English
Facebook has constantly updated its ability to make digital socialization as close to reality as possible and they have created innovative methods in bringing this to life. One such effort by Facebook is the location feature which allows an individual to share location, which when used with a mobile feature called ‘nearby friends’ tracks friends in real time, especially in the times of emergency. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and Founder of Facebook stated that, “Over the last few years there have been many disasters and crises where people have turned to the Internet for help. Each time, we see people use Facebook to check on their loved ones and see if they're safe. Connecting with people is always valuable, but these are the moments when it matters most.” Facebook has dramatically altered the way human race has known to socialize since the beginning of human race itself. Facebook has created friends, likes, pokes that have altered how the Gen Y and later generations meet, socialize, and also share their most intimate thoughts in the digital space. The idea here is to transcend beyond digital life and make real life meetings possible with real eye-contact and laughter. The general location will allow Facebook friends or a set of customized list of people to see where the individual is at that particular moment. This could also be a potential abuse for stalkers. When this feature is turned on, the list of approved friends know the approximate location of the individual and a notification also allows the individual to see friends who are nearby. An app tells who of the pals are in the nearby location or a city and also tracks them with approximate distance from the current location along with a time stamp. The sharing of location can be restricted with specific group of friends, which people can use this feature to coordinate in times of natural disasters, when other methods of communication fail. This also allows the person to locate nearby utilities and places like theatres, restaurants, as well as hospitals that could be used as it has a potential for saving lives and being a life-line.
Works Cited
Facebook. Introducing Safety Check. 14 October 2014. 20 November 2014. <http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/10/introducing-safety-check/>.
Mitrano, Tracy. Thoughts on Facebook. April 2006. Cornell University of Information Technologies. 20 November 2014. <http://www.cit.cornell.edu/oit/policy/memos/facebook.html>.
Reid, Angela. ""FinallyThe Facebook"." The Chanticleer 22 September 2005: 4.
