Keep in touch with people easily and share pictures and (facebook.com)

Member Name: alexlea88

Product:	facebook.com
Date:	26/06/09 (10 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quicker and easier than sending general texts once in a blue moon

Disadvantages: Confidentiality issues

Facebook is a social networking site that was originally set up by Harvard University students to socialise and keep in touch. Since it started it has been opened up and now has millions of users.

On the face of it, Facebook is incredibly easy to use. You register, set up a profile and search for people, or alternatively wait for them to contact you. You can then share information about what you've been up to, share pictures and videos you can upload and generally keep in touch. You can also change your privacy settings so that cannot be found by certain people of groups.

So far so good.

What I take issue with is a couple of things. First off, recnetly, Facebook was vlaued at something daft, like $2 billion, yet it didn't make any money. As a result, the owners decided that it needed to generate revenue, so opened it up to all kinds of viral advertising. I have a bit on my profile about mountian biking, and as a result, I get all kinds of things pop up about biking holidays and trips etc. This is all just generally irritating, but I can't help wonder who has access to my information. I may be just a bit paranoid, but you only have to google Facebook to see that there are a number of issues with the way it stores, accesses and shares the information you put on there.

As a rule of thumb, I wouldn't put too much detail on there. Keep it light. Then again, maybe I'm just a paranoid old git.

Secondly, there are the people that live, breathe, eat and poo Facebook. Be prepared to be bombarded by updates, pictures and news feeds from certain friends who can't seem to let a thought enter their heads without it being posted on Facebook. Barbara is doing this. Jez is doing that. Simon has taken the "What cheese are you? Test and is Edam. Want to know what cheese you are?". Heaven help me. I found myself becomming very cynical very quickly.

These people often have more friends than you could fit in a pub beer garden, which probably in some way verifies their existence. Truct me, keep the number of friends manageable. By all means have friends you see a couple of times a year, but just ask yourself the question, do I really need to keep in touch with these people? As Robert Putman, the expert on Social Capital from Harvard University says, something like Facebook should be reinforcing bonds which already exist in the real world, not creating things that didn't exist in the first place.

Facebook is an amazing idea and is incredibly useful, but a bit of common sence can make it a generally more enjoyable experience.

Then again, maybe I'm just an cynical old fart!

Summary: Brilliant idea, but no substitute for real social interaction