Face up to the facebook facts. (facebook.com)

Member Name: Nat.

Product:	facebook.com
Date:	29/10/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sharing photos, keeping in touch, getting back in touch with old friends.

Disadvantages: Stalkers, ending up with your photo in the "Sun"!

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that facebook is a social networking site, and probably the most used social networking site worldwide. It has it's advantages and disadvantages, and things you need to be wary of. I'll look at the different categories that you can use facebook for, and let you know the advantages and disadvantages of each.

1. OLD FRIENDS. Personally, the major advantage I've found since using facebook is that I've got back in touch with people who I haven't seen for years. In particular, a friend of mine who I grew up with, but lost touch with was on there. She added me as a friend and we immediately fell back to being great mates, and now go out together regularly. For all it's drawbacks, I will be eternally grateful to facebook for bringing me and my mate back together. The only thing to bear in mind here is that sometimes you lose touch with people for a reason... that irritating chap who you spent years shaking off is bound to find you on there... don't accept his friend request just because you feel sorry for him, he's probably still irritating! That said, if you've accepted someone in a moment of madness, you can still remove them from your friend list and they won't be told, although they may well notice and add you again!

2. KEEPING IN TOUCH. Many people these days will email each other using facebook rather than the usual emails. You can also invite people to join groups or attend events. You can regularly update your status to keep everyone up to date with what you are doing day to day. I do think that people who don't have a facebook account probably miss out on being invited to things which people just broadcast on facebook. I find this a great way of communicating things. It saves texting or emailing everyone, and you can put photos and information about events, and people can update everyone as to whether they're going, and add their comments and photos. On the subject of keeping in touch- this can be done publicly on someone's "wall" or by sending a private message.

3. PASSING THE TIME: Facebook is pretty addictive. You can spend hours on there looking at people's photos and profiles. You can also play games on there, I got quite into scrabble (an electronic version of the boardgame), and scramble (like a wordsearch but against other people). I do enjoy this element of facebook, but once you get addicted it does take up a lot of your time!

4. PHOTOS: I think that sharing photos is an advantage of facebook, but it could also be a disadvantage. It's great to be able to share your photos with your friends, but you need to be very wary. If you allow everyone to see your photos, you can end up in national newspapers (as has happened to people in the past). You also need to be really wary about putting photos of your children on there as you don't know who is looking at them. I would advise only allowing your friends to see your photos. You can change your settings through your profile. It's fine to allow your friends to see embarrassing photos of you, but once the "SUN" gets hold of a photo of you drunk and peeing in the street it's a different matter.

5. STALKERS! It's great to be able to see what your friends are up to, hear about their pregnancy, upcoming marriage, or just what they've done at work today. However, I would be wary of putting too much information on facebook, because it becomes very easy for someone to stalk you. If you tell them where you're going on holiday, or on a night out, they can easily just turn up. They can look at all your photos, see who you're hanging around with. People can also put nasty comments on your wall for all your friends to see. You just need to be wary of who you add as a friend.

6. AGE LIMIT: There is a theoretical lower age limit of 14 on facebook. However, this isn't monitored. You have to put in your date of birth on there, but my 11 year old brother just altered the year so it looks like he's 18. Just one for the parents out there to be aware of. Make sure that your children only add people they know as friends. Like anywhere on the internet, people aren't necessarily who they say they are.

To sum up, facebook is simple to use, and it's a great way of keeping in touch with people, sharing photos and generally passing the time. Just take the usual internet precautions and keep your wits and common sense about you, and you'll probably find you enjoy using it and shouldn't have any problems.

Summary: A great tool, just be careful.