Social impact of Facebook - Essay Example

SOCIAL IMPACT OF FACEBOOK In 2004, three Harvard – Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, developed a social network that was originally intended to operate within Harvard. Soon it was used to connect students among other Boston universities and colleges, and by 2005 colleges and universities around the world had been linked to the network. Soon high schools were allowed to join in, and then it became open to anybody with access to email. Today, it is a multi billion-dollar organization that has greatly changed the way people communicated with each other. Recently, Microsoft invested $240 Million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. This puts the value of the company at $ 15 billion, with annual revenue of $150 million (Stone, 2007). The main issue now is whether or not Facebook has an impact on society, and if such impact is disadvantageous to its most eager users. This study is of the view that Facebook has a significant social impact that poses no potential harm among its users. The origins of Facebook as an school-based channel for student-communities naturally led to studies concerning its possible beneficial and harmful effects among its young users. In an early study, at the time when Facebook was mainly a campus service, Boogart and Robert (2006) conducted a study on its use by students in four major U.S. educational institutions. The study found that access to this online service has enhanced the students’ ability to build social connections and helped facilitate their growth as active members of their institutions. The new technology was said to have negative effects. Among the most eager users, lowered GPAs were noted proportional to the student’s use of Facebook. Most of the students in the college campuses observed used it as a means to keep in touch with friends from high school or who are located at a distance from their present residence. There is also a small number of students who use Facebook as a tool for making social connections they could not develop personally. Likewise, Wilson (2009) reported in The Australian that the negative effect of Facebook in students grades is due to putting-off schoolwork; because of the addictive nature of scrolling through photos, reacting to messages and viewing video clips, a student’s attention is diverted from his schoolwork onto Facebook skimming without noticing the passing of time. While many studies prove the negative impact of Facebook on grades, there are, however, also those that disprove this relationship. A more recent study by Pasek, More and Hargittai (2009) found that based on data gathered from a nationally representative sample of American 14- to 22-year-olds, there was no significant relationship between the use of Facebook and the level of grades, and that changes in academic performance were no different from non-users. The Pasek study noted that “if anything, Facebook is more common among individuals with higher grades” (Thomson, 2009). Those who have formed an obsession with the service and are constantly connected to it could not be healthy nor helpful to a student’s studies, but anything overdone is likely to be harmful. Used in moderation as it was intended to be used, there is little connection between grades and the usage of Facebook. There are other broader effects that the use of Facebook has not only on students but society in general. It seems that the particular attraction of Facebook compared to other online services is the relative lack of commercial advertisements, making the interaction feel personal (McConnell, 2009). This observation would tend to indicate that there is little reason to believe Facebook would ever become a successful marketing vehicle. Its appeal is in the way it makes users feel they are part of a community of familiar friends, common interests, and personal connections for the sake of social interaction. The inclusion of traditional display advertising into Facebook’s pages may cause many users to feel cheated. On the other hand, Lange (2009) contends that their firm has found Facebook of invaluable use in the gathering of participants to their market program, an experience shared by Chaney (2009). These testimonies as well as many others indicate that where interests converge, it is possible to bring to the attention of a particular market the notice of some product or service in which they may be interested, as long as the approach is not hard-sell nor invasive. It is also observed that as Facebook grows in popularity, journalists in particular are keen to highlight the dangers of the new technologies – most likely because they have the greatest to fear from the growth of social tools and conversational media than most people (Thomson, 2009). An example is an ridiculous claim by the Daily Mail that “using Facebook can raise your risk of cancer,” as well as other stories that appear to be aimed at frightening readers by combining psychological research with guesswork and linking this to Facebook (Thomson, 2009). So far, however, there have been no findings that either prove nor disprove these allegation. In fact, research has not yet definitely proven the causes for such diseases as cancer or psychological and mental illnesses, much less scientifically linked it to Facebook, which has only been in existence for a short duration of time to impart any long-term medical or psychological condition. It is enough to say that Facebook could pose no serious threat to human health, at least not more than maybe expected through the normal use of modern electronic media, such as television sets and computers. Any accusation to the contrary appear to be purely guessed and unfounded. Without considering the rumors, the fact is that Facebook has become largely popular because it has afforded many features by which people can keep in contact with friends who have moved, track down friends who have been out of touch for a long time, and discover new friends who share common interests. McConnell (2009) puts it simply: social utility is Facebook’s driving force of success. In an increasingly impersonal society, particularly in the growing mega-cities and metropolises, people are finding ways of overcoming the social isolation of urban living by building electronic bridges. Barring any obsessive or abusive use of the service, it is evident that Facebook has created such bridges by which humans grow together as individual persons and as communities. REFERENCES Stone, Brad. Microsoft to Pay $240 Million for Stake in Facebook. The New York Times. 25 October 2007. 13 February 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/technology/24cnd-facebook.html?_r=2&ex=1350964800&en=4e87732cefe4fef4&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin Boogart, Vanden & Robert, Matthew. Uncovering the social impacts of Facebook on a college campus. K-State Research Exchange. May, 2006. 13 February 2010. http://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/handle/2097/181 Wilson, Lauren. “Facebook fixation harms student grades,” The Australian. 13 April 2009. 13 February 2010. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,24897,25325762-12332,00.html. Pasek, Josh; More, Eian; & Hargittai, Eszter. Facebook and academic performance: Reconciling a media sensation with data. First Monday, Volume 14, no. 5. 4 May 2009. 13 February 2010. http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2498/2181 Thomson, Bill. Just how bad is Facebook for you? BBC News, 5 May 2009. 13 February 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8033466.stm McConnell, Ben. Facebook’s threshold of cultural relevance. The Society for Word of Mouth. 17 February 2009. 13 February 2010. http://www.theswom.org/profiles/blogs/facebooks-threshold-of Lange, Kerry. Facebook’s threshold of cultural relevance: commentary. The Society for Word of Mouth. 25 February 2009. 13 February 2010. http://www.theswom.org/profiles/blogs/facebooks-threshold-of Chaney, Paul. Facebook’s threshold of cultural relevance: commentary. The Society for Word of Mouth. 24 February 2009. 13 February 2010. http://www.theswom.org/profiles/blogs/facebooks-threshold-of Read More