Facebook Essay Sample
Internet is one of the technologies which have been on the forefront of the public domain in the modern society because of the great role it plays in globalization. However, the question of whether the internet is the driving force for democracy is complex with potential debates ranging from democratization to freedom and reduction of human rights abuse. The complexity in this matter is compounded by the effectiveness of the internet in ensuring social interactions and exchange of knowledge across the global boundaries which are the key aspects underlying democratization (Winston, 37). The author of this paper seeks to discuss the effectiveness of the internet in driving democracy in the society.
It is very interesting to see the way the whole world is turning out to be a small village at a very high speed due to the invention of technology. Many people have been able to conduct important businesses, pass urgent messages and even managed to be intimate with their loved ones in the name of internet.
A very good example of how internet has determined day to day activities can be demonstrated by discussing the issue of Facebook .This is a network service that was designed in the year 2004 and privately owned during then, unlike now as it has become public. The name of this service originated from a particular book given to the US students by the University administration with the aim of making the students know one another (Jack, Pierre, 54).
Foundation
The founder of this social site was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, together with fellow roommates in the college and his computer science friends. It was limited by then and was only available to the Harvard students before they considered expanding it to the other colleges in StanfordUniversity and other areas like Boston. Later on, it became available to other colleges and high schools, and then finally it was legalized to anyone aged 13years and above. Being a social networking service, it has been able to connect people with their friends and relatives all over the world irrespective of the distance and location.
However, this communication mode has not been fully accepted by all the people in the world as some countries have received it with a lot of controversy, an outcome that has seen it to be blocked in places such as Republic of China, North Korea, Syria and Pakistan.
The following is the way in which Facebook works. All you need is to visit the Facebook site through the internet, and then to the extreme right side of this site there is a place written sign up in a green colour. This is where you create your account. All you need to do is, to fill in the form whereby you indicate your name, email address and other personal requirements. Upon completing that, the support staff of face book sends you a confirmation email to your email account you provide them with. This confirmation normally asks you to activate your Facebook account then you start networking.
At this point one is able to look for his friends in the search link of the people he or she may know, and then you send a friend request to them. Once these people accept your friend request, you become friends and you are able to share most things on this site. such things includes viewing their profile, their updates, messaging, online chatting, posting on their walls, your personal likes as well as your photos, commenting on their posts and also knowing when they have their birthdays. Actually there are so many things that one can do and learn from this site.
Facebook impact was first felt in America during the 2008 general elections. This was when Facebook team collaborated with Saint Anselm College and allowed people to give their feedback on the then ongoing Democratic and Republican debates, something that saw many people in America join Facebook so that they may share their opinions.
Nowadays many media services have been using Facebook so as to attract people by encouraging them to join their home pages in order for them to participate on their debates online. It can therefore be said that Facebook has turned out to be a media device as you get updates from all over (Kraut, Kiesler, 78). Within a very short period of time you are informed even before you get the news through either television, radio or a newspaper. It is very amazing to see that, by May this year face book had over five hundred million active users. From philosopher Benedict’s point of view, she teaches us that, if culture decides to treat society as the most important thing, the people in the society will oblivious perform their duties very well without reference to our normal ideas of, there are kind of the people who should make social adjustments and Others who should not. So, due to the social cultural changes brought about by the current technology, people irrespective of their age and race are able to contribute towards some important decisions in the world today. Take for example, in the year 2008; facebook was ranked among the top three social networking websites in the world, posing a very big threat to other social networking sites such as twitter and myspace. This came as a result of the voice of American people due to their views on who should become their president in the then ongoing presidential campaign. It is the most famous in the English speaking countries and has been awarded so many times in the top 100 classic websites since 2007 up to date.
There are so many advantages and disadvantages associated with facebook as we are going to see in our discussion. To start with, I must admit that facebook is a great site as it allows most of us express ourselves, and also contributes much towards getting on with our businesses. Most of the people nowadays are using it in advertising their business. This is very important aspect of promoting civilization considering the fact that Benedict tells us that we can only consider individuals development by their ability to function adequately in the society. She further makes us notice that, this adequate functioning is one important way of defining normality in the society as it brings clearly the picture of civilization. All one needs to do so as to support his business through facebook is just to ensure that he or she has got a good network, update on your profile information about your business, then through your daily updates you are able to convince your friends that you offer good services. Another way of conducting successful business through facebook is whereby you create your business page and then you send your friends invitation to join it. This encourages friends of your friends to join your page and in case anyone of them is in need of services you are offering trust me they will give your service a trial and at the end of the day you end up having so many people as your customers.
