Why Facebook is Bad (or Good)

I got my Facebook account over the summer. I was only a handful of people from my graduating class that had a Facebook account that early in July, well before Orientation and the start of our first year in college. Because of this, I could somewhat stalk and check out the profiles of my other future prospective classmates (from the proud Class of 2010), and concluded that yes, these are the people to whom my university attracts. We are going to rock the year, and revel in our new-found friendship. Indeed, we would discover immense happiness in the discovery of knowing so many talented and unassuming individuals all wanting (and evetually, chose) to study at the same institutions. Facebook is definitely the best social network utility to come out over the years (mine began with, considering the expansive scope of Internet connection, from ICQ, MSN, Friendster (which I don't personally use), hi5, and myspace). I think, out of the most meaningful type of online activity, (other than the possibility of high-quality www. surfing), I prefer blogging.

Right away, I looked up Facebook on Wikipedia and found that it was the brainchild of a Harvard graduate. It was initially used to keep students in touch (within the Harvard community). It has since expanded for all registered college students in the United States, as well as other universities abroad. Most recently (and sadly for us existing users), Facebook broke its exclusivity by extending membership to anyone who has an email account.

There are a lot of cool stuff about Facebook. But before that, and more precisely, a year ago, it was much more different. It was the dream-site for stalkers all over the country. Facebook allowed you to glimpse through a slice of personal life your friends, acquaintances, and even the cute guy in your chemistry class. It was easy to find out what your friends have been up to lately from their wall posts, an attractive feature of the profile that resembles virtual Post-It Notes. It's possible to guage how popular a particular individual is, take a guess at their social prominence (or lack of), check out who their acquaintances are (with possible relevance to your own circle of acquaintances), and see how many people they know and have connections to from top colleges around the world. In addition, it's even possible to look up their high school educational background. So, it's partly due to Facebook that I have heard about U.S preparatory schools such as Phillilps Exeter, Phillips Academy, the Cate School, Cransbrook Kingswood, Chouate, Chadwick, and other private boarding schools in the United Kingdom like Sevenoaks and the Harrow School.

The downside to Facebook's distinct feature and huge popularity, appeal, and addictiveness was, ironically, exacerbated by its transformation. This began with the Mini-Feed. Horror to horrors, it displayed every single possible story that would be of some use or interest to the rest of the people to whom you are connected through a common network. Thankfully, the privacy setting allows you to choose what you want to disclose. Unfortunately, and, I suspect, loopholes do exist, such as the granting of permission for Facebook to give away information about you to business organization. Why? That's because Facebook does not run advertisements the way Google does. But it has an enormous database and immense potential of consumers, mostly teenagers and young adults, that firms can target. It is the ability to determine how important that individual is (imagine a map with dots and lines to represent people and relationships) - the most connected have plenty of friends, and therefore, their influence and distributive power, which these firms can tap into and promote their products.

The biggest detriment from using Facebook is its procrastination factor. The Mini-Feed is the first page to appear when you log-in to Facebook. Such prominence helps to distract and compel you to browse through your friend's profile, and basically stalk other people, as much as hours on end. It's a big waste of time. I can make an analogy by saying that for every hour one spends time on Facebook, that's a one-hour loss (in terms of opportunity cost) of say, reading up on news report (for this, I deliberately do not have Facebook on my web browser bookmark, but instead news bar such as Time, The New Republic, BBC, the New York Times, as well as Project Syndicate). There comes a time when spending one hour informing yourself of world affairs is a much better use of retrieving information than half-guessing that your high school classmate is coming back for the holidays and can't wait to party it out. I personally feel much more at ease, peaceful, and more successful to stay away from Facebook, and engage in more meaningful activities. So I guess Facebook is starting to annoy me and impede on my intellectual development.

Don't get me wrong though. Facebook has also contributed to my ability to discern good gossip from bad gossip. Coincidentally, I'm much more fluent in writing notes, love-notes, and friendly posts to people I know. As much as I benefit from Facebook, so much that I'm becoming a well-versed individual, so too has my social skills. I'm not kidding*. However, I feel like the time has come to relinquish its duties, and do myself a favor and enjoy the more tangible aspects of life.

*I'm getting other people's wit and humor rubbing off on me.