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Tag Archives: Facebook
Benefits of Facebook.
We are all familiar with the Facebook slogan, “Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them.” As I read numerous blog posts for the class, I noticed the ongoing pattern of how social networking can affect every individuals live, negatively.However, I will explain a situation, where Facebook was used under dangerous but a life-saving circumstance.It proved to not only myself, but others that social networking can be used in a good/bad, negative/positive manner.
As I listened to 98.7 Kiss F.M at work today, I heard a very interesting case that occurred in Atlanta, Georgia.According to AJC, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution online, due to interactions amongst Facebook, a robbery attempt was ceased with future arrest to be made.Nitesh Bhatka, along with his grandma and sister faced a house robbery which could have been fatal.However, the teen thought of the fastest way to “connect with family, friends, and others who work,” in order to save his family. Once aware of the robbery, he made it his duty to stop the wrong doings.In other words, he found a safe and secure place in the house to get the attention of the outside world.Which we all know can be Facebook, at many times.He risked being attacked by the three suspects.However, he managed to update his status which was beneficial in the discovery of the robbery, he posted, “HELP, ROBBERS, NO PHONE.” According to the the reactions of his Facebook networks, it reminded me of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”He states, “A lot of People thought it was a joke,.” I’m unaware if Bhatka has characteristics similar to the boy who cried wolf, but the situation reminded me of the danger he faced and how his surroundings reacted.
He also states, “I don’t think [Facebook] is really meant as a lifesaving tool, but it’s the only way I could think of contacting someone immediately to call for help,” he said.I agree with his logic, Facebook is not a lifesaving tool;However, his mindful thinking influenced the consequence of the robbery.In addition, the architecture of his attic helped to keep him from being seen.Lastly, the actions, of his best friend determined the outcome, which some may say its “best friend instinct.” Bhatka used Facebook to post “What is on his mind” at the present time, which frightened the three suspects, this reduced the intensity of the robbery.
This article exemplified the social interaction we have amongst our “technology family.” If a phone was present during the time of the robbery, Bhatka would have been heard by the robbers.However, Facebook interactions helped save the day.So I ask myself, does this situation, along with many others predict what the future will consist of, the ongoing usage of technology?Many of us bash social networking sites (Let me mention due to the different personas we have amongst ourselves)but after this post, do you reconsider the impact they have on our everyday lives?
Although, we are in denial, just know there is at least one individual paying close attention to the importance of our lives, on social networking sites, whether or not your aware of it.The question is: How comfortable are you knowing that attentiveness from any individual listed as your “friend,”can save your life?Are we really living in public, minus the surveillance devices?
Snooping Around
Sites such as Facebook come with the extra perk of enabling us to anonymously take a peek into other people’s affairs. It is my personal opinion that besides satisfying our urge to communicate and socialize with dear friends, it also gives us an ample opportunity to snoop around into our friend’s lives and doings, such as for example; who are our friends’ friends? How close or intimate are they? How fabulous and popular their lives are? Or are they just as miserable and lonely people as we suspected all along…
Contrary to what many may say I believe that social networks such as Facebook, serve for more than just to satisfy the need to “communicate” and stay in touch with friends. According to the article Looking at Friends on Facebook Increases Pleasantness“ it says that “The researchers found that social searching — looking up a friend’s specific profile information, looking through their photos, reading messages from them — is indicative of greater use of the appetitive system.” The snooping around in my opinion has the same if not more of the incentive to visit Facebook. This added perk is hard to resist and in my opinion increases the chances to spend more and more time on line. The excessive thirst to stay on top of other people’s lives may result in situations of self-deterioration. The ease to communicate can facilitate good deeds as it can make it easier to harm others.
