Today, there are more than 800 million Facebook users all over the world, according to Facebook. In 2011, Facebook was the second most visited site, according to Hubspot Blog, with Google taking the top spot; in the United States alone, 71 percent of Internet users have an account on Facebook. Social networking sites have clearly become an enormous part of today’s society.
There was a time when I wanted to join the masses on Facebook, but for a while, my parents wouldn’t let me. When the decision was finally mine to make, I found that I really didn’t want one. Not having a Facebook page has helped me stay focused and has kept my life (relatively) stress-free. Even today, I see more negative aspects of having a profile on Facebook than benefits.
About 400 million Facebook users log on every day, as tracked by the site, and with the ability to access the site through mobile devices, logging onto Facebook has never been easier. I find this easy accessibility to be quite dangerous. With school, a job, and various other activities, I hardly have time to clean my room let alone keep up with every detail of the lives of my friends. With the constant temptation of logging onto Facebook from nearly every location, it would be too much of a distraction.
I conducted a survey at LHS to see how many students have a Facebook page, how many friends they have on Facebook, and how many hours per day they spend on the site. Of the 183 people who took the survey, 88 percent have a Facebook page. The average American spends 15.5 minutes per day on Facebook while the average Libertyville High School student spends close to one hour per day on Facebook. That is time I do not have. What is the point of having a Facebook if I don’t have time to “stalk” people or comment on every single one of my friend’s pictures?
Then, there is the issue of friends. The average Facebook user has 130 friends, according to Facebook, but that’s nothing compared to LHS, where the average student, according to my survey, has 553 friends. There are also those people who have close to 2,000 friends. I don’t even know 2,000 people let alone have that many “friends.” Then again, one couldn’t really call all of those individual people their “friends.” Imagine walking down the hallway between classes and saying “hi” to 553 people. Facebook downgrades the word “friend” to anyone with whom a user is acquainted.
In just 20 minutes on Facebook, according to Digital Buzz Blog, 1.9 million friend requests are accepted. While many find this easy connectivity a benefit to their lives, it can also be very dangerous. There are those who have admitted to not knowing everyone they are friends with on Facebook. However, once you accept a friend request or someone accepts your request, that person can see everything you have posted.
Of course, having a Facebook page means that you want to let your friends know when something important happens to you. However, there are those people who use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to update their friends on every aspect of their lives from what they had for breakfast to the latest gossip they’ve heard about people they know. Aside from the fact that the meaningless information one posts on Facebook gets irritating really quickly to most people, this leaves room for concern about privacy. Everything you post online has the potential to be used to piece together your life and find out where you are in the world. As stated by Tech Mission: Safe Families, two out of three abductions of adolescents ages 15 to 17 happen because of contact through the Internet. Plus, you don’t have to be friends with some people in order for them to find out your personal information.
Privacy settings have really been eroded since the creation of Facebook, and it’s becoming easier to find out a person’s information by just typing their name into a search engine. Facebook also gives out the general information you put online to other companies for them to use for target advertising. The bottom line is this: Facebook is not as secure as it used to be, and there is nothing users can do to change that.
For those who put absolutely everything about themselves on Facebook, they could get into some serious trouble. Posting inappropriate content on social networking sites can prevent the offender from being admitted to the school of their choice or from getting a job. No matter what your privacy settings are, there are always ways for everyone to view what you post, whether it comes directly from you or from a “friend”, and you’ll never know who you could offend with the content you post.
Aside from posting inappropriate content to get yourself in trouble, cyberbullying is another sure-fire way to dig yourself into a deep hole. It is reported by Bullying Statistics that over half of adolescents have either been bullied online or bullied others online, and more than one out of three adolescents have been threatened online. Cyberbullying is a lot more serious than you would think; any harmful comment posted on a site can be considered bullying, whether the person can see it or not. Those who are found guilty of cyberbullying can lose their cell phones and online accounts, as well as face legal charges.
Even if people don’t participate in cyberbullying or any other harmful activities while online, many think that using Facebook is a good way to stay social when in reality, it’s quite the opposite. Think about it: you’re at home, in your room, alone, and you choose to spend what free time you have on Facebook as opposed to actually meeting up with a friend face to face. However, this is quickly becoming more of a social norm because Digital Buzz Blog reported that 57 percent of people talk to those whom they know more online than in real life.
Because social networking sites have become so socially acceptable, young children want to join the masses online, complaining about their “complicated relationships” and how hard it is to be a middle-school student. As of May 2011, according to C-Net, at least 7.5 million children under the age of 13 violated Facebook’s terms of service by creating an account. This may be under parent discretion, or this may be a way to stay connected while hiding from their parents, but it still is not acceptable. When I turned 13, I got my first cell phone, and I couldn’t even text with it. I couldn’t imagine kids younger than that having profiles on Facebook that they regularly update. Nevertheless, 7.5 million children under the age of 13 have been discovered on Facebook; this doesn’t mean that they are the only ones online.
Facebook not only sets children in the line of fire for cyberbullying and abductions; it also contributes to the plethora of bad habits in their writing and communication that should be corrected by what they learn in school. By using terms like “u” for “you”, “ttly” for “totally”, and the hundreds of emoticons, children will become so used to typing in such a manner that they will not know what is acceptable for formal essays and other projects that display their skills in school and, eventually, at work.
I am not alone in my thinking. The 12 percent of students who took my survey and don’t have a Facebook page had most of the same concerns I have. Some of them don’t have time, others aren’t comfortable with the lacking privacy, and others find it to be too distracting. While the number of students who don’t have Facebook is minuscule compared to those who have a page, it is still apparent that there is a considerable number of people who choose to stay off of Facebook. Knowing that there are others who agree about the dangers Facebook and other social networking sites pose means that these aren’t ideas that can be ignored. Safety is something everyone should be concerned about.
Being responsible for what gets posted online is not a position I want to put myself in. I can’t change what other people do or say, but I don’t plan on being caught in the middle of a situation I can’t get out of. I know that most people think about what they post online, and they won’t get themselves into any trouble, but the many consequences that could crop up are, in my eyes, not worth the trouble. Nothing is certain about who you associate with online, and once something gets posted, it has the potential to stay there forever.
Have there been times when I’ve contemplated signing up for Facebook? Of course! It would be easier to work on group projects and connect myself with other people. I could join groups, especially now that I’m thinking about college, and I could post pictures and see the ones my friends have posted. However, when I hear about the Facebook fights and all the drama, I don’t see what’s so great about Facebook. Choosing not to be active on Facebook has kept me (more or less) stress-free, and I don’t waste time I really don’t have online. So, if you see that you have a new friend request, don't expect to see my name on it!