Facebook is just fun to use especially in keeping in touch with your loved ones. It gives one a chance to have as many friends as he or she desires, including the most high-class celebrities and people of all sorts irrespective of their carrier or background. If maybe some one is in college or far away from his family members, he can keep in touch with them through this fun site.
It is also important to note that one is able to upload as many photos as possible since there is no limit on the number of photos and videos one is supposed to upload. This creates a very impressive capture to so many people as it is exiting to watch albums of photos through this wonderful site (Winston, 88).
The most exiting thing about this site is that, one is always kept updated on the current events and any interesting thing as it happens. It is very interesting as some dignitaries such as Barrack Obama are frequently using Facebook to keep in touch with people of United States and updating them on the issues he would like to push for while in the office as the president. Through this way, he is able to hear people feedback and their views concerning development issues. This leaves us with no doubt that, Facebook contributes too much toward the economic growth of United States of America.
Facebook is very easy to use. All you need is just to follow the instructions, point and click. Analysts have predicted that Facebook is going to shape the future of many lives. It is also very true to say that many people are finding their soul mates through Facebook irrespective of their tribe and culture.
Every day thousands of people are streaming in to this website so that they may connect with others. The disadvantages of this site are as many as the advantages. For example it is time consuming. When some one does not have enough time, it is not advisable to visit it since you may lose some valuable work you were to do. It is also very addictive. So, it has been observed that many people have turned out to be addicted to this site. It is not amazing to learn that many people spend so much time on one single site just chatting, poking or admiring other people comments and status and at the end of the day you have totally nothing to show that is constructive. This has always seen so many people suffer in their professional careers and personal lives. Many employees in various organizations are turning out to be unproductive due to their over stay on this site during their working hours. This leaves the employers with no choice but to sack majority of them. Another major disadvantage is that, it has very minimal privacy. Before you get an online account, one has to provide his or her personal details that remain confidential to him and the registering company. This is very different from the Facebook as most of your personal life is always visible to your friends.
At times I feel sorry for those people who end up divorcing due to facebook.This is one of the worst disadvantages as it leaves many people hurt broken. Each and every day people are divorcing after realizing that their spouses are cheating on them via Facebook.
Another problem associated with Facebook is that so many people have been duped in most dubious businesses through this device. Every hour, some one has to be a victim of this. So many actually lose their valuables and to some extremes their lives. Just incase you are logged in and you forget to log out, some one may access your very private information and worst make use of your account to put you in troubles.
Some people also use this site for pride. It is not funny to see some people misuse it just to gain fame in the society (Winson, 55).
When we look at the various aspects of Facebook in respect to Hobbie, we can say that just like the way this great philosopher advocated for equally through his famous law of nature, so does Facebook. It brings equality as any person is eligible to joining it irrespective of tribe, culture, education or even the strength of his or her bank statement.
When you also consider hobbies point of view on his fight to unite the phenomena of man and state, this is reflected in the current administration of the united states whereby Barack Obama is using Facebook so as to update his people and the whole world on the progress of his main agendas during the time he is going to be in the office as the sitting president. One interesting thing is that, on January 2008 , he had said on his Facebook page that, just like Philosopher Hobbie promised to unite people, so does he promise to unite the people of America irrespective of the skin colour.
Facebook copies too much from Philosopher Mahatma Gandhi as we see that, one of its major motives is to bring unity among people just like Gandhi did. So much has been written on how Gandhi shaped lives of many people towards socialization. For example, when he gives us his quotes on becoming successful business people, this is highly reflected through Facebook by the way some of the people use attractive language in advertising their businesses via Facebook.
During our discussion on the disadvantages of Facebook, we have seen that, many people may wish to show how well they are placed in the society. Some thing Hobbies makes us understand better when he explains the major causes of quarrel among men.
In conclusion we can say that, internet services have been very important towards promoting socialization as we have seen how effective it is in communication. The most important thing to note about this form of social networking is that, it is very easy to use and all one needs is just to have a free account so as to enjoy it. Besides having discussed on its pros and cons, we should ask our selves what morals we gain from this website as we march towards globalization (Kraut, kiesler, 90). For example, a student is able to get information from his fellow students just incase he or she happens to miss his lectures on what the lecture was all about.However,caution should be given to those people who rely most on it because of the dangers of moral decay. Teenagers are the biggest victims as they may end up in learning so many unproductive sites through their friends on facebook.
I give credit to Facebook when I consider the fact that, it does not bring any class difference or discrimination in the society since we can all join. From Benedict’s point of view, a good developing society does not need to discriminate its people. She uses the Zuni community to show this when she says that, their men assumes openly that women’s dress has nothing to make them lesser than men as they have the same functioning responsibilities of moving their country forward .A case that is different in some countries (Modell 1989).