The quality of social interaction can impact our lives in ways that we may not even think of. For example; one of my friends, that I must make clear is not me, was not aware that his last girlfriend was sending friend request to all his friends with a photo of a young child, and many accepted without much questioning, since many times you don’t know what your friend looked like what when they were kids, and often we even do not remember their full names, so we may think we know them and say we’ll find out later. Soon enough she had enough people to start rumors and a persisting crusade to create embarrassing situations that spread like a wild fire among friends and friends of friends and somehow I found myself as an unintended channel helping the cunning plot to destroy my friends’ possibilities for a new and healthy relationship. As it turns out, and including me, people like to believe the worst on others, maybe as a measure of our own goodness.
Soon after that ugly episode, I became very suspicious and overcautious and ended up blocking access to my profile, defriending some even if that meant limiting contact and social interaction. The price is just too high to pay, and I for one treasure my serenity and peaceful way of living.
Some may say that this does not happen frequently, and I certainly would agree with it, after all living life to the fullest involves taking chances, but to what extend you’ll go trusting your privacy to a large pool of friends is hard to say. One thing is certain; I am no longer impressed with how popular you are, or how many hundreds of friends you have in your profile. However; I believe that that the more people you include in your profile the more chances for risk or unwanted situations; just keep in mind that every one of those so called “friendships” have your “ number and they can easily do a number on you.
Other people may say, I never accept friend request from anybody that is not my “real” friend then I say good for you. Others may say: that would never happen to me, my friends are the best, and they love me! When I hear that I say to myself I remember when I used to say that and to tell you the truth I honestly believed it; however; one thing is certain and that is when it hits the fan it hits everybody. I remember when I was younger and I was more involved in the friendship socializing hanging out thing, always on the lookout for fun, and when your big mouth got you in trouble, the worst that could’ve happened as nasty rumors spread was that a particular friend would come to you and say while slapping your face “I never did that with you!” and our short term memory put an end to it. Now days whatever you do and whatever anyone says about you, it’s on your permanent record for generations to come.
Facebook: Ruining or helping marriages?
I found this article online and it really captured my attention. After all, it has to do with Facebook and relationships, two of the things that we all like to talk about and are somewhat interested in. This article talks about how relationships, marriages are affected by Facebook. According to this article, relationships suffer because of having exes as friends, flirting and accepting friend requests that should have been ignored. They also mention that relationships and marriages flourish because of Facebook.
According to this article, there are 5 ground rules that married couples should follow in order to have clear communication and connection on Facebook with others without having a misunderstanding. They also listed a bunch of ways one can use Facebook, positively to enhance their marriage or in some of our cases, our relationships. These ways vary from commenting on your spouse’s posts, flirt with them, showing your other half that you trust them and keeping in check with what others are saying about your spouse.
In my case, I have to say that most of the time Facebook tends to have a negative effect on marriages or relationships. I have seen people freak out over old posts from someone that was flirting to chaos and “temporary breakups” over private messages. I’m sure a lot of you reading this are familiar with what I’m talking about. Do you think Facebook helps with marriages or relationships?? Or does it cause jealousy, problems and major break ups?
Take your pick.
http://www.yourtango.com/201173002/facebook-and-your-marriage?cid=nl
Facebook Song
While browsing Youtube, I came across a video that is extremely relevant to this class. The FacebookSong is absolutely hysterical! It basically describes a large majority of facebook users, whose lives revolve around facebook. It is a quick clip and definitely worth watching. It jokes on the fact that the two men singing are not normally very social, yet when they log on there is a whole website dedicated to them! I laughed when I heard this line,”Before the internet friendship was so tough, you actually had to be in people’s presence and stuff.”It discusses how information, whether whimsical or serious, is at the tip of their fingertips. At one point they say, “Who would have thought with a point and a click, I would know that Hope Floats is your favorite flick?”
Something else that was discussed is the fact that some people will add another person simply because they think he or she is attractive and not because they actually know them. I think everyone can say they have received friend requests from people with no idea of who they are. I have a friend who adds females all the time and tries to meet them in person, because he is somewhat socially akward, though he would never admit it. Before facebook came to be “THE” social internet website, myspace was huge and this is how my friend met his ex-girlfriend of at least a year. She lives in Texas, while he lives in New York, and they would meet up sometimes. The relationship did not last, shockingly, and he often gets mocked for his choice in meeting women. Personally, I will never understand it, but I was always taught, “If you have nothing nice to say, do not say anything at all.”
