THE Social Network

Having just seen the movie Social Network over the weekend, I think this is a great time to express my feelings towards this phenomenon. While I do love Facebook, there are times where I can hate it. I am not a huge Facebooker, but do use the site to keep in touch with friends and people who I do not see too often. It is great for communication but I feel that some people take advantage of Facebook as they feel the need to post things that are of little importance. It is also crazy to see how people react towards things seen posted on Facebook. I have witnessed huge fights break out between boyfriends and girlfriends simply because of a picture or comment posted to the public. It seems that there is a lack of privacy, making things that would not be read or "heard" blatantly viewed by everyone. This is important to understand when displaying information or tagging yourself in a picture in the real world. The wrong person may see a photo of you at a party, not only now, but in the future. I remember when we were applying to colleges, my college advisor forced us to "clean up" our pages, making sure there was no evidence of bad behavior in order to prevent any negative judgment being passed on us. It is very important to understand that as much as you think your page or pictures are private, this information can still be found if one wants to see it. People post much more information on their pages than they would initially tell you in person. Studies have shown that people are much more open to disclose their personal information on a site such as Facebook, then to simply meeting a person for the first time. This is very interesting and I find it kind of sad to see that this is what our society is coming to. People would rather talk through a computer than actually speak with a person face to face. As time goes on, Facebook continues to grow, Zuckerberg gets richer, and people continue the addiction.