Quote from: Adrienne on October 13, 2011, 12:25:29 PM
Ah the age old feeling of missing out on something. FB promises to anyone who feels like that, that they can be part of everything fun, that is happening. How to be everywhere at one time? FB is the answer. How to have universal global connectivity? FB again. You can be be part of everything. But that thinking leads to over extension and your identity requires FB. You have to be part of everything, with the worry that you're missing out on something, FB then shows what it truly is, no longer a wondertool but a ball and chain, the euphoric highs are chased while the need to be part of eveyrthing whips you along. FB has become your world. How can you leave the place which will tell you where everything is going to happen? FB becomes the place where everything happens, why leave?
I can see how people, especially people like High schoolers have their lives destroyed.
Facebook is just like every other thing out there that can be used to its highest potential with fear of falling into a type of dependency if one does not practice self control.
Every generation went through this. Facebook is not bad in itself. It is how the person who operates Facebook that defines whether or not it is unhealthy or healthy for them.
For example, I had a woman in her 90s told me a story of how her mom used to get on her for always writing letters to her boyfriend while he was overseas fighting in WW1. She had gotten to the point where her entire life evolved around writing letters. For many people, writing letters doesn't pose a problem but for her it did.
The same went with my grandfather with the radio. As a child he always listened to the radio and did not get his studies done. He used to tell me stories of how he was grounded when his parents took away the radio for two weeks.
The same applied to me with the television and the telephone. Perfectly natural pieces of technology that can be used for good but a teenager could get self absorbed and wrapped into using their phone all the time.
Facebook is no different. Nor is it no better or no worse than anything else that came out.
Facebook, when used properly can be a catalyst of finding lost friends and family. It can be a central point where events can be planned, people invited, and executed without sending emails or regular letters. Usually answers are instantaneous and multiple people can hold a dialogue about certain events.
For example, ten years ago, it took me four months to plan our 10 year high school reunion. To see who was going, to get an agreement of where we will hold it and an agreement on the price, etc.
This year, it took me three weeks. Through facebook, we found every single classmate but two (and those two was reached by another who had fb). We solified where we are having the reunion, how much it should costs, whether or not we should have drinks, food, etc. All of this was faster because we had real time dialogue with our entire class versus sending out mass emails and waiting for each one to reply.
Facebook when used badly can cause people to fall into a deep seeded fantasy life where their fantasy takes over and their real life gets pushed aside. However, this is not a facebook issue. This is a personal issue. If someone does this type of action through facebook then they more than likely do the same thing with other applications.
I would not be so quick to blame the quarries of facebook on the demise of social interaction. It varies from person to person and it has been an issue for hundreds of years; it is just the method of application has been changed.
I am a living example of how facebook is beneficial. I have gotten jobs through networking on facebook, I have gotten transgender scholarships for my school through facebook networking and I have met some pretty influential law makers concerning lgbt issues through net working on facebook. So facebook is not bad. If you want to blame someone, blame the people who put themselves in a slump because they put too much of their lives into facebook. These people could do the same thing with video games, cell phones, emailing, internet browsing, tv, etc etc. Facebook is a neutral ground. It is the individual person who makes facebook how it is to them.
To say how someone can see facebook destroying the lives of high schoolers is a little unfair. High Schoolers has a choice to make whether or not to make something out of their lives or not. You have had kids in highschool dropping out and getting in trouble far before the advent of the internet.
