Essay

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“Social network sites such as Facebook have become increasingly popular in recent times.Discuss the “visibility” of Facebook in our lives by examining the various
advantages and disadvantages of its usage.”





Alex Short

Griffith University



Social network sites (SNS) have experienced a meteoric rise in recent years but do we actually notice this medium Facebook? Or do we now merely take it for granted as we do older medium forms such as the telephone, radio or television? Has Facebook become so absorbed into our media environment that we fail to notice its existence? Has Facebook also become “part” of us in the same way that the telephone, speech and the written word has for most of us? In this essay I will define what an SNS is, discuss SNS and Facebook history, briefly outline the structure and nature of Facebook and finally, by examining the positive and negative aspects of Facebook usage, attempt to make more “visible” this social medium that is Facebook. McLuhan (1964, cited in Keep, Mc Laughlin & Palmer 1993).
It seems as though almost overnight sites particularly Facebook have become an integral part of our everyday lives. This rise in popularity of social networks sites is comparable to the
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1930s with wireless radio or the 1950s with the advent of television and its broadcast to the mass audience. Social network sites are essentially web-based services which enable its users to create a profile so as to connect with other users within a community eg. their school, university or work friends, or indeed to connect with the wider public. Often these sites are not only communities of people at same institutions and work places but with other users that share common interests Boyd and Ellison (2007), Muir (2006).
In their infancy SNS were specifically aimed at smaller communities with Facebook itself being a Harvard University site that catered only for Harvard students. The first known SNS (that befits the definition of an actual SNS) was a site called SixDegrees.com which began in
1997 (although it is worth noting that online profiles did already exist on dating sites and other community sites) Boyd and Ellison (2007). From SixDegrees.com stemmed a flurry of SNS in the early part of the new millennium with sites such as BlackPlanet, CYworld Friendster, Couchsurfing and the first giant of the SNS, Myspace in 2003 which originally began as a video sharing site but quickly became a SNS for the wide community (and was the largest of the SNS until it was eclipsed by Facebook at the end of 2008). Other SNS such as Youtube which is largely for video viewing and sharing but is still classed as an SNS, and of course the most recent success story in SNS history – Twitter which began in 2006 and is now the sixth largest of all SNS Facebook Facts and Figures (2009).
Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg whilst he was at Harvard University as a hobby with merely the aim of networking with his fellow students there. Originally called thefacebook it quickly became popular (possibly because it was only available to students actually attending the exclusive university, as the requirement for membership was having a current Harvard email account) and soon spread to Yale and Stanford Universities. With the ensuing growth of its membership base over the follow twelve months, Mark Zuckerberg
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actually left Harvard in 2005 to work on Facebook full-time and the domain name facebook.com was actually in August of the same year, sold for two hundred thousand dollars Facebook-The Complete Biography (2009).
Facebook (2009) is a largely blue page when a user logs into the site. A first time user is instructed to open an account by firstly providing their personal details such as name date of birth address and current email address. The above tab has the home, profile, friends and inbox tabs for the new user to begin designing a profile (including a picture they can upload from their personal computer or mobile phone etc), as well as a settings function tab which allows the user to adjust the security levels they wish to adopt. Becoming increasingly refined Facebook allows the user to access to a wide variety of features such as a posting wall, where they or people they allow can post comments, a photo gallery where they can upload photos, video links where they can upload videos, an events link and a news feed link. The major function is of course the adding of friends and there is a search facility for the user to immigrate friends from other SNS. The user can email instant message or even “poke “ a friend and there is a constant friend suggestion side bar in which Facebook continuously suggests potential friends to the user. The above is the essential recipe for the online interface which is the Facebook medium, now the most popular SNS in the world (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).

