1. What do you think are the two most influential factors that have contributed to Facebook's success today? Reflect on the impact (both positive and negative) that Facebook or any other social networking tool has on your daily life in relation to these two factors. For each factor, provide at least one appropriate example to support your answer. (10 marks)
There are many reasons as to why Facebook is so successful today but I believe that the most fundamental influential factor that has contributed to Facebook’s phenomenal success would have to be the connection it is able to provide to people. Connectivity is key as the idea of being able to access to a person’s name, photos, status and all other personal information in a few clicks is still very intriguing and attractive to many. Information about your friends, acquaintances or people whom you don’t even know is right at your fingertips. One would be easily seduced by this idea, especially when everyone else is doing it. If you’re not using Facebook, you are lagging behind times. Facebook works because people thrive on such social interactivity and Facebook, unlike its other social networking competitors, makes it easy for users to do so with its simple and user-friendly functions.
When I was first introduced to Facebook, I was sceptical. I thought that Facebook was just another Friendster, just another social networking site, and I resisted following the trend and what everybody else was so hooked on to. Facebook was probably just a fad but when more and more friends around me started using Facebook and got captivated by it, I felt compelled and obligated to use it simply because everyone else was connecting with each other though Facebook all the time. It was all about connecting with the people around me and eventually under such peer pressures which were asserted unknowingly by the people in my social circle, I became a Facebook convert. Before I knew it, I found myself being addicted to Facebook as it provided entertainment, interaction, connection all merged into one single place. I was also checking Facebook on a daily basis and I was smitten with the idea because it was so easy. Today, everyone is on Facebook. 500 million people who are scattered across the globe use Facebook today, with 350 million people using Facebook on a daily basis. Facebook is so successful and popular; not having a Facebook account is equivalent to socially isolating yourself.
Facebook is so inherently social, it changed the way I interacted and socialised with people in both good ways and bad. Facebook has been beneficial as it has helped me in establishing networks and keeping myself updated as well. However, I sometimes worry about the ease of communication that using Facebook provides. For example, there were several occasions when my sister was just in the room next to me and I wanted to ask her about something but I wrote on her Facebook wall instead. This shows that it might go to the extent where people might slowly lose real-life vital communication skills.
The success of Facebook can also be attributed to the how willing Facebook users share and overshare personal information. Without such content and information about users, Facebook will find it difficult to draw its users in and retention rate will be low. Ultimately, users go to Facebook to look at their friends, or their friends’ friends and even strangers. The way Facebook users share personal information helped push Facebook to being one of the top sites visited in the world. However, even though the sharing of personal information is vital, the issue of privacy on Facebook is an ever-prevalent one. When I first started using Facebook, I was aware of the dangers the World Wide Web posed and I took precautions to protect my privacy by withholding certain information that I reveal online and restricting what others can see. When the scandal regarding Facebook’s privacy happened, I was even more cautious of the information I revealed online and was mindful of my privacy being compromised. With the current privacy settings, I can exercise more control over who I want to view my photos and information. For example, for private photos which I would like to share among my close friends only, I can select these few people and grant them access to my album. Such privacy settings give the user more control and freedom to implement measures to protect one’s privacy. However, even though many users are still ignorant about exposing yourself online and Facebook’s privacy settings are still far from perfect, I think that at the end of the day it really depends on the individual to be responsible for his or her own privacy and welfare.
2. The movie focuses a lot on ethical issues and responsible use of social networking tools. Briefly describe any one example of unethical/ irresponsible use of Facebook in the movie and discuss your views on it. Provide one example of how you can engage an online community ethically on any one social networking tool of your choice. (10 marks)
In “The Social Network”, the only unethical use of Facebook that I can think of would be when Mark Zuckerberg tried cheating on an art exam by uploading the paintings on to Facebook and trying to get people to comment about it so that he could claim those comments as his own and therefore finishing his essay with the help provided unknowingly by others.
Even though it was really clever of him to make use of other Facebook users to get his work done, cheating on its own is unethical. It also doesn’t help that the World Wide Web is dangerous and leading others into doing or believing things is really easy as well. This shows that you cannot always believe everything that you see online and that one should always question the authenticity and accuracy of information provided online. For example, there was a recent spate of status updates that suggested sexual innuendoes and started with “I like it on…”. It created a lot of hoo-hah and buzz, but it was actually part of a recent campaign launched on Facebook to raise awareness for breast cancer and women all over Facebook posted status updates about where they liked to place their handbags.
Despite, all negative things that can take place on social networking sites, an example of how one can engage an online community ethically is by creating groups and pages that advocates the responsible use of social networking sites such as Facebook. These groups and pages can serve to educate within the social networking platform itself. For example, as ‘liking’ stuff on Facebook is really easy and it is an observed trend among many users, groups such as “I hate it when my account gets hacked and people do stupid stuff to my account” can be created and these might help in generating publicity and stopping such activities. Through these groups and pages, users can learn how to engage in ethical online behaviour in creative ways and learn of the consequences unethical use of social networking sites can bring.In conclusion, social networking sites such as Facebook brings about both positive and negative change but at the end of the day it is up to the individual to utilise such tools ethically and responsibly and it is up to them to protect their own interests.
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