Posted in Assignment 2
Tagged Facebook, Facebook Song, Friendships, funny, MySpace
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Females and Facebook
So I was doing some internet browsing on Cosmopolitan.com, and came across two very interesting articles that are highly related to what we have discussed in class.
The first article Are You Oversharing on Facebook? talks about a new study that shows that how often women update their facebook photos is directly related to their self esteem. According this study, conducted at the University of Buffalo, “females who base their self worth on their appearance tend to share more photos online and maintain larger networks on online social networking sites.” They state that women, whom care a lot about their image and appearance, use Facebook as a platform to compete and also to get attention.
The second article I found, What These Facebook Statuses Really Mean, talks about some of the most annoy facebook behaviors that our friends or maybe even we may be committing. The author says that sometimes “reading status updates makes you think everyone else is happier and having more fun than you are” and that’s practically what this article is about. The Offenders here are: The Smug Newlywed, The 28-Year-Old Woman-Child, Ms Very Busy and Very Important, Miss In a Relationship and Flaunting It, and The Easy-Breezy New Mommy. Each of these women commits facebook faults of rubbing her life into others faces using facebook. I know this article talks mainly about female types, but I’m sure there are male equivalents who’s facebook updates are just as annoying. It makes us want to unfriend them, but you can’t, because they are your brother. This is a situation i’ve gotten to see first hand: Myboyfriend currently has a war going on with his brother who goes to school in Tampa, FL. Everytime my bf logs onto facebook, his younger brother has a new status update talking about the amazing time he’s having, and needless to say, theres a major sibling rivalry going on, trying to one up one another, and insult/belittle the other via facebook. Recently, my bfs younger bro posted about a vacation he’s taking to Punta Cana, and my bf flipped. These two don’t talk on the phone, and having facebook be their only mode of communication has led to major jealousy issues. So facebook offenses definitely aren’t female only behavior.
National Unfriend Day
We’ve all had this thought go through our heads: I just want to delete this person on Facebook. However, we often reluctantly keep them as a “friend”. Most Facebook users have hundreds of friends on their lists; many of these friendships just exist for the sake of being Facebook friends. In a way, Facebook dictates these social norms that once you’ve made friends on Facebook, you can expect to have made a friend for life.
In this Youtube video, Jimmy Kimmel announces November 17th as “National Unfriend Day” or “NUD”. Kimmel’s humorous approach to all the Facebook madness might actually be shedding some light on our ever-growing Friends lists. It’s easy to confirm a friend when that person is in your math class or you met that person at last night’s party. On the other hand, when you repeat this act for a prolonged amount of time, you’re looking at your Friends list and not recognizing many of your acquaintances. According to AOL News, studies done at several well-known universities show that we can only retain 150 friends at a time. These studies also show that there is some narcisstic behavior associated with all the “friending”. Ultimately, as the number of our friends increase, we become more conscious of our Facebook appearance, leading to more of your thoughts being taken up by Facebook.
We know that all these Friends are useless, but we’re either too lazy to remove them or conscious of the possibility of the awkward repercussions. But what’s really more important – your time or your Facebook?
Warner Bros Meets Facebook!
