Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Week 6 - Ohhh, Facebook.

I think our society has been putting Facebook on a pedestal for some time now and the pedestal is being built up higher every day. The time we spend on Facebook collectively is truly excessive. No, we don't need to know what our friends ate for lunch or that they found out their name is super sexy! on the How Sexy is Your Name? quiz. We don't need to flip through hundreds of pictures of our semi-acquaintances. But the truth is, we like to. In fact, we're somewhat addicted to it.

Addiction might be too strong of a word though. I know that I check my Facebook a few times in a day when I have a spare minute. I believe that I could stop using Facebook altogether if I wanted to, or had to, without suffering any permanent damage.

Facebook is just like any other form of technology in the sense that it has its advantages and disadvantages. It's an advantage to stay in touch conveniently with friends and family all over the country and the world. It's a disadvantage to learn more about people than you wanted to via their Facebook page. I don't believe that Facebook is dramatically changing how society interacts. I'm sure there are some people who would rather stay in on a Friday night and Facebook stalk all the people who are out having fun. But I don't think Facebook is making us anti-social. Social networks are handy on many levels: personal, social, and business-related. Of course Facebook is going to cause some problems for some people. I think the good outweighs the bad for Facebook though.

1 comment:

  1. I agree that some of the status and almost all the quizzes on facebook are ridiculous! Yet people still do it, just because others are too. I go to Facebook for a few minutes everyday, but i could too stop alltogether if i wanted to.

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