think I can't survive without Facebook. The main reason is because Facebook is also a form of communication with friends and a platform for me to express myself to my friends. I will want them to know me more through Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI know most of my friends in my friends' list but we do not talk to each other daily. For example, we will use Facebook to let primary school friends know that we are having gathering.
At times, I do write about work. But is on general. So nothing very sensitive.
From Yan Peng
ReplyDeleteTo idoltwitters(aka Yan Peng :P)
ReplyDeleteAs I have said repeatedly in my comments, my opinion for your friends to know more about you is through face to face communication. That way, everything is out in the open. But it's your opinion so I shall not interfere.
It's good to use it for other purposes like planning gatherings (SMS is one way as well).
I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT FACEBOOK!! Seriously facebook has become a part of my life. Everyday when i'm home first thing i do is to 'on' my computer, login facebook and look at news feed and videos. I just don't know why i have to login facebook just to see for the sake of seeing even i have already done it. I wanna kick away this habit as this is worst than smoking!
ReplyDeleteI only add friend or accept friend whom i know in person unless she is a pretty girl then that's different case =). So i know everyone in my friends' list except ipman and other celebrity.
to yibing (I am going to stop the aka thing unless the name is not the person's name):
ReplyDeleteSeriously, you are very much like my classmate in TP who can't keep his computer on without Facebook on it. And he also adds pretty girls only so you are not alone.
Other than that, try to login in to Facebook once every three days. It helps. And how did you know celebrities?
Hahaha. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO LIVE WITHOUT FACEBOOK FOR A WEEK. Not even for a day. Like you said, it's like a drug addiction.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a daily routine when you on your computer and the first site you visit is facebook.com and check if there are any notifications, then you start the day off by looking at the news feed and knowing what your friends are doing (indirectly)
Usually, I only accept or add those who I am comfortable with and personally know or talk to for at least 3 times. If not, it is kind of creepy when you accept a stranger and you don't talk to the person and you accept or add the person just for the sake of increasing the number of friends you have.
Sometimes in between breaks, I will post irrelevant things like "Lessons are so boring" but it's just a phrase and it does not rlly mean anything. Many of my friends do that too and sometimes we'll entertain each other on fb. Girls being girls. Hahaha
To Xin Hwei:
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. Now, you have two things that is IMPOSSIBLE to live without: Facebook and DOTA. Hahaha.
But like I said in my earlier comment, try to log in to it once every three days. In between, interact with real people like your family and actually talking to friends. I really fear for you if the day comes when Facebook shuts down! *Gasps*
Social networking sites is like the atomic bomb:once its been created there is really no way to un-create it.So instead of people complaing about the disadvantages, its makes more sense to just find countermeasures to counter the disadvantages.
ReplyDeleteAnd for the questions posted:I do have facebook ,i only have 180+ friends whom 95% i met personally and i don't post anything about my work on facebook(99% of the time)
ReplyDeleteTo Low Wei jie:
ReplyDeleteThe person can "remove" Facebook from the internet, a way to "un-create" the atomic bomb (I'm sounding too bias here). But I agree to your points that there will be an endless war of the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook.
AND it is good that 95% of your friends you added are people you actually know (unlike some who add people based on their profile pictures: pretty girls).
Do you think you can live without Facebook for at least a week?
ReplyDeleteAns: Nope
Do you have that many friends (e.g. 1000) that you actually know?
Ans:I only have 300++ friends. I dont really know all of them.
Do you write anything sensitive to the work or subject you do?
Ans: Yes, quite alot.
Thats JingYuan btw.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone I was addicted to Facebook. If you ask me to stop using Facebook for quite some time I can do it, but I am afraid that I may lose a lot of "details" (Status updates) about what is happening currently.
ReplyDeleteI think that one of the reason why so many people are addicted to Facebook is due to peer pressure. Most people claims that with Facebook they can communicate and "compete" with each other more often and more effectively so that they can understand each other better. And this is the reason why I am addicted to Tetris Battle =D.
As much as I feel that Facebook is integrated as part of my life, I think that there is a huge difference between communicating using Facebook and communicating by face-to-face conversation. When I wish to talk about something more sensitive, I usually prefer the latter.
I do log in to facebook everyday, but if youre telling me to not facebook for a week, I can do that.
ReplyDeleteI dont have friends that much. I have a few hundred. and I know all of them, most them are 'hi bye' friends but we know each other somehow so its ok.
and I dont write anything sensitive on facebook, I do that on twitter or not at all =)
To foodforthoughtandmakan (aka Jing Yuan):
ReplyDeleteYou are very precise in answering my questions. Haha! If you do write sensitive materials on Facebook, be wary of a lecturer maybe eyeing you differently in a way. WATCH OUT!
To Ann Ann Chin:
I am sure everybody can do without Facebook for a week (while others simply cannot live without it!). If you say that it is due to peer pressure, than that means that teenagers are likely to subside to smoking or do drugs (YIKES!).
To Muhammad Rozaidi:
Post your sensitive materials on another famous social-networking site so your teachers can't see what you write; Smart!
I believe I can live without facebook for one week although it is one of my daily website to go too. without facebook for a week, i will probably be disconnected with my friends to find out what has happen and all. But i dont think i can live without facebook forever, facebook helps me connect with my friends(:
ReplyDeleteTo Choo Shuin:
ReplyDeleteBesides Facebook, there are some ways to stay connected. Have you heard of sms or calling them to meet up with them? If it is through Facebook all the time, you will only get to see and feel their virtual presence, unlike meeting them face to face and actually TALKING. (: