Facebook

Facebook is used in many different ways; for sharing memories, important life events and keeping in touch with friends and family. All your “friends” are a click away and therefore people can keep in touch with close friends, family and acquaintances, besides this it allows you to make new friends and find people you have only met once. Facebook is simple and easy to use, which is why it has become so popular within all age groups, some more than others. Your friends are all gather in one place, which makes Facebook very needed and the easier way to keep friendships going. The term friendship on Facebook is very different from the way we use the term in our everyday life. On Facebook our Friends, don’t necessarily need to be someone we have met before, or even talked to before. People can befriend you based on the way you look or simply because you share the same interest in movies, books, series etc. Even though the idea of Facebook is brilliant and there are 1,110,000,000 active Facebook users , there are also, according to surveys, a lot of people who are not as satisfied with Facebook as it seems. These issues variant from privacy setting to the kind of friendship Facebook promotes.

Privacy settings Facebook

One of the major concerns regarding Facebook is privacy settings. Users are not sure what people who are not their friends can see, and what this information can be used for. There is currently 83 million fake profiles, these profiles include Facebook pages for pets, duplicate Facebook profiles besides the users primary page, identity theft profiles and profiles mad solely for spamming other users.

In a survey conducted by Jakob Linaa Jensen and Anne Scott Sørensen it shows just how concerned people are with their privacy. 57% of people asked, agreed or partly agreed that Facebook is like a town square, where everything is public and more then 80% reflect on privacy with only 12% partly disagreeing or disagreeing . This is a large amount of people who are concerned, showing that users are aware of this. This also demonstrates that Facebook needs to be very aware of this problem if they want to keep their users. This being said, Facebook is constantly working on their privacy settings. A new kind of setting allows teenagers to share their status update with the public, which in this case means everyone, even people who are not Facebook users.

A survey from Pew Research Center shows that 10 % think it’s a waste of time, while another 10% thought of it as a waste of time or thought that the content of Facebook was irrelevant. 9% didn’t want to be involved in all the drama/gossip or negativity that is shared on the site.
Some of the verbatim thoughts from those who took Facebook breaks include the following: “I was tired of stupid comments.” … “[I had] crazy friends. I did not want to be contacted.” … “I took a break when it got boring.” … “It was not getting me anywhere.” … “Too much drama.” ... “You get burned out on it after a while.” … “I gave it up for Lent.” … “I was fasting.” … “People were [posting] what they had for dinner.” … “I didn’t like being monitored.” … “I got harassed by someone from my past who looked me up.”… “I don’t like their privacy policy.” … “It caused problems in my romantic relationship”

The problems for adults are far less severe then the problems for younger adults or kids, in that, adult can usually defend themselves.
Cyber bullying is a mayor problem within the younger generation. Kids can say what they want behind their own computer screen or under a fake name. The bully doesn’t need to befriend the victim, they can message the person or post things on there own wall about the person. In a school system with 800 students, this information goes viral very fast.

An online survey shows One million children were harassed, threatened or subjected to other forms of cyber bullying on Facebook during the past year.
This can have great effects on children, during a fragile time of their life. In 2013 a 12-year-old girl committed suicide after months of being harassed by up to 15 girls on Facebook , and this is not the only case where cyber bullying has led to such extremes.
Pros of Facebook

Although there is a lot of focus on the negative aspects of Facebook, there are also many great ways of utilize Facebook and the wide range of users/broad reach it has.
Organizations are increasingly using Facebook to promote brand awareness, and gather fans, which will share their updates.
Because of the reach Facebook has worldwide, companies can expand there target country and target groups. These companies also have the opportunity promote new products and ideas,