"Stan, you don't get how cool Facebook has become. You can message your friends,play Yahtzee with your friends, even start your own virtual farm & have your friends visit it."
Kyle on one of South Park episodes*
You probably have a Facebook account. All of your friends have one too. Your siblings & relatives have one too. Even some of your parents too. Even kids who cannot even use the computer yet have one too. The whole world must be in Facebook. You have all gathered in one cool social network site that made it so much easier to update everybody. What you are up to on your status. Or uploading photos of the weekend getaway. Even old photos to bring back the good times. Some even have online boutiques. Big enterprises hire through the form of advertisements on the site. A lot of TV shows can be found there too. It is truly like a whole world created for your fingertips, one click away.
In France, Facebook's success has reached the government's attention by banning Les Apéro Facebook, cocktail parties organized through Facebook connections throughout the country, when one man died during one of the gatherings. France have always tried avoiding any large social gatherings of young adults. Rave parties have already been banned since the 90's.
On the workplace, there have been many incidents of employees claiming being fired because of Facebook. It took us time to accept a fax message as a legal & binding document. Then comes the e-mail although in France, it is still not widely accepted as legal. And soon, will Facebook be a legitimate proof in the workplace? This phenomenon have started studies in the US about employee productivity. To add to that, there have been so much privacy & data leaking issues. How can a seemingly fun social networking site be so serious & dangerous at the same time?
"According to your Facebook page we aren't friends.And you better change your relationship status to in a relationship."
Wendy on the same South Park episode*
Of course, after a government & workplace level, Facebook has so much behind the scenes on the personal level of its users. As exciting as it is to find old friends we didn't imagine reconnecting with again, maybe there's a reason why, out of your 500 friends, a quarter of them you have a hard time placing them in your head. While another quarter made you smile because it has been 20 years since you last got together. Then you put them in such an explicit world where normally some people couldn't & shouldn't be together. But the adding & accepting friends is a big issue.
There's the highschool environment where some friendships are tainted because one was not invited to a party after seeing the photo album one has just posted with the rest of their friends. Or finding an old flame with a closed profile & you ask a common friend to spy into his account. Or to bring back old grudges through old photos. But more seriously, couples or marriages being ruined or deeply affected & questioned by photos, comments or even status updates.
It's unimaginable how much personal information we voluntarily share with more people on such network. Some of them we couldn't even place in our heads. Even Mark Zucherberg at first wondered how people can do that but he was smart enough to exploit it which made Facebook such a success. As much as you want to try not to be too personal on your profile & your social circle, you can't help to take some things too personally. It's just the real world in one virtual network. It's human nature.
*still shots of this South Park episode is from a video uploaded on Facebook about Facebook
Hi Makis! I'm glad you are writing again! I'm back too! Yes, everybody's on Facebook. But I guess we all have to be wary and careful what to publish and post. It's like announcing to the world something too personal, isn't it? See you on FB? lol! Miss you Makis! Mwah! - Len
ReplyDeleteFacebook is the reason why people are not blogging lol ! First off, we cannot really hinder not to be too personal as it's an extension of sentiments. I myself can be too personal sometimes...oh how I feel great to unload my “emotional luggage storage”!! FB Status determines somehow cluster of happy, angry, bragging (whatever) people around !
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about social networking is that I can stay in touch & reconnect from afar!
Hi Len! Yes, back to blogging! I missed writing :)
ReplyDeleteTrue, Haze, it's easier to look at photos & read one sentenced updates than blog!
I guess it will be a big contradiction not to be personal on your own personal FB page but it's still good to be careful :)
You know I am very much cautious after the hacking incident lol !!
ReplyDelete