What are the effects of facebook on modern society?

The InsideFacebook.com once said,” If Facebook where a country, it would be the 6th largest in the world”. (http://paligapblog.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/10-soc-net-quotes) By this quotation, the InsideFacebook.com was trying to highlight the growth rate and popularity of the social networking site Facebook. Over the past five years, Facebook has grown at a phenomenal rate to include people of different cultures and backgrounds who share a common view and perspective. As of 2011, Facebook was credited with over 1 billion registered users and online members. There are various reasons for this phenomenal growth. Facebook makes it easy for its members to have easy access and contact with friends and relatives. Facebook increases the chances of making new friends both online and offline. Through Facebook new communities are created and activities are organized. Facebook can have different functions and orientations. Most times Facebook is used as a vehicle for romantic initiations, advertising to a particular target group and segment of the market and organizing both religious and political activities and events. Facebook basically connects individuals who share a common interest or have like passions such as a love for entertainment, music, videos and movies or simply writing and reading. Facebook can be used as a business tool to help companies, marketers and advertisers get their message out to the world and sell more of their products. For this reason many businesses recruit the help of Facebook when trying to launch a new product or host a new business event and activity. Facebook serves as a good networking, relationship management and marketing promotion tool, and in recent times, there has been a marked increase in its use to build business relationships because of its ease of use and the affordability of its services to the general public.  Facebook enables its members to have easy contact with friends and relatives, create communities and accumulate friends, and helps teenagers prepare for life in the adult social world.

Firstly, Facebook enables its members to have easy access and contact with friends. Facebook has become very popular because of its user friendly quality and the easiness with which one can keep in touch with friends. When users first get registered with Facebook, they are required to create a user profile or online profile and this profile can contain different kinds of information like educational information, work and personal information. The user profile identifies the user to the rest of the world and as a result allows the user to communicate freely with several people who have shared interests. A positive effect of this is that members of Facebook know the exact identity of the person that they are viewing or communicating with. This initial step can lead in various directions. It can mean the difference between making a positive business impression on potential clients or it can mean initiating a possible love relationship. The fact remains that Facebook is easy to use and because of this, the number of registered users have increased daily. Friends can keep in touch wherever they are around the neighborhood and around the world, whether on business trips, in board meetings or in the gym classes. Friends can updated their status and remain connected with one another. When used in a positive manner, Facebook user profiles can bridge the gap between people of different cultural backgrounds and ethnic groups. As a result, Facebook is leading the way in breaking down barriers in society and communication, such as prejudices and racism. Another positive effect of the ease of use of Facebook can be seen in businesses. Many businesses such as marketing agents and advertising companies use Facebook to get their message out to the rest of the world and also sell their products. Marketing companies find that the easiness with which people can use Facebook is an advantage for their business because they are able to sell directly to a target market through the use of Facebook as a result of direct communication and the open nature of the social networking site. Aliza Sherman, co-owner of social marketing firm, conversify, once said, ”To utilize social media tools effectively and properly, you must absolutely generate spontaneous communications in direct response to what others are saying or to what is happening in that moment . Be yourself. Be conversational. Be engaged.” Sherman in his quote was point out the role of social networking media like Facebook, which have transformed the way in which business is carried out in the past decade. Many businesses which enroll the services of Facebook work on the principle of communication and advertising.  A positive effect of this is the commercialization of advertising space. Marketing and Advertising companies pay a small fee to advertise their services on the pages of Facebook. Facebook makes a substantial amount of its revenues through the use of commercial advertising. When a company wants to launch a product or organize an event to create awareness for a product, the company can do it using the advertising space of Facebook for a certain fee, for a given period of time. A negative side of this is that Facebook has been accused of making money out of people’s friendships and businesses. Many scammers and criminals find it easy to conduct criminal and fraudulent activities such as financial scams and identity theft through the use of Facebook. The fact remains that the ease of use and the user friendly nature of the social network allows for the breeding ground of scammers and stalkers. As a result, privacy has turned out to be a major issue with Facebook. Privacy is a big issue because users don’t want their personal details being transferred to third parties or other websites as is done in most cases. But this is exactly the case or scenario, because by default, most details of individuals are shared with third parties whether they want it or not.  Therefore considering the amount of information that most users provide about themselves on their profile, it can be said that most members of Facebook are in fact putting themselves at risk to stalking and identity theft. Facebook is also considered by most researchers to be unproductive, in the sense that it doesn’t in itself produce any goods or products that society can use.  However, a better argument stands that Facebook has through its business to business services, increased the GDP of several nations.

