In 2010 Time magazine controversially named Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.com, Time Magazines’ man of the year. This decision came under both heavy fire and critical acclaim. Scholars and citizens arguing both sides of the case. While Facebook currently has over 600 million users there is still a large portion of the technology savvy community who see Facebook as a time consuming, privacy invading waste of time, heck even most Facebook users will admit to that.
Facebook graced our presence in 2004 not long after social networking giant My Space had really begun to gain momentum. The site began at Harvard University when a group of unlucky in love ‘geeks’ thought of it as a way to meet and ‘grade’ girls. Many years, billions of dollars, a box office movie and countless lawsuits later it has grown into the most visited social networking website and the second most visited general website, second only to search engine Google.com. As a social network Facebook has different applications. Mainly used as an easy and free way to keep up to date with friends and family, some also use it to meet new people and others use it as their main form of communication. I remember times living in London where I could faster get a response on Facebook than via ‘old fashioned’ SMS.
Some will argue that Facebook is a copout. The slack persons way of keeping in contact with friends without any actual face to face contact. You can comment on photos without actually being part of the action, leave comments on status updates with ever picking up the phone. I must admit I do turn to Facebook to keep in contact with people a lot. However I do travel and when I am home I can go weeks without logging on. I also think it is important to still pick up the phone or at least email/sms close family and friends for birthdays and special events, but it is very easy to fall into the Facebook bubble.
There is also a gaming element to Facebook. A large range of applications and games are available which is where, along with consumer based advertising, is where the money is made. Through Facebook ‘apps’ you can get your daily horrorscope, follow your pregnancy with the help of a weird blob shaped cartoon character, play poker, build a farm, create a mob war and send virtual cirthday cards. There is even an applications to see how much time you spend on Facebook. I generally stay away from the extra time consuming temptations and even block games and apps as they begin to flood my page but this particular app terrifies me. I’m certain my % would be mortifyingly high!
A huge problem with the applications and games is the exposure to harmful viruses and hacking. If Hotmail wasn’t bad enough for virus sharing there is now a wide range of applications and programs that are fronts for hackers. I know at least half a dozen people who have had their pages hacked and had to cancel their accounts and start afresh. Allowing these programs to access your profile puts holes in what is already a thin privacy net. Facebook is constantly tweaking their privacy laws and settings leaving even the technology savvy user out of their depth. Do you turn your account to 100% private and stop people from being able to find and request your friendship or do you leave it open and hope for the best?
Between networking, applications and games it is ridiculously easy to waste time on Facebook. Facebook ‘stalking’ is a major culprit. Looking at certain friends’ pages to see you they are talking too, what they are planning and what they have been up to. And we’ve all had FB crush we’ve stalked too! On Facebook there is even the option to ‘poke’ one another. In the virtual realm a peak means ‘ Hello, I’m thinking about you but don’t have the time to string a sentence together so... POKE’. I once had a ‘poke-a-thon’ with a friend that went back and forth for a month before we actually exchanged words.
Facebook also gives you the option of ‘liking’ friend’s photos and status updates. Show support for a cause LIKE, think a photo is particularly memorable LIKE , impressed by what one friend says to another LIKE. For years Facebook users have been calling for a dislike button but Facebook still hasn’t come up with the goods. I personally think it is a good thing, it’s already easy enough to have a Facebook friendship based primarily on LIKEing each other’s every move, throw a disLIKE button in there and we will no longer have the need to converse.
Facebook has redefined friendship; the Oxford dictionary defines a friend as ‘a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations’. Facebook friends are a different kettle of fish entirely. For starters you can Facebook friend people that you have never met, and secondly Facebook relationships tend to be very superficial. I met a guy in Latvia that had randomly searched for people named Emily and set out befriending as many as he could for a bet. €50 and 130 Emily’s later Facebook would have you believe that he is fortunate enough to have an extra 130 extra friends to call upon when in need. But realistically how many of these Emilys will be there when he needs them? How many of these Emilys know his allergies? How many of them even know where he is from. I think it is fair to say that Facebook friends should be better referred to as Facebook acquaintances.