In reading this article, I thought it was interesting to see how big businesses are using social network sites to their advantage. The idea of logging on to facebook and being able to rent a movie is actually clever to me. Millions of people spend a number of hours on facebook each day.. why not allow them to watch movies while they do it. Warner bros is taking a unique step forward in developing more business for their company. However, the fear of piracy can be a big deal. People will develop ways to make these movies free instead of the $3.00 rental fee or 30 credit requirement the company will offer on the site. But whos to say that Warner bros should not take the risk. There have been a lot of movies that I’ve come across being sold by bootleggers in the street so there wouldn’t be a difference putting these movies up on facebook. Not everyone on facebook will be looking to commit piracy, they will simply want to watch it. This idea will create even bigger business for Warner Bros by allowing 500 million people to take advantage of their service. This is especially true among people who don’t have cable or simply would like to watch a movie at a much cheaper rate without leaving their house to go to a redbox or waiting for netflix to deliver their movie to their home. This idea would also be very good for college students who are on breaks at school and on their laptops with a few hours to kill in between classes. Instead of having to bring a DVD to put into your computer, it would be better for them to do what they do best.. Log onto facebook!
Posted in Assignment 2
Tagged Facebook, Movie rentals, Warner Bros
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the dangers of posting too much information on facebook
The dangers of posting too much info on social networks.
The above video shows the dangers of having a facebook account an other social networks. It talks about keeping your private life private,evaluating what you should and should not post on as your status update and how the information requested by social networks can be harmful to your lifestyle. the video to me therefore shows a connection knowing your audience a topic which have discussed in class.
Firstly, the updating of your status should be kept on a level where your personal life remains private.eg updating your status stating Im goin to be home alone for the night or stating the exact date and time of your whereabout for that particular day. It is extremely important not to do this in a case you do not know all of your friends personally on facebook. As Kayla Mitchell stated in the video she has over 400 friends an know them personally this is why she can share here whereabouts an personalize her status updates.
Another issue is the posting of pictures and being tagged in them. The consequencs of posting thes pictures can be extreme at times where many people have lost there jobs from the routine background checks done by employers or even denied a job by an employer because of their pictures being public. It is considered that the only way to have sum control over who see your profile is by costomizing your account to friends only.
Secondly,the information requested by these social networks such as your credit card informatiion, phone number, address should also be kept off facebook because it helps prevent identiity theft. There have been many reports of identity theft victims due to the fact that they provide these social networks with access to their personal infomation. On many times i been on facebooks and there are games such as farmville and yoville which require you to provide credit cards account to buy points to further your level in the game and to my knowledge there are people who do.
In conclusion the video provides you with knowledge of what you should be kept private and what shuld be kept public and also shows connection between our class discussion about ‘knowing your audience’ which should be highly considered while having a social network account.
Posted in Assignment 2
Tagged Facebook, Privacy, Public v. Private
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Dead after fighting on Facebook over $20
For the majority of us, Facebook is a way to communicate, make new friends, make plans, engage in arguments, threaten others with their lives and even taking someone’s life. I was watching the WPIX news last night and came across this outrageous story about a young college graduate who loaned $20 to her boyfriend’s sister to use for her child but instead, the sister used the money for something else. Yes, a very complicated story that soon ended up on Facebook with the exchange of harsh and threatening words of “who is going to have the last laugh” and later ended in one of the girls being stabbed to death.
The argument escalated and took a turn for the worse, when it was made obvious that the argument wasn’t about the $20. Unfortunately, its too late to know what this argument was really about especially from the other person’s point of view. The story shows one of the many ways people utilize “social networking”. This was a negative way that affect communities and societies of varying ages of people. It is really sad that, as humans our ability to lose control and engage in minor misunderstandings sometimes gets the best of us. In this case, something as simple as repaying $20 would have been the best thing to do and someone’s life would have been spared.
http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-women-dead-after-facebook-fight,0,6781648.story?preview=true
Facebook Marriage Drama
We’ve all seen facebook drama unfold on someones wall and even the extreme a chilling article about a young teen who committed suicide after being abused on the internet.
What about when it comes to marriage? Most of us don’t view facebook as being the source of drama for married people, we view it as a way for them to share baby pictures with college friends and reunite with people from the past
According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers over 66% of divorces have been linked to Facebook. They say that while many of these affairs are not premeditated, they are still happening and the information is put on the Internet for everyone to see.
Maybe it’s time for for people to better learn their privacy settings.
