Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Reading Facebook

There is little doubt in my mind that nearly everyone under 25 is on Facebook. I am stunned at how many people I knew from high school and college are on the site. It’s amazing how everyone seems so open to sharing personal details and images of themselves. The majority of tagged pictures I see often involve the individual drinking, partying, or hanging out with people. I find it strange that people would actually want others to see them drinking. If you don’t change the privacy settings, than anyone in your network can see your profile and such. Imagine your employer, teacher, or even your parent logging in and seeing your pictures of being really drunk. I think people see Facebook as an abstract form of communication; they don’t fully understand that people they don’t know actually will look at their profiles. They think only their friends would want to see what they are doing when truly many potential important people might want to.
The messages that people write on each other’s walls are generally about hanging out or how they miss each other. This reinforces Facebook as a top new way of communicating. The fact that people leave messages asking what they should do later that same night means that these people have full confidence that the other person is going to use Facebook that very day. I think this shows that what Facebook does is it keeps people in sync, and also acts as a way of keeping in touch with people you probably otherwise wouldn’t have any contact with anymore. It serves as a social link that wouldn’t exist if not for Web 2.0.

1 comment:

dncrclc said...

I totally agree with what you said about pictures and privacy settings. I know that i personally have my privacy set really high, in fear of pretty much anything falling into the wrong hands, and I also think that eventually i will deactivate my account for fear of loosing out on a job, internship or any opportunity that may be important to me. However, in the mean time i like to look at it as just for fun, right now at least :)