draft Facebook

The human race is always changing and developing new and better technologies that try to improve the way we interact with our environment and with those around us. This speedy change has caused a split between the two groups people, There are those who embrace this change and advocate the growth of technology. While on the other hand there are those who see the old ways as best, and for whom change and technology merely provide more opportunity for evil. The conflict over technology can especially become strong when it comes to the topic of social networking. I think when using social networking sites like Facebook we need to be aware of the negatives tendencies that can come from this technology such as, the reduction of actual face to face conversation, the tendency to waste time, and the tendency gossip and others down.

Before analysing the tendencies of Facebook it is important to look at what other scholars have to say on this topic. Lesa argues in her article that social networking and particularly Facebook is a positive force that helps us better communicate with each other and maintain long-term relationships with friends. She further argues that online social networking allows us to be more effective in the work place because it can bring many people with different talents to work on the same project despite distance(Lesa Stern, 2007). On the other Hand Shield’s argues against internet social networking as having little value. He argues that Facebook is primarily used for friend to give information to each other which is pointless and boring. He would say that direct communication such as phone or email is much more effective in communicating with others and much more interesting(Mike Shields, 2008).

Lisa argues that social networking can help groups work together more effectively, while this all sounds good in theory, I don’t think the reality is so nice and tidy as all that. I think face book has tendency to replace face to face conversation with. Other people. For now in the age of Facebook there is no need to actually go to a friend and actually asking how he is doing. Instead a one can now just look at the person’s status, or even just post on someone‘s wall and ask how they are doing. None of these things are bad in of themselves, However they allow us to interact with a friend without ever having actual contact with the person in question. This is very tempting because we don’t have to deal with his or my differences. We can sympathize or share with from a distance. This ultimately lead us to having distant friends instead of having a real relationship.

As Shields notes in his article face book can often be merely about exchanging pointless information. This leads to the second tendency of Facebook which is the tendency to waste time and to distract us from the more important things we should be doing. This can occur in many different ways. Games like Jet pack or word twister can easily lure us into spending hours playing pointless games when we should be doing school. Pictures are another example, it is easy to spend hours looking at pictures or commenting on walls. Thus, instead of doing the work that needs to be done we spend our time carelessly. This ties into the last point as well for instead of having actual relationships with people it much easier to spend our time looking at pictures or playing games.

The last and probably most damaging tendency that face book can lead to is gossip. For in Facebook we are provided a glimpse into peoples lives without necessary knowing the persons context or history. Thus when we look at someone’s status we make assumption that can often lead to gossip or speculation which is real things that are none of our business. Pictures can also be easy food for Gossip. Conversations like “did you see that picture” of do this or that. These tends of conversations can easily be used to tare people who we don’t even know very well. When if we actually took the time to get know the person in question we would more likely understand them and the context of there actions in a way that would build the person up instead of tarring him down.

Facebook can be helpful but as a culture we have to be aware of the negative tendencies can have. Like any technology we must master it and use it for good or it will master us and use us for evil. Thus, I would argue that we be careful when using Facebook to make sure we do not fall into the negative tendency but rather use it to build each other up.