Facebook is an online social networking site founded in 2004 (Facebook. com, n. d. ). The purpose of this website is to connect family and friends and to share content such as pictures, status updates, and event invites between the user’s contacts. The site also has numerous games that many users participate in for entertainment. The website states the mission of Facebook is to “give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected,” (Facebook. com, n. d. ). Every day millions of people log on to connect with friends and family, sharing photos, links, and videos.
As of October 2012, more than a billion users access the site monthly (Facebook. com, n. d. ). Of these users, about 81% live outside the United States and Canada (Facebook. com, n. d. ). Facebook contains specialized pages that users can choose to subscribe to and “like” to show their support for varying topics. The population of participants on Facebook include a wide range of people regarding age, ethnicity, and gender. Team member J has been a member of the social networking site titled Facebook since August 2008.
During this time, she has connected with many classmates from high school as well as family members who she does not get to see. This team member has played several of the games offered by the site, though currently only plays one or two of games on a regular basis. In her experience, she has found that people often share too much personal information about their conflicts. This over-sharing leads to hurt feelings and family battles. It seems users share whatever is on their mind, without putting much thought to others feelings about the content they are divulging.
Team member M’s experience with Facebook began when she got an invitation from a work colleague to join the site. She created a profile and did not revisit the site for several months. She has started using Facebook more in the last year just to stay connected and in touch with what is happening in her friends’ lives. Team member M enjoys staying connected with friends and family that she does not get to see often. It has been a good way to reconnect with old friends. Although she does not participate in Facebook daily, she does visit the site weekly to stay caught up and connected.
Team member T’s experience with Facebook started when she was told by friends her boyfriend was very flirty with some of his Facebook friends. She was not a fan of Facebook and not intended to join the site. When she found her boyfriend was enjoying his time on the site and becoming flirty, she felt the need to create a profile. As soon as her profile was complete, she made him post that they were in a relationship. Team member T enjoys the site and has connected with many friends that she has lost touch with over the years.
It is very easy to post photos for family and friends to see her children and stay connected with what is going on in their lives. Social networks cultural significance relates to the digital world that has changed the way people connect. Facebook provides an arena that allows its users to connect with others immediately and intimately. The status updates that users provide are published to all their “friends. ” This allows a user who may be hundreds of miles away, to feel as if he or she is right there in that moment.
It allows a person to get to know someone even better through his or her updates, pictures posted, pages liked, and items shared. These types of things are something that a person may not divulge while carrying out a conversation because they seem like mundane details. This can be seen as both good and bad because the more information known about someone, less are the questions to ask him or her when engaging in face-to-face conversations. However, they are also learning more about someone, both the good and the bad, and it allows them to decide if this is someone he or she thinks is worth investing more time in as a friend.
Facebook is in use worldwide with representation from every culture and language. There are negative social effects provided by Facebook. People are more willing to air “dirty laundry” to the whole world. Because status updates are instant, the person who thinks he or she is slighted by an action of another or by an event immediately goes to his or her page and sends out a scathing message. This does not provide time for a cool down period, where they can take a moment to analyze the situation. They are not seeing the big picture, and instead are just releasing their wrath to all their contacts.
This can paint the person in a negative light. This leads to hurt feelings and even the ending of relationships. A positive effect is the ability to connect with family and friends who do not live close. Facebook has a negative effect on face-to-face interactions. People find it easier to post a comment on someone’s status because he or she knows there is no deep meaningful conversation happening. They can show support without becoming involved. When this becomes habit, it is harder to respond to a friend in need right in front of the person.
They have to become involved in the conversation and become a good listener. This is made harder by the person being right there looking at him or her, and he or she cannot roll his or her eyes or speak of him or her to a friend. They must be in the moment and respond genuinely. Another effect of online social networks versus face-to-face interactions is the ability to mask identity. People will often lie about their demographics to gain interest from others. Face-to-face interaction is becoming a lost art. Facebook reinforces the value of friendship and family and staying connected to the people of concern and care.
It is nice to wish people happy birthday, get invitations to parties, and share funny moments instantly. However, it challenges cultural values of proper public topics in which to speak about. Public topics reinforced and challenged are political and religious views. People view their page as their own personal platform and do not care about what they are saying makes others feel. It is possible that the social networks will become larger and more inclusive to the point that people will rarely have contact with other people.
They will instead do everything through these networks. The information provided through these profiles will become a resume of sorts to future employers as well as to future mates. The government is already using some feeds on social networking sites to help evaluate what a suspect was discussing before the committal of a crime or before a young person disappeared. The government may tap into these profiles further to profile individuals and to list those who appear dangerous to national security.
Though people believe that their profiles are their own property, the truth is that they are very public and with a few strokes of keys, they can divulge very sensitive information about themselves. Communities and friends will no longer depend on geographical limitations; they can socialize in a meaningful way online. They can always connect in a real-time manner. The primary agent of socialization in society currently is the family. This is the place that one learns how to be a member of society, whether he or she is productive or not depends on the environment in which he or she is aised in and the individual’s character. However, social networks are quickly becoming a strong secondary agent of socialization as they are allowing young people the opportunity to interact with many people spanning the globe. They learn how people of different cultures and societies view different topics and what is important to them in their society. It is our prediction that online social networking will become the primary agent of socialization in the 21st century.
References:
Facebook. (n. d. ). Retrieved December 3, 2012, from Facebook: http://facebook. com
