There are millions of people that use Facebook every day. For some it is a tool that is very beneficial to them. It is a way for them to stay connected with family and friends. They can even go on there and hook up with somebody that they have not seen since childhood. Also, people have used it a tool to find jobs and even do crazy things like promote their business and sell their furniture. Furthermore, Facebook can be retrieved for people from young to the very old and it is also user friendly. For instance, using Facebook turns out to be a way of life for teenagers. Nearly every day they find way to get into their Facebook account and then began chatting with their friends or just to inform their rank. Many times if they are not up to date do not even have a Facebook page, their other friends will say that they are stuck in a time warp and need to get a life. It is a tool that has really become popular and made people’s live really easy when it comes to the purpose of what they are using for. With that said, I am not one of those people and this essay will discuss the reasons why I do not access the media tool.
Facebook for Dating:
Facebook is also well-known for looking for a date. Now, there are many that will argue that face books it a great tool but I do not think that it is a good media tool for something like this. However, other people’s argument is that there are a lot of youngsters and college students are the ones that are utilizing Facebook for dating and to make different types of new friends. Certainly, with a social networking device that is basically powered by over 800+million peopl that are considered to be active, it is really easy to discover a date for themselves that shares interest that common interest (Harris, 2012)t. This goes on all the time and in fact I have friends that do this all the time. However, this is very dangerous. To argue my point, there was a friend from Atlanta that met a person on Facebook that lived in Missouri. This man befriended her and then they started dating online. After a while it got serious and he would come to Atlanta off and on. This went on for about a year and in December 2012 she went missing. A few weeks later she was found dead. This man that was from Missouri was also under investigation for a woman that missing in that state (Harris, 2012).
With that said, I don’t think that Facebook should be used because it is dangerous. I also believe that a person really needs to be careful about fake Facebook profiles though, because they did not know if they are getting in contact with a stalker or even worse a killer as my friend from Atlanta. A lot of the time as they are typically made by spammers and stalkers that are out for the hunt and are looking for vulnerable people (Krombholz & Weippl, 2012). It is really dangerous for children because they do not know who they are talking to because there are many people that make fake Facebook pages all the time. As said by reports, Facebook is also turning out to one of the vital reasons for the reasons why relationships are failing and breaking up. It is important that if people are going to use this form of media that they need to makes sure who they befriend (Harris, 2012). It is vital that Facebook is used as a vital tool, but I still do not think it is worth it.
As mentioned earlier, there are also children that have gone missing and it is seen in the news all the time. There were incidents of kids being bullied and last years a girl named Amanda Powers was bullied and then blackmailed. A 33 year old man black mailed her to take her clothes off through video and then he made her pictures go viral (Lilley & Gumbus, 2012). When her peers found out at school that this was going on they bullied her on Facebook and even past her pictures around all over the streets and internet (Krombholz & Weippl, 2012). In the end, Amanda took her life by hanging herself in her room. However, before she died, she went on Facebook and sort of gave a last minute speech, even though nobody was able to take hint of the fact that she was about to take her life.
Another incident involved a rapper from Washington that took a bad break up from his girlfriend to heart and voiced all of his problems on Facebook. I think that is inappropriate to do because once that is done everyone is able to know your business and it did not help this 22-year old. He was depressed and suicidal and was broadcasted all of his problems for the whole world to see. When people saw this they did nothing to try to help him but instead just let him go on and on posting his depressed state (Lilley & Gumbus, 2012). Finally, he did post a suicide message on Facebook that was real but nobody did anything to come and help him (Harris, 2012). There was no positive post sent in order to deter him from making that deadly decision. A few days later he even posted some pictures on Facebook that showed him with a gun to his head. Why did people not try and help him then? They saw a gun in his hand but they did not do anything to try and stop it.
Why did they let it escalate to that point? A few days later after that he shot himself and people at that time chose to criticize his behavior finally when he is dead. I felt that Facebook was a tool that helped promote all of this drama. Somebody if not the owner should have stepped up and mentioned something so that the comments could have been taken off or maybe he could have got the help he needed. Facebook should not be a tool that is used to exploit people emotions and feelings. However, in this case it was not and an innocent person died when maybe they could have lived.
Privacy of Facebook:
One of the main concern and drawback of the Facebook for me has a lot is to do with Facebook privacy. At one time, it has shaped numerous buzz because of unexpected changes in Facebook privacy settings nonetheless things have changed and now Facebook has been able to simplify its privacy setting. On account of ignorance and lack of understanding of Facebook privacy feature, individuals are able to make numerous errors. Another condition to look at has to do with the obtainability of material too individual, whether in text, pictures, video, or text. People should understand that they should never give out too much personal information about themselves as mentioned earlier. I do not trust Facebook because I do not think that they do a very good in making sure that everything stays private. There are too many times when the accounts are hacked into without warning. I can vouch for this because I was a victim in this type of situation and it was not pretty for me. Th entire account was hacked into and all of my information was leaked for the whole world to see. They were even able to post comments to other people websites with things that I did not even say. It really can put people at an inconvenience. The privacy setting is supposed to be set up to make sure things like this do not happen but obviously they are taking place on a day to day basis. As throughout the Internet, people need to bear in mind how their privacy settings are possibly being hacked in.
In conclusion, it is safe to say that Facebook as a social media tool is ineffective. It appears that it because more issues than it does with benefits. The fact that lives have actually been lost because the device was used was a wakeup call for me. I think every time someone logs on to the cite, they are taking a huge risk. With that said, I think that I will stick to old fashioned texting and talking on phone.
References:
Harris, C. W. (2012). The uses of Facebook? Technologies in hospitality curriculum on an experiential learning platform for a new generation of students. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 24(5), 805-825.
Krombholz, K., Merkl, D., & Weippl, E. (2012). Fake identities in social media: A case study on the sustainability of the Facebook business model. Journal of Service Science Research, 4(2), 175-212.
Lilley, S., Grodzinsky, F. S., & Gumbus, A. (2012). Revealing the commercialized and compliant Facebook user. Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, 10(2), 82-92.
