UTAR Alumni

JANUARY 2012

Facebook

Yeik Cheng Mon

Public Relations

March 2011

Technology has become an inevitable part of people's life that one cannot live a day in his life devoid of going online. One of the much surfed online sites would definitely be Facebook and it is a trend now that regardless of how old you are, you ought to have a Facebook account.

Facebook, like much of the Internet, is a great innovation! It offers you an opportunity to interact with an extraordinarily expansive universe of new people. You can sculpt your on-line identity and learn more about how the Internet and its various programs work to create new relationships and communities. For the entrepreneurially minded, it might be an introduction into business as you think of how to "market" yourself.

People make the technology, not only in the fundamental sense of discovery and invention, but also in the sense that they make it happen and that they contour it in ways that reflects our basic humanity. Our basic humanity is for better or for worse, however.

One of the many advantages of having a Facebook account is that it gives a greater possibility to build larger business networks given the fact that Facebook is one of the largest and most visited sites throughout the world. The social network offers plenty of free online games and during the loading time of the games the advertisements found in the sites will indirectly promote the products. Apart from keeping one well entertained the online game applications too allow the users to know more people around the globe who share the similar interests.

Apparently Facebook is not just a mere online gaming site, but far more than that. Life of many has not been the same again since the social network came to light in 2004. The site has been one of the most communicative tool one can find in the internet till to date where everyone can correspond with friends and public by commenting on pictures, links, status posted on the 'walls' and by sending messages to each other.

Purchasing too can be done way much faster with just a post of comment away via Facebook. All the users have to do is just post an enquiry comment to the intended items and make an order once receive respond from the other party and it is as simple as that.

However, it is evident that the phenomenal social networking has some drawbacks as well. Vulnerable users may easily be scammed for money or other valuables. Teenagers and youngsters may get hooked up with strangers that subsequently causes severe social problems such running away from home, delinquencies, domestic violence, human trafficking and so on. It is indeed heart wrenching to see news of those easily deceived by various means online especially the teenagers.

The same can be applied for online purchasing deals where at many occasions goods sold will be far less attractive and of low quality compared to the impression given when being promoted in Facebook.

As though this isn?t good enough, many others are getting addictive to this networking system that provides endless of fun games, chatting spaces, picture sharing and postings. This has caught the intense interest of many to the extend of students forget about home works and studies, working adults spending hours glued to the screen playing games or catching up with friends' updates or sharing pictures thus getting less sleep at nights that apparently effect their performances at work places. The users of Facebook who are addicted with the games may even become 'Otaku' (obsessive fan) and are not willing to go out of home and their social life becomes crippled.

Facebook, along with much of the Internet, is a great innovation that allows users to express their humanity and an opportunity to create new communities. As such it represents a forum in which one can make choices about their identity, at least insofar as one chooses to represent themselves publicly. That freedom does not suggest that one can do so with impunity, however. Because we live in a society in which expression is judged in legal, policy and even personal ways, it is important to remember the consequences of that expression no matter how ephemeral or fun in the moment it might seem to be.

So we should have fun and make productive use of these new, exciting technologies, but remember that technology does not absolve one of responsibility. Behind every device, behind every new program, behind every technology is a law, a social norm, a business practice that warrants thoughtful consideration and one should be rational and wise in using 'Facebook'.