Facebook Frenzy

We have all heard of the infamous Facebook, most of us are on it, and the rest of you are thinking about joining. Facebook is a place to chat, share pictures, and to poke people as much as you like. Although it has a great intention of making our world seem a little less divided and a whole lot more united, there are many consequences to having a Facebook account that I did not realize before this class. I paid no attention to what pictures me and my friends were uploading, never thinking about the possibility that they may be virtually linked to your name forever. I never gave a second thought to the information, quotes, or interests that I listed, and never thought they might possibly lead to me not getting hired for a job I interviewed for. But those kind of things are happening more and more these days.
Not only are jobs not being given to those with "questionable online identities", but jobs and titles are actually being taken away. Miss New Jersey was actually blackmailed over pictures that were on her very own Facebook page. Her title was revoked after she was allegedly "partying it up" with her boyfriend and friends at the bar. Michael Phelps is another example of how pictures someone else posts on the Internet can come back to haunt you. Because of his pics with him smoking pot, he lost all endorsements from Kellogg's and a huge paycheck. So where is the line drawn between private and public? And why is this new phenomenon encouraging our youth to be such extroverts with information and private details?
Logging in to Facebook these days is almost too overwhelming for me. I have many friends that like to give up-to-the-minute information about their day to day lives. They can simply log on and tell their whole world what they are doing as often as they like.
Katie is... eating at The Dodo!
An hour later, Katie is... Done eating at The Dodo! Onto the mall!
An hour later, Katie is... Tired of the mall! Heading home to make spaghetti!
An hour later, Katie is... Full of yummy spaghetti! Yum Yum!! Time for a movie!
Two hours later, Katie is... Loving Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist!!
And so on.....
Why do we feel the need to update our status during each activity of our day? Why do you want people to know exactly what you are doing and where you are at all times?!
Not only can updates be annoying, but can they also be dangerous? There have been many cases of violence associated to Facebook and status updates in the last five years.
One headline reads, "Husband hacked wife to death with meat cleaver after she changed Facebook status to single". A man actually murdered his wife because of the "embarrassment her status changed caused him". In another story, a man who had seen his wife's profile status changed to "Splitting up with Husband" came home and brutally murdered the mother of their two girls, and then drilled holes in his arms and legs with a power tool in a nearby park where he later died of shock. How serious should we be taking these status changes? Should we really be announcing divorces, deaths in the family, and other serious issues on a website originally created for college students to keep in touch? As I wrote about in my first blog, Phonebook or Facebook, I was stunned to hear about my cousin's death over a Facebook instant message, but I am not alone. There are many cases of deaths being announced online, and declaring the "single" status after a divorce is proving to be an upcoming trend.
Along with announcing divorces, posting an "in a relationship" status is a must for dating these days. After hearing about a friend dating someone, I have caught myself asking, "Is it Facebook official?" By putting who you are in a relationship with on Facebook, it has a more "official" standing, it is like the last step in deciding you are exclusive. Announcing to your 1,ooo "friends" that you care enough about this person to post that you are dating says something, but is it saying too much?
When I got divorced, all of my close friends knew it was coming for months, so it was no surprise when it actually happened. I consider myself a pretty private person, and I do not like other to know too much about my personal life and my relationships within it. But when all was said and done, no one else caught on when I had moved thousands of miles away from the dreaded ex to live on an island, it was the Facebook status change to "single" that made the masses realize it was over. Go figure.
Not only is it a tad humiliating to go through a break-up, it feels like social suicide to have to announce it online. But if you don't change your status, people wonder why, and then you look like a desperate cling-on if he has already changed his status, so really, it is a necessity whether you like it or not. There is pressure to keep your profile updated and in sync with the rate of gossip and chit chat. I was dating my boyfriend for about five months before we even thought to change our status, and as soon as we did, we got comments form all sorts of people claiming, "It's about time!" or "Yay! Finally!!" like we had taken a further step in our relationship or something! Like Facebook acknowledgement is the mid-point between dating and engagement.
Another pressure that we are all faced with is who to put in our Top Ten. Do we put boyfriend over girlfriends, new friends higher than old friends? The pressure to get the right ranking is exhausting and feels impossible at times! There is never a time when everyone is satisfied. But why should I have to rank my friends anyway? Don't they know how much I value our friendship by the amount of time we spend together? Apparently not.
There are many reasons to have a Facebook account, and don't get me wrong, I adore mine, but there continue to be many new reasons not to.
Not only does this site have more than 200 million users, the average user has 120 friends, and more than 3.5 billion minutes are spent on the site daily.(Facebook.com)
What happened to strolls in the park and shopping at the mall with friends? How much has Facebook affected our daily lives as teens, college students, and Americans as a whole?
There are many entrepreneurs that have started a Facebook page for their companies, many artists who display pictures or music for easy viewing, and many viewers that would rather stay indoors on their computers, in the comfort of their own homes, instead of wandering malls, visiting galleries, or going to concerts. There are more than 660,000 developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries on Facebook now. (Facebook.com)
Is this bad for our generation and the small businesses of America? Is it smarter to start an online company now instead renting a space in a mall? What is to be said about advancements in online purchases and the digital divide? How could our parents or grandparents go shopping if most brands move exclusively online?
Facebook does create a way for us to keep in touch with one another, but it has also begun to pose a threat on our private lives and identity. It has created a place for us to write our minds and label ourselves, but has also given the opportunity for others to label us. Although it seems like a harmless networking site, Facebook is creating many challenges we as a generation are going to have to adapt to and learn from. The Facebook Frenzy will continue for years to come, I am sure, but will it inevitably be the destruction of our face-to-face time, and will it change the authenticity of the word "friend" for good?