The Top Pros and Cons of Facebook

Facebook, one of the innovated modern ways of communication that allows you to update one social status daily, chat, and even upload pictures on one’s profile. It is a powerful social media source one can use to no avail, usually preloved by teens.  But with great “power” comes great responsibility. Launched in February 2004, Facebook has recently announced that it has 1 billion active users worldwide (about 3 times the population of the United States!)
Although buried and eulogized many times over, Facebook’s popularity is still very much on the rise. Love it, hate it, there is absolutely no getting away from it. And it doesn’t look as if Facebook is going away in the near future. As a member of having a Facebook account, I’ve noticed the differences and weighed the scales of both pros and cons of having a Facebook.

Let’s start off with pros shall we? First to start with, creating a Facebook is easy and to use. Setting up a profile is a smooth process, and the relatively uncluttered UI of the site is easy to navigate and use. It’s free and all you need is an internet connection and any device that can connect to the internet, mobile phones included. Facebook transcends all physical boundaries, and lets you connect with far away friends and distant family and can easily be informed about what goes in their lives and other people who are physically distant. You can decide who to share with your status and recent photos. Facebook is really good to have a place to share thoughts, causes and ideas. You can interact with people with similar interests and ideas across the globe. You can join groups and support fan pages, and find out what many are interested in. A final pro of Facebook is that it’s educational. A majority of tweens and teens use social networking to discuss school work and share discussions about school assignments. This can really improve and boost their spirits to get their work done, therefore the saying of the teacher “there is no excuse why you couldn’t turn in or do your homework” can now go out the window.

Now as for the cons, it’s totally a different story. One big con of having a Facebook is your privacy is being violated. Privacy is a major concern for most Facebook users, and it’s really important to understand the site’s privacy settings and set them accordingly. And even though a lot has been done to improve the site’s security, it can still be confusing. As a result, hackers can have access to- and misuse- personal information. Facebook is also very Time consuming and addicting. Sure, looking about friends is fun but when in reality you could be playing outdoors, doing homework or doing other more meaningful things that are also fun in life. It’s best to balance this into your lifestyle. To many, Facebook is seen as a social media of Freedom of expression. People on Facebook could misuse or abuse that freedom and post offensive or inappropriate content, which kids can see! And this leads us to the next point, cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can be a real problem. There are even some documented cases of kids who committed suicide after being bullied on social networks! Things aren’t always what they seem. There are many fake Facebook accounts and information that is misrepresented. Whose image is it anyway? Once you upload an image to Facebook, it becomes public and anyone can download and misuse that image. Posting regrettable information or photos that can easily be discovered by college admissions or potential employers in the future can hurt your identity severely. Once information goes online, it never goes away. Facebook is also well known for making many anti-social. Online interaction could become a replacement for face-to-face meetings. This can hurt your social life with others. And what ever happened to writing old fashion dear and deep passionate sincere letters to people?

Well there you have it! The top pros and cons of Facebook. Do you think the good outweighs more of the bad, or vice versa? Personally, I think having a Facebook is perfectly fine, one should just keep in mind to be careful and wise what you post because jobs and universities do indeed look up your status. What’s your view?