I shall start with examining some of the positive aspects of Facebook. Why would it not have become so popular if it did not offer so many positives to our lives? The first is the fact that we are by nature “social creatures”. Facebook offers us a faster and more efficient way to communicate with each other as we can communicate with text, pictures and even video from great distances (this is of course of great benefit to those that may be isolated geographically
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or due to incapacitation etc). With broadband internet becoming less expensive and more accessible this is clearly a positive aspect to not only to internet users but to users of SNS notably Facebook end users. In a study by Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe (2007) it was deduced that Facebook may infact increase social capital. Social capital has been linked to public health Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe, and their study found that increased social capital is linked to lower crime and greater participation in civic activities. Their research showed that Facebook’s ability to promote bridging capital was an invaluable resource for people to keep in contact with old acquaintances such as school friends and former work mates. It was found from their research that an increased bridging capital enabled people of Facebook to seek and find employment etc easier and more affectively as they found it easier to stay in contact with university friends upon graduation (their experiment being conducted using N=286 undergraduate students at Michigan State University). Their research also found that increased social capital was positively correlated with an increase in life satisfaction and self esteem and that it did not replace traditional forms of social capital but actually enhanced older forms and acted as merely an extension of them Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe. These findings were supported in a study by Birnie and Horvath (2002) who found that SNS enhanced rather than replaced traditional forms of social interactions.
Facebook, like all forms of media before it whether early forms such as sign or spoken language, later forms such as written communication and ultimately radio and television media (to name merely a few), has its problems. The first problem I’ll examine is the compulsive nature of Facebook. Is Facebook addictive? And if so, to what extent and why? It seems that wherever one looks nowadays someone is chatting on Facebook. As long ago as 1998 researchers were questioning as to the addictiveness of the internet. In a study by Kandell (1998) “Internet Addiction on Campus: The vulnerability of College Students, this
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issue was examined and it was found that the subjects (students at The University of Maryland) were using the internet at ever increasing levels. The participants exhibited a “withdrawal” effect from its absence, an increased tolerance to the effects of being online and denied much of their problematic behaviour. An article by Muir (2009) indicates prolonged usage may cause certain side-effects. In his article, the “virtual reality” invaded his reality via hallucinations of characters, people and graphics.
During my tutorials and lectures as a student, whilst the lectures and tutes may be very interesting, students are chatting on Facebook. (This is clearly ironic when the actual lecture is on social networking!) Employers are becoming continuously more frustrated with employees doing the same. This is why they like to monitor the use such sites Jones and Soltren (2005). The issue of security is perhaps the most talked about issue or problem with Facebook. Many people choose not to open Facebook accounts at all or they choose give incorrect information in the personal information page when they first open an account changing their name date of birth etc. This is due to the fact that they do not wish to have the general public know personal information about them as they do not have the confidence that they have altered these setting properly or that these security controls are adequate to begin with (nor do they wish to have their details used for marketing), and there have been cases of intruders exploiting security holes and password interceptions made upon unsuspecting users. Acquisti and Gross (2006). In addition to the security concerns of the personal information given when a new user opens an account, the information and comments they post on their profiles and walls, the news feeds, the videos they upload the many other applications they may utilize may contain (and very often do) highly sensitive information about a person. The concern is that these will (and there have been cases where they have) affect the user’s future employment etc. The issue of cyber-bullying and the making of false claims about another
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user(s) is also a major concern for many users with respect to its possible legal consequences, as well the creating of false identities by many users prompting us to question who we are actually networking or communicating with.
If it is free to join then how does Facebook make money? Facebook it is a very large marketing tool. Facebook sells its users information to large corporations, so they can use it for marketing purposes to the surprise of many of its users (most of whom fail to at least adequately, read the terms of conditions in which this is fully stipulated) Boon and Sinclair (2009). This issue is best described by Marshall McLuhan:
“In our new global village the consumers will become the producers.” McLuhan (1962, cited in Keep, McLaughlin & Parmar,1993).
In conclusion, Facebook looks like it is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. It is no longer just a fashionable site to be a user of but it in fact has become an integral part of our lives and an important media form. In this essay I have defined what a SNS is and I have reviewed its short history as well as the even shorter history of the phenomena that is Facebook. I have examined the various advantages and disadvantages of Facebook’s usage and although I discussed many of its apparent faults, its benefits clearly still outweigh its apparent flaws. Facebook is, and I believe will remain, an invaluable tool for us as it will continue to enhance the many areas of our lives. It is due to this importance to us that if it were taken away we would surely notice its absence. And it would be by this noticeable absence that it in effect, would become more visible to us.




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REFERENCES

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