Facebook

This essay is in reference of article “I don’t ‘do’ Facebook”, written by Maheen A. Rashdi published in Daily Dawn on February 22, 2009.

Humans need to be in touch with others: family, kin, friends, co-workers, colleagues and/or acquaintances. To fulfil this need a medium is considered necessary to make communication possible. This medium can either be spoken or written, both mediums have two forms one is real form and other is virtual. Face to face conversation and letters, telegrams, newspaper are the real forms of communication. On the other hand, phone calls and e-mails, online forums, digital newsletters are the virtual form of communication. Facebook is also a virtual meeting place, more famous with youngsters. Facebook is not that much good to spend hours and hours on it but it is not bad either.

Facebook was found on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zukerberg. At that time social network was exclusively for Harvard students. The idea behind launch was to give students a network where they could interact with their classmates and seniors and juniors in a quicker way. As more and more people start demanding Facebook network so finally in September 2007 it was open for one and all with an email address.

With Facebook you can explore people, share photos videos and links; you can have discussions on groups about almost everything. There are pages to explore the things you like or things you are interested to know about. There are various groups on Facebook which shares and educates others about many comings and goings from very reliable resource.

When a network has such a big number of users so it is certain have some questions on privacy. But as far as privacy is concern it is up to the user how to maintain profile and how to set the priorities. You can browse it according to your interest. You can keep privacy settings according to your limits. Your friends list is solely of your choice. You can allow who you want to and ignore who you don’t want to communicate with.

Keith Campbell, a researcher at the University of Georgia said, “narcissists are using Facebook the same way they use their relationships: for self-promotion with an emphasis on quantity over quality” (Readers’ Digest, January 2009). Again, I repeat that Facebook is no more than a product, its use is completely depends on its users. It is not good to condemn a product for its ill-treatment.

Facts and history of Facebook written in this essay are taken from http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook.