It’s rare to see Facebook profiles with less than 200 friends these days. In reality, a person is lucky to have about 10 people to categorize as friends, and that’s even stretching it.
“Like!”.
There are already hundreds of thousands of articles delineating all the good stuff that social medias in general bring, as well as the role each social media giant play in a single person’s development. To keep the lines from overlapping and blurring, this article will focus on the biggest social media that dominated the 2011 headlines – Facebook.
Facebook started as a small college stint but has now become thoroughly ingrained in modern society. Not everyone has an account, most man, woman and child on the street have heard of Facebook.
This statement has become an abused colloquial expression when encountering something nice, awesome, or one you generally approve of. Gone are the specific and apt adjectives that fit what you really think of it.
Whether it’s offline or online, not a single relationship (romantic or platonic) that started these days bypassed the what’s-your-Facebook stage. Facebook can be a venue to really know someone – looks, thoughts, social circle, or even the person’s past.
June 2011, there were talks that users were suffering from ‘Facebook fatigue’ brought by the dropping usership in key markets. Au contraire, by the end of the year, Facebook reached a whooping one trillion page views, making its mark in history as the most viewed website in the world.
Doubt the usefulness and impact of social media and you’ll be pointed to the 2011 timeline – from riots to revolution, cyber-bullying to superinjunctions. In retrospect, 2011 was a year of social networking dominance, the year it became serious and started shaping the real world.
As much as how good the sweet smelling aroma of social medias is in the social-political arena, these big players– Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube among others– do bring a few negative effects and impressions to the society and its people.
Like any major trends, Facebook changed society in a lot of ways. While some of these innovations are beneficial, there are some that shake the foundations of social structure. Knowing and understanding these drawbacks can help mitigate the problems, avoid getting the positive drowned by the negative.
“Do you have Facebook?”.
For the last 50 years, the influences of media have grown exponentially with the advancement of technology. Mankind was first enamored by the invention of the telegraph, then the radio, the various print mediums, the breakthrough of moving images in a box, and now the internet. The development of media can be a testament to the fact that humans live in a society that depends on the availability of information and communication to keep you from doing your daily activities – work, entertainment, health care, education and personal relationships.
Devaluating Friendship.
“How else to call it but ‘friends'”?
Life is interesting, and some people do find other people’s life interesting. All your friends “like” your status update, and you probably “like” some of them. There are thousands of well-craftily pieced status updates and unearthed long forgotten quotes, but nothing can compare clicking “like” when you get a hug from someone, hearing your loved one’s voice, or playing in the rain.
Some people have entirely morphed their sense of self to their Facebook page, that dirtying it with like-less post comes off as unthinkable. You are your Facebook profile, and the game has changed to who can come up with the most interesting status.
He or she may have hundreds of friends on Facebook, but in reality, he or she doesn’t even know the first step to making friends, or how to keep one.
If you haven’t read the memo yet, the more likes you have, the more you’re Facebook ‘alta sociedad’.
A completely shy person can be sporting the biggest ego online; the bullied in real life becomes the bully online; a person with no self-confidence is more at home online where he or she can hide behind anonymity.
Like any major trends, Facebook changed society in a lot of ways. It’s rare to see Facebook profiles with less than 200 friends these days. In connection with the skewed self-perception, Facebook can give you borrowed confidence. Social networking sites, not only Facebook, can expose the side of you that is not aligned with your professional persona. The society today has replaced resumés with social media searches.
As much as the perks of instant communication can not be disregarded, looking the person in the eyes while catching up on the latest gossip over a hot cup of tea is still the best way to get connected.
Mister X posts status. Status gets less than five likes. Mister X deletes posts.
Social networking sites, not only Facebook, can expose the side of you that is not aligned with your professional persona. The society today has replaced resumés with social media searches.
False Confidence.
The Facebook Currency.
As much as there are relationships that blossomed or started on Facebook, there are too many relationships as well that are on the rocks, worse ended, because of the social networking site.
Life has a lot of things to figuratively click “like,” but a lot of people chose to forget how it is to be unplugged. Hanging out with people, yet too busy following your Facebook stream of updates to look up and see the real human being sitting right next to you.
In connection with the skewed self-perception, Facebook can give you borrowed confidence. Actually, this is not only prevalent in this social media. Majority of netizens are like Dr. Bennet sporting a Hulk inside them, only difference is that it’s not anger triggering the internet but the transformation itself.
Some couples have crossed the line wherein their relationship is for the online gossip vine and public consumption. Telling the online world that your boyfriend cheated on you doesn’t make the problem go away, or make the gravity of it any lesser.
Relationship dramas include cyber-cheating which is equally morally corrupt as physical affairs.
Professional Risks.
Communication Erosion.
Facebook messages, status updates, comments and chats have replaced group dates with friends and just hanging out, actual phone conversations, or meeting someone for coffee to get updated with each other.
True, but when mere acquaintances, or even strangers for that matter, are lumped into the category of friend, and the number keeps on growing, this can skew how you think others perceive you. This is better described as false sense of popularity.
Most people connect with professional contacts on Facebook. Sometimes, innocently posting something without thinking about it can affect or jeopardize your career.