Facebook- Connecting People or Minimizing Privacy?

By Shereen Hassan and Ingy Fahmy

“Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.” Or is it really? Facebook started out as being a fun and dependable way for high school and college students to stay in touch with each other, but now people across the globe have started to misuse this privilege.
Through Facebook, one could upload photos or publish notes, get the latest news from friends, post videos on profiles, tag friends, use privacy settings to control who sees personal information, join a network, and see people who live, study, or work around them. Nevertheless, one could say that people have started “stalking” other’s lives.
As of October 2007, there are 49 million active users on Facebook, and of those 49 million, 60% log in daily, 85% log in weekly, and 93% log in monthly. It seems like addiction has started and is still continuing to increase within the barriers of Facebook. The stalking and addiction that have risen within Facebook are starting to effect the real connection between people.
Although Facebook has privacy settings that can limit personal information , one can still never be in full control of people out there who get to see personal conversations between friends.
Facebook members can join or create groups such as study groups, common hobbies, culture, etc. This might seem like a good way to find people who have common interest in life, but people have misused this privilege. The content of the posts are most often offensive to different kinds of people, some might be offending or discriminating on the bases of religion, culture, ethnicity, etc.
In addition to the loopholes in Facebook, there is another problem of caching. Caching is a term used for temporary storage of updated files called cache. Once something is posted it cannot be erased completely.
The Journal of Consumer Research found out that “negativity is contagious” through studies. The behavior of people toward products and services are a lot of times influenced by the others around them. Facebook, as one of the largest social networks, will continue to be an important driver of individual beings’ attitudes as societies become more interconnected.
Now that the younger generations of middle and elementary schools have started to have active accounts on Facebook, there is no control over what these children will be exposed to and what experiences that might have a serious effect on their lives. What was originally launched to create a bridge between college and high school students that are sited away from each other is turning out to be potentially harmful.
Next time, think again before signing up to Facebook or logging into your account because no one never knows who is watching.