Facebook: Good or Bad?

We live in the day and age of networking sites such as facebook, myspace, and twitter. Personally I've had a facebook page for a few years now but I always toss up the question of whether facebook is a good thing or not. The majority of the people I know also have facebook pages and it seems to have become a craze in the last year or two. Facebook started off as just a networking site for college students to stay in touch after all, and now the users range from jr highschoolers to grandparents!

Facebook can be really great and useful. It allows us to stay in touch with our friends and family members. It also lets us keep in touch with those who have graduated and even help us meet new friends in college. Facebook "notes" can be used as a type of online blog and facebook can even be useful with its "events" and inviting your friends to a party or gathering. Not to mention that it provides us with a plethora of fun applications to amuse ourselves when we are terribly bored with nothing to do. Users can mess around with fun applications such as bumper stickers, flair, mafia wars, graffiti, the endless supply of facebook quizzes we all love... and much much more.

On each facebook profile there is an information section asking for your basic info, personal info, contact info, and education/work info. These are optional, however the general user will fill them in to personalize their profile. My question is: How much information is too much? Where do we draw the line? With this available information on the Internet a mere acquaintance can know your birthday, religious views, favorite music, favorite movies, email address, and who you're friends are with just the click of a mouse. Sometimes I think that too much information on facebook allows others to be too much into each others lives. It enables users to keep tabs on other peoples without them being awake of it. This is where "facebook stalking" begins. Think about it... you get into a huge fight with this catty girl in school and she is constantly checking your profile. Or you have a bad breakup and your ex took it horribly and is constantly seeing what you or up to.

The biggest problem with facebook though, in my opinion is the "statuses." Users can post what they are doing and it will show up on all their friends news feeds, enabling the person who is posting to give a newsflash of anything that happens in any minute of their lives. For example: "Samantha Jones is having the worst day of her life. why me?" Not only is it letting everyone know but its also just asking for attention.

However. the thing that irks me the most is relationship statuses on facebook. This is the only thing that truly links you to another person on facebook... which is fine if you want to be linked. If you enter a relationship and post it on facebook it shows up on all of your friends newsfeeds, letting everyone know (which is fine once again if you want it that way). Facebook dating etiquette has even developed now as a result of relationship status. The question of when to change your status either entering a relationship or ending one and how long you should wait. A plethora of problems can arise from this whether it comes down to family members finding out you're in a relationship before you can tell them or a bad breakup. It's not so bad when its the happy time of the beginning of a relationship however, what about the painful time of a breakup? Relationship status just invites people into your personal life and there is always that person that will respond to that "Name is no longer listed as "in a relationship" as fast as they can.. as if it is their personal duty to talk to you about it. They ask painful questions like "aww what happened, you seemed so happy?!" or respond as if someone has died in a terrible train wreck, showering you with sympathy when you would rather be left alone. Maybe some people are just asking for attention.

Anyway... facebook has its pros and cons so I figured I'd write about them. Its up to you to decide if you'd like. Enjoy your day everyone.