Secondly, Facebook enables its members to create communities and accumulate friends. Many communities with different goals and purposes exist on Facebook. A user can easily join an existing community or can form a community. The positive effect of having online communities and organizations on Facebook is that they promote a cause. Some communities promote a health cause, some promote a political cause and others promote a religious cause. Online communities can be the breeding ground for political and religious changes. For example, the Arab revolution and movement, was promoted through the use of Facebook communities and networks. Many activists and leaders in the Arab world like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Syria use online communities like those found on Facebook to promote their agenda and political cause. For example, it was as a result of the use of Facebook communities that the regime of president Mubarak of Egypt was brought to an end. This was because of the bond that formed through the online communities and the fact that Facebook was used as a political tool to cause a historic change in the future of an entire nation. People all over the Arab world witnessed the fall of a 30 year dictatorship and regime, but even more importantly, people witnessed the birth of a new beginning and new hope for the people of Egypt. Whenever the activists wanted to organize a protest, they would make use of the online community to rally together a group of followers and supporters within Cairo and Egypt.  As a result, having utilized the easiness and user friendliness of Facebook, many of these activists and protesters, were able to voice their opinion and their views about what was going on in their country and in the Middle East as a whole. The Arab revolution is an event that will be talked about for generations to come because it has challenged governments, cultural views, religious authorities and it has questioned why the Arab people should live the way that they do. Due to Facebook communities, lifestyles in the Arab world is quickly changing and taking on a more relaxed style. The Arabians are quickly adopting and imitating the traditions of the west and the cultural preferences of the west in their music and in their fashion styles. For generations to come it would be said that Facebook and the social network played a key role in organizing the protests around the middle east that lead to the downfall of several governments and the creation of new hope for the people in the Arab world. Social networking has played an important part in the changes taking place in the Middle East today. Due to Facebook, many businesses are able to network and carry out business, howbeit, in difficult conditions considering the transition in government in most of these countries. Dr Ivan Misner, NY Bestselling author and founder of BNI, puts it this way, “Networking is not about hunting, it is about farming. It’s about cultivating relationships. Don’t engage in ‘premature solicitation’. You will be a better networker if you remember that”. (http://www.mirnabard.com/2010/04/99-favorite-social-media-quotes-and-tips) Dr Misner’s point is clear and simple. Networking using Facebook is about cultivating friendships, building bonds, going beyond borders and challenging what the future holds. The process of cultivation and bond building can take different forms and can be for various kinds of purposes. However, a negative side of the open nature of Facebook on society is the abuse of the services and the system through continual gossips being spread throughout the network. As a result, there have been suicides related to the malicious distribution of gossips throughout the network. These gossip materials are circulated by email from one member to another member for several weeks at a time in most cases. There have been marital separations and divorces because of jealousy in relationships between couples. It has been found that the Infidelity rate and the divorce rate in American have gone up since because of the use of Facebook. Facebook in a sense, has lead to a less moral and ethical society. While it is true that many couples meet on Facebook, it is also true that a lot of breakups and divorces take place as a result of Facebook

Thirdly, Facebook helps prepare teenagers for life in the adult social world. Facebook can be addictive, especially for teenagers. Teenagers are known to spend several hours a day on Facebook. This has positive effects on society because it helps in the teenage adolescent development, especially, when teenagers continuously create, recreate and develop their identities through Facebook. Teenagers are continuously viewing each other’s profiles, creating videos and posting written messages on Facebook. These entire things combine to help the teenager in personal development, and even more, prepares the teenager for the big world. A positive side to this is that, teenagers are found to take on more responsibilities in their friendships and also work harder at developing communication skills. The ease with which one teenager can view another teenagers profile is very important, because it creates an awareness of the current trends in fashion, music, movies and sports within society, for people within that age group and this outlet helps to stir generations of teenagers in the right direction. Some teenagers are fond of music and videos and can spend countless hours honing their video making skills, or music production skills, so that they can post it on Facebook for their friends to see or listen to. As teenagers grow and develop, they tend to find other uses for their time, and through Facebook, they can share their interest with one another. Most teenagers become involved in innovation and business development, while others become involved in networking and relationship management. However, one of the negative effects Facebook has on teenagers is that most teenagers live a life of addiction to the computer screen and have no time for anything else. Many teenagers can’t find sufficient time to do their homework and some can’t find the time to go out with friends to dancing classes or even a game of football in the evening. Many teenagers have simply become disconnected from many of their friends and contacts in the sense that they only get to say hello on Facebook but not face to face. Most teenagers experience withdrawal symptoms. That is to say that most teenagers find that they are uninterested in the environment around them but rather more interested in the status and updates of their online friend.

In conclusion, it can be argued that Facebook has more pros than cons. Facebook has changed the way that people around the world communicate, do business, and perceive themselves. People are in a sense, beginning to see themselves from the view point of the world. In addition to this, users of Facebook can claim to have a global view of events happening in the world, through media outlets like the BBC and CNN, which also have Facebook pages. Facebook user friendliness has been the backbone of its incredible development into a business organization and a social networking phenomenon. Within in minutes anyone can create a profile, add information and upload dozens of pictures and photographs. As a result, countless of individuals have been tagged in various kinds of photos. These entire services come free of charge for the user. Facebook basically is affordable and cheap, yet, it adds value to the daily lives of its members in the sense that it enhances their lifestyles and relationships. Adolescents and teenagers have had to grow up faster and sooner than usual, because through Facebook, teenagers are exposed to life in the adult social world. In a sense, it is a rite of passage for most adolescents and teenagers. 

Facebook were a country, it would now be in the w