Advantages and Disadvantages of Facebook

     One positive of Facebook as stated by muchtech.org’s article “What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Facebook” is that “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.  You can connect and find your old school friends and college friends also you can connect with your relatives.” With that being said Facebook has over 1 billion users so the chances are the person you may be looking for is probably on Facebook, unless that is they have taken a sabbatical from life and just wants to remain off the grid. Facebook allows you to close the gap with friends and family no matter how far the distance as long as you have internet connection and let’s face it, it is probably harder to find a place with no internet than it is with.

     A second advantage of Facebook is that “Facebook is free and it's one of the best medium for communication.” (Tnvrstar). To me this very big advantage allows the masses to access facebook no matter what your financial situation is. It can be easy to overlook how many people do struggle financially on a daily basis because after all we are all in college so our lives cannot be that bad as compared to a person who is homeless or struggles to find a mean every day. With a communication service the size of facebook and the fact that it’s free, that allows large groups of people to have a voice and be part of progressive movement such as facebook. It also gives them a chance to stay in tune in what may be happening in the world today.

     As most of may know from firsthand experience Facebook can end up sucking up many hours of our day. Scientificera.com stated that one of the disadvantages of Facebook is that it is a waste of life. They would continue by stating “One of the biggest Facebook disadvantages is that it addictive or can become addictive easily.  Once you get connected with your Facebook friends you will realize how frequently you open Facebook and also spend so much time in commenting, viewing other’s pictures, playing games or doing other stuff. Many people know drawbacks of using Facebook but can’t stop using it.” I myself am guilty of this. I may log on because I am bored and have a minute or two but then the next thing I know it’s a half hour later and I am still digging through my news feed to see what interesting things I may come across. While it is great to kill time it can also lead to killing your productivity whether it be at work or while sitting at home and you should possibly be working on this blog…

     A very big disadvantage of Facebook is that it can ruin your professional career, or even worse, destroy it before it even has a chance to take off. Socialmedia.knoji.com would go on to write “You might be one of those millions of people who are unemployed and use Facebook to post offensive images of you and your friends. Though it is fun and provides humor for all your friends to see, it can be a major drawback when you apply for a job. Employers will want to know more about you and by searching on these social networking sites which contain your offensive content, employers may get distressed and could result in losing the job role that you applied for.” (Choudhury). While many of us may not agree with this type of background check our parents did not have to go through to get a good job but when you think about it do you blame companies? So even though it may seem innocent to you because it was just a couple drinks with some friends in a private area and you turn 21 in a couple months, companies can still see this and deem you unworthy of the position they are trying to fill. So next time you feel like kicking back with some friends and getting a little “weird” just remember, post it to your second facebook you have that you keep hidden so you can have a nice pristine and professional looking facebook that employers will be drooling over when they try and “spy” on you.

     There are many advantages and disadvantages to social media site such as Facebook but we have to ask ourselves the question that does the positives out weight the negatives. To me if you are smart about it and play your cards right you can use social media to your advantage while still having a blast with life. Start a second Facebook to help build yourself up and bolster your chances of grabbing that dream job. No one has to know that when you were 19 you and some buddies grabbed some Mike’s Hard Lemonade and got a little silly while drawing profanity on each other’s face one by one as you slowly all began to pass out at 10pm. Keep it your dirty little secret with your friends and your second Facebook which could be called Carlos Danger. I mean think about it, who is going to check to find your alternative ego under Carlos Danger besides your best friends who know you for stupider things than that anyways. So if you ask me I am all for social media and if you really don’t like the negatives just be a little smart about it and you can avoid just about all of them while still enjoying all the great things that come with social media sites such as Facebook. So I encourage you to go out there and share a kitten video but only after you go fancy yourself up some and create a kick-ass profile that makes you look like you are only trying to figure out how to make your second million dollars.

WORKS CITED

1)      http://www.muchtech.org/2013/06/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-facebook.html

2)      tnvrstar, . N.p.. Web. 3 Mar 2014. <http://tnvrstar.hubpages.com/hub/The-advantages-and-    disadvantages-of-using-Facebook>.

3)      http://scientificera.com/internet/50-internet/348-top-worst-disadvantages-of-facebook.html

4)      Choudhury, S. N.p., n. d. 3 Mar 2014. <http://socialmedia.knoji.com/4-disadvantages-of-using-                facebook/>.