Facebook!

 

As Facebook has progressed and grown, people have researched and questioned the effects that it is making on our society.  An advantage that Facebook offers is being able to stay in touch with friends and family who may live far away from you, or who you may not get to see often.  Not only can you talk with them via Facebook, but you can view personal photos and videos from their lives, connecting you on a different level.  In addition, specially, it is found to be a great source of communication for armed force personals when they are far away from their homes.

I researched a study called the 2010 National Psychology Week research project, “According to the results of this survey, the online social networking environment is largely having positive effects on people’s relationships and is increasing social connections.  Results showed the use of online social networking as a widespread communication tool across all age groups, with the highest users being young adults. The current survey indicates that people are primarily using online social networking, in particular Facebook, to keep in touch with family and friends.  This has led to increased contact with them both online and in person, and some respondents believed that ceasing online social networking would lead to them losing contact with some family and friends.” (Australian Psychological Society)

Facebook is an excellent way to get your voice heard.  Whether it is to announce a world event, or your wedding; many people can view your post at the same time.  This changes the marketing division of a business entirely.   Businesses can make a page and share it with all of their friends and clients, resulting in more shares and views.  This is incredible because it gets the word out way faster than a newspaper could. 

“Social media offers a free and easy way to let your customers know about an upcoming event, …small businesses can do more than just mention the date, time and place.  You can create a Facebook event or if you have a paper invitation you’re going to send out through the mail, take a picture of it and post it on Instagram, Pinterest,” or Facebook. (Furgison) 

Social media is a free way to promote your business and it reaches the eyes of so many more consumers then a newspaper will.  It has greatly improved the way a business advertises. 

On the other hand, like most things, Facebook has negative effects on society as well.  Even though the internet makes it easier for businesses to promote products, it also makes reviews very accessible to consumers, sometimes hurting businesses.  “One aspect of social networking that is especially damaging to marketing campaigns is negative post responses. Unhappy customers or industry competitors are able to post disparaging or offensive pictures, posts or videos and there is not much a marketer can do to prevent these occurrences.” (Cheung, Lee, & Thadani 2009).  If a consumer is lying, or had a one-time bad experience and posts it, it could really harm the business.

 

The last disadvantage of Facebook that I would like to discuss is using a fake profile, or any profile to bully.  “A Fake profile is one of the biggest disadvantages of Facebook. Now it is easier to create a fake profile with a stolen picture. People often use a fake profile to insult or harass someone they don't like…There are also plenty of groups and Fan pages out there which are being created to abuse or violate other religion , personalities , nation etc.” (HuBPages)

I looked up more news articles about this and found a story from November, that ended with a teen boy killing himself because two females his age made up nasty rumors about him and put it on Facebook.  Facebook has made bullying a major issue and has triggered many debates on what can be done to help.  It seems that many of the disadvantages of Facebook could be fixed with harsher regulations. 

With most things, Facebook has its advantages and disadvantages.  In my opinion, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.  I feel that I use Facebook mostly to keep up with my friends and family and it really helps me stay in touch.  My whole extended family lives on the west coast and it’s so amazing to get day to day updates from them, and to get to see how they are doing.  Especially with my cousins who live in Colorado, we used to only see them once a year, but now I can check what my cousin did daily.   I think that Facebook is an incredible benefit if used for the right purposes.  It is a communication tool and lets users voice their real self and opinions.  

Works Cited

Australian Psychological Society. "The Social and Psychological Impacts of Online Social Networking." 2010. Australian Psychological Society. 03 03 2014.

Cheung, C. M. K., M. K. O. Lee, & D. R. Thadani. (2009). “The impact of positive electronic word-of-mouth on consumer online purchasing decision”. Visioning and Engineering the Knowledge Society. A Web Science Perspective, ed. M. D. Lytras et al. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5736: 501–510.

 

Furgison, Lisa. "The Best Ways to Promote your Small Business Event." 16 January 2014. Vertical Response. 3 March 2014.

HuBPages. "The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Facebook." 2011. HubPages Technology. 03 March 2014.