Social Media - Facebook - Essay Example

?[Your full full December 05, Social Media - Facebook Introduction Facebook, one of the most famous social networking services, is a visible example of the usability of information technology (IT) in our life. We can say that IT transformed the scenario of human life into new possibilities which people were unable to achieve ten or fifteen years ago. Facebook service, created by Mark Zuckerberg, was launched in 2004. At the time of its launch, the sole purpose of the service was to help Harvard University’s students in educational matters. However, it gradually started expanding to other universities as well. Alba and Stay mention that “Facebook is a networking platform” (24). Today, Facebook has become one of the widely used networking services, having nearly 800 million users all over the world. The name ‘Facebook’ is indebted to the university administrators in the USA, who used to provide books to their students to know each other in a better way. The thesis statement of this paper is that ‘Facebook is beneficial because it connects people’. However, some people think that Facebook does not help people establish any real relationship. My Point of View My personal point of view over the issue is in accord with the statement that Facebook is beneficial for people. The influence of Facebook can be evaluated as beyond a website, but as an innovative tool to measure one’s social acceptability and the ability to mingle with the masses without any inhibition or inferiority complex. Claim 1: Facebook enables interaction between people from different backgrounds, cultures, and countries. Evidence: Everyone above the age of 12 can join Facebook. There is no limitation of gender, class, race, or social status. Facebook provides facility to the people to know each other and develop healthy relationships. Facebook, like international brotherhood, extends to other spheres an innovative platform to communicate with friends and meet new people, exchange valuable information, spend leisure time in a more useful way, new experiences, view videos and games, as well as regular updating of relationships. Claim 2: Facebook enables political interaction between people. People can share information and opinions on both international and domestic politics with each other. Evidence: The recent revolutions in Egypt, Jordan, and other Islamic countries are an authentic evidence of political interaction through Facebook. Today, politicians make use of social networking websites to launch their political campaigns. Politicians address the public through these websites and communicate their passion and ideas regarding development of their specific nations. The common thought about Facebook is that these websites enable fast and secure global interactions not only for the public, but also for the politicians. Many politicians use these websites to create virtual presence and to share their thoughts and ideas with prospective voters. Social networking websites played a great role in the political success of Barack Obama. People shared their views with each other and created over 50,000 events on the websites to bring success to Obama’s campaign. Political interaction between the voters and the politicians has also become easier through social networking websites. Voters can easily share information with each other in order to decide whom they should vote in elections. Politicians can make people aware of their political agendas in order to convince them and to get their support in elections. Almost half of the picture of the election results can be seen through the favorite politicians’ statistics available on Facebook and other social networking websites. Claim 3: Facebook establishes long lasting relationships between people, such as marriages, friendships, and business relationships. Evidence: It is evident from the social researches that Facebook helps people find good life partners to live with. People are also able to find suitable businesses partners. Moreover, companies also utilize this platform to market their products at a wide scale. The merger of two New York based software companies, Nixon Technologies and RealTech Software Company, in 2010 was the result of marriage between the owners of the companies which took place after almost two years of Facebook relationship between them. Opposing Viewpoint The opposing viewpoint regarding Facebook is that it does not help people establish long lasting relationships; rather being just a waste of time. Opponents of Facebook believe that Facebook is a way to cheat other people by creating fake IDs. It is true up to some extent, but the increasing ratio of successful relationships established on Facebook overshadows this aspect of Facebook. Some other serious concerns which most of the parents have in their minds regarding Facebook include wastage of time, interaction with unknown people, and decreased interest in studies. Some researches show that those children who are signed up to the Facebook do not usually get good grades in their studies. However, I personally believe the use of Facebook does not bring a negative impact on studies; rather, it helps students share important information with each other and strengthen their concepts through discussions. Another concern of parents is security of their children. They do not want their children to interact with strangers anywhere. They believe that children make social interactions with strangers on Facebook, which poses a threat to the safety and security of the children. This is a valid concern of parents. However, as far as friendships are concerned, I believe Facebook is a god platform to find good friends. Wittkower states, “If Facebook promotes friendship and if friendship is a good thing, why do we so often feel as if we’ve been wasting time when we are facebooking?’’ (120). I reject this opinion because, in my view, Facebook is an innovative tool or medium to create online presence and to connect with friends and relatives with whom we cannot remain in contact otherwise. Conclusion Summing it up, Facebook is a useful social networking service, which helps people communicate with each other easily and share viewpoints. The evaluation based on the applicability of Facebook in different areas of human life proves that it is a very useful way for the people to establish long-term relationships. Although there exist some concerns regarding use of Facebook as a mode of communication, those concerns are unable to overshadow the benefits associated with the use of Facebook. However, the concerns should not be avoided and proper steps should be taken by the administration to remove all negative points associated with the use of Facebook. Works Cited Alba, Jason, and Jesse Stay. I’m On Facebook, Now What???. California: Happy About, 2008. Print. Wittkower, D. E. Facebook and Philosophy: What's on Your Mind?. Chicago, Illinois: Open Court Publishing, 2010. Print. Read More