By James Louis Bayot
There have been many once popular social networking sites that have come and gone, such as Multiply, Plurk, MySpace, and last but definitely not least, Friendster. But when this social networking site came, it revolutionized the definition of the words “social networking”. Being the first of its kind, its state-of-the-art systems and innovations made other sites seem obsolete. However, with great popularity comes great controversy, as many ethicists and computer experts have been questioning its rather shaky privacy settings. I’m pretty sure you know what this site is. I’m even positively certain that you have an account on this site. Well, if you still haven’t got it yet, let me give you a clue: it’s a “book”! Oh all right, since it’s as obvious as daylight already, I’m going to say it now – it’s no other than my favorite space in cyberspace, Facebook!
Even though it has already reached a household name status, Facebook started as a small website in Harvard written by Michael Zuckerberg called Facemash, which served as a site to decide who’s “hot or not” within the university. However, the administration shut the site down a few days later and he was charged of breach of security and invasion of privacy. The charges were dropped later on. After the incident, in January 2004, he was inspired to launch a site called thefacebook.com, a site whose membership was only limited to students of Harvard. Later on, he was joined by business prospect Eduardo Saverin, programmer David Moskovitz, graphic artist Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes to promote the site. After that, it expanded to most universities in United States and Canada. Then, the word “the” from thefacebook.com was then dropped after the domain name facebook.com was bought for $200,000. On September 26, 2006, Facebook was opened to everyone who is above 13 years old and has an e-mail address. That, ladies and gentlemen, was how everything began.
Now, with more or less 500 million users, Facebook has easily become a worldwide phenomenon. Well, I can’t really blame these people (myself included) to be so enthralled with this network. After all, Facebook has a lot of handsomely innovative features that sets it apart from others. Some of its remarkable features are: a bar on top that allows you to express what’s on your mind and share links that you find interesting, a news stream that allows you to be updated with your friends’ posts, a tagging system, a chat box, a comment and like system, lightning-fast notifications, an easily threaded messaging system, and last but not the least, the wide range of applications that would fit the taste of almost everyone.
One will definitely enjoy their virtual stay in Facebook and might actually find it hard to leave. Surely, Facebook is one good way of just being yourself, putting your dreams into play, and enjoying the company of others in a common network while relaxing at home.
The internet is a dangerous place, and Facebook is no exception. There are people who will pester you, send you threats, and worse – steal information from you, whether in the form of photographs, data, or both. You can never be too sure; it’s a good thing Facebook has advanced privacy settings that can filter to whom you’d allow to view your page, wall and on the internet. The best part of it is that you can control what your friends can see. One friend may be able to view a certain picture while the other cannot. There’s even a setting that protects you from being found using Facebook’s search bar. This means you can actually have fun while being protected, just like wearing a seatbelt while cruising in a Ferrari.
Facebook sure sounds too good to be true with its many enjoyable features and a seemingly secure and almost labyrinthine privacy settings, does it not? However, there have been many issues arising regarding the safety of using Facebook. First, the fact that you don’t know who’s viewing your profile is already a danger posed to the users, as there could be a stalker amidst their friends’ list, and that’s the least of the problems. Second, there have been reports that Facebook allegedly claiming that whatever is uploaded in the site becomes a property of Facebook, something many users have clamored against. Third, Facebook is being used by the C.I.A. to gather data from everyone (don’t laugh, it could be true). Well, that’s just a thought. Lastly, data from 170 million users was gathered and then posted on the internet in torrent form by a man named Ron Bowes, and this man called the ease of accessibility in information as “a scary private issue”. Well, you might say “it’s just useless data. I’m not even a celebrity”, but you can be a victim of identity theft. Someone can use your data, do crimes and get away with it, while you get the blame. The lesson here is that you should be careful on whatever you post or write if you don’t want to wake up with the police at your doorstep for something you don’t even remember doing.
There’s really nothing wrong with surfing the information superhighway and visiting Facebook to get a little kick or two with your friends. But it never hurts to be careful on what you write, upload, or tag, lest you want to go to school one day and notice that the whole batch, or even the college, is looking at you with ridicule, or even worse – anger. So remember, what you do in Facebook actually matters even though it’s just a social networking site, because you can never erase the fact that it’s social.
References:
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/29/technology/Facebook_profiles_leaked/index.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDAgjGWjgSA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
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