Does not having a Facebook result in Social Suicide?

It sounds like a crazy questions but according to some people its totally true. I was shocked to find this article. It comes from a website called "College Candy" that has daily postings from various authors about different real world issues. This article claims that its only "weird" people that do not have Facebooks and she often wonders what is wrong with people that do not have Facebooks. She even compares people without Facebook to people who have never tried PB&J. In class we have discussed a lot of things about Facebook but we never really discussed how people are treated for not having a Facebook. I know one of my friends deactivated his Facebook for a couple weeks and he said he would never do it again...when I asked why he said "way too many people have asked me what happened to my Facebook and I am sick of it" he also said that his girlfriend accused him of being shady for deleting his Facebook. I couldn't help but think..well that is a little shady?? Then I took a second to realize that maybe he just wanted to concentrate on school and studying instead of constantly logging on Facebook. I think maybe I should try it and see how much better I do in school..it would be a good test. This author of the above linked article also asks the audience how they live without Facebook, I think that statement may have been a little extreme but at the same time I know so many people that I know would go crazy if Facebook ever went away. Everyone should also check out the comments below the article because it is interesting to see how different people feel on the subject of having/not having a Facebook.

We also talked about the creator of Facebook a lot in class so I went and did some of my own research on him. Most of the stuff was repetitive but I did find this from the NY Daily News. The article states that Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, CANNOT be blocked on Facebook. This is a little scary because it is possible to block every other Facebook member in the world. It just shows that he wants the users to know that he is in control and no matter how many privacy settings you enable, he will always have access. After I read this article I did try to block him and an "error" message came up, just as the article said would happen if someone tried to block him.

Social Networking sites being used for the WRONG reasons.

Today in class we talked a lot about things that have gone wrong because of social networking sites. For example, students getting expelled for their Myspace pictures or events and parties getting cancelled because of teachers or deans finding the event on Facebook. I decided to do some of my own research about "things gone wrong" when using social networking websites. I found many different websites/blogs/postings about people getting in trouble from different social networking sites. However, after sorting through all of them I found 2 particular websites that really stuck out and surprised me.

Over the summer one of my co-workers told me that she was fighting with her husband because of something he saw on Facebook. My co-workers ex-boyfriend (from high school) was sending her private messages on Facebook asking her to meet up and talk to him. My co-worker never responded to the messages but never the less her husband was upset by what he saw. She explained to me that since her husband is not an avid Facebook user he did not understand that Facebook is used for keeping in touch and getting back in touch with old friends. I found this website which claims that 1 in 5 divorces is blamed on Facebook these days. The author of this article said that "Divorce Online" did a study which is where they are getting these horrifying results. Kennan, the person who headed the study, claims that sexual and inappropriate Facebook chats were the most common reason for these Facebook divorces. Another interesting fact I learned from this website was that divorce lawyers now check the Facebook of the other spouse to see if they can use any evidence from their Facebook during the court hearing.

This next website I found really freaked me out. I had seen something on TV about this case but I never really knew the details of it. This case involves a mother creating a Myspace hoax to hurt the feelings of a 13 year old girl (her daughters friend). This mom tricked the young girl into thinking an older boy, named "Josh", liked her and then eventually broke her heart. This insecure 13 year old committed suicide because she was unable to deal with this heartbreak and loss of friendship. I could not believe that a parent, who had a daughter the same age, would ever do that to a young insecure girl dealing with depression. Here is the link to this CNN story.

Both of these situations have a common factor...they both involve adults. I want to point this out because I can not tell you the amount of times I have heard a teacher, parents, ect. say that young teens do not know how to handle social networking sites. In the two above examples, grown adults clearly do not know how to handle social networking sites. This just goes to show that age does not matter when it comes to social networking sites...a 14 year old has to hide their facebook when they may just be using facebook to meet new friends going into high school...where as a 40 year old adult should be the one thats regulated when they are using social networking sites to cheat on their spouse or making a fake Myspace account. I think the stereotype of young people doing "bad things" on social networking sites should disappear and we should start to examine why people of all ages are using social networking sites.

The "like" button is causing controversy.

We have been talking a lot about social networking websites in class the past few weeks so I decided to write my blog on one of the most popular social networking sites...Facebook. One of my friends had told me they heard something on the news about controversy with the "Like" button on facebook. I decided to look more into this and I was surprised to find that many legitimate websites talking about the "Like" button. I never really thought twice about using the "Like" button. In my eyes it was just an easier way to comment on a picture or post without really commenting. For example, instead of writing "cute picture" I would just hit the "Like" button. I never really "Liked" pages or celebrity fan sites, even thought I get tons of people inviting me to "Like" pages they "Like." Here are two of the most interesting websites I found on controversy, and even lawsuits, surrounded around the "Like" button.

This first case deals with minors using the "Like" button. This article discusses David Cohen v. Facebook. Cohen says that there are been millions of cases where Facebook has "misappropriated a minors name or likeness for profit." Naturally, Facebook fights back and releases this statement, "We believe this suit is completely without merit and we will fight it vigorously. The complaint misunderstands the law, it’s intent and the way Facebook works. For example, plaintiffs assert that minors are marketing Facebook through search engines but we do not allow minors to include their profiles in search engines,” said Andrew Noyes, Facebook’s manager of public policy communications. Cohen says he was fighting for all Facebook users, especially minors, who have been "used" by Facebook and other advertising companies. Here is the link to the article; http://mashable.com/2010/08/27/facebook-class-action-suit/.

The second article I found was on CNN's website. This article discusses how the "Like" button is a security issue. Since the "Like" button is now linked to other Webpages, it tracks all of the sites that are viewed by a particular user. According to this article, the Facebook Chief Executive said this like to other webpages makes Facebook and its users more "social." I never really considered that this was a security issue until I read this CNN site. I think after learning more about the "Like" button I have learned to be much more careful when using it. Here is the link to the CNN article; http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/06/02/cnet.facebook.privacy.like/index.html