I currently have 436 Facebook friends, this time last year I culled about 50 but with all the travelling the number seems to creep back up. Every now and then I go through and delete people I rarely speak to on Facebook and never in real life. Of the remaining 435 friends 30 of them are brothers, sisters, lovers and pets of closer friends. 100 of them are once upon a time friends, people that I knew back in the day either through school or work but if it weren’t for Facebook we would probably have little to do with each other. If I was to run into one of these people the conversation would likely go a little like this – ‘‘Wow, how are you? Oh my god it’s been so long! Me? Yeah I am really well thanks, I saw on Facebook that you (insert live achievement here), that is amazing! DO you hear from anyone from back in the day? Yeah true, well it was so great to see you, I have to go, and we should make a time to catch up, yeah for sure. I’ll Facebook you.” 50 of them are family and family friends and at least 10 are people I want to delete and probably would delete would it not be such a drama. Probably over 150 of them are people I met while travelling and at least 30 of them are close friends that I communicate with more on the phone or in person. The rest are normal real life friends who happen to be on Facebook and it is just as easy to use FB as it is to contact in person.
Facebook has ruined the concept of school reunions. Thanks to status updates and photo uploading by the time the 10 year reunion comes along we all know each other’s news. Photos mean we even know how each other may have aged – ‘Ooh did you see on FB that such and such had a boob job’, ‘Oooh I noticed on FB that so and so went blonde!’, and my favourite ‘Did you see that trashy photo of bla bla at you-know-who’s party?’
I am a huge fan of FB photos. 3 billions photos are uploaded to Facebook per month worldwide. I think I currently have an ever increasing 130 photo albums, which is quite a lot by most people’s standards. To be fair I’ve travelled a lot and even in High School I was the girl with the camera snapping every move. Facebook offers users a free and easy to use forum for sharing all kinds of moments through words and pictures and even video. Once you have uploaded photos you and your friends then have the option of ‘tagging’ each other in the photos. This can be dangerous as there is often some contention over how people look in uploaded photos. Some people get very sensitive about the hideous/funny/incriminating photos. I try to be nice with the uploading of photos but I have definitely had a few run-ins with friends who got upset by photos I uploaded. I find the best way to go about it now is to tag the person once so they know they are part of the album and then let them tag themselves and choose which photos they want shared on their profile. Problem solved. There have also been stories of potential employers ‘face stalking’ and seeing raging photos of possible future staff can be a bit of a turn off.
There are also the parents and family friends on Facebook. On one hand it is fun to add them and for me it has been a great way for my parents to keep tabs on me. While the downfall being that they know every time I come home at 4am or do something stupid! On the travelling circuit it allows for peace of mind but when you live near your parents there is definitely less appeal to having them privy to your every FB move. Lucky for me both my parents rely more on my siblings to hear FB stories.. Phew!
It goes without saying that Facebook has enhanced the backpackers travel experience. Almost every person you meet has a FB account so it is perfect for photo sharing and a potential bed or coffee mate one day in the future. I have FB friends that I met travelling that I have put up for a night here or there and would hope to be able to ask for at least a ‘locals perspective’ when I visit their city. There are also the times when you see a friend is or is about to be in the same place as you, it is a great medium for the accidental catch ups!
Recently I have come to realise Facebook is much more than a social networking site. During the many national disasters that have been occurring in Japan, Queensland and New Zealand Facebook has been an invaluable source of comfort through status updates. During the flood event and Cyclone we Aussies overseas were able to keep up with all the information through the likes of family and friends on Facebook. The QLD police department and the Bureau of Meteorology among others were using their pages to bring updates, links to live news conferences and important information to their ‘fans’. It was incredible to be able to see photos come up as it was happening and see status updates from being in the heart of the disasters. As heart wrenching as it was to be so far away from home it was great to be able to offer support on FB and pass on information and links to friends in need. With Cyclone Yasi it was amazing as there were people in the affected areas that were able to communicate and talk about what was happening around them as the cyclone was on their door step. With phone and electricity lines down people where able to turn to FB to contact family and friends and release tension and fear and get messages of support from around the globe.
With the earthquake in Christchurch Facebook once again has been turned to for information, reassurance and support. It was through FB that I heard of the earthquake and through FB that I was able to search for and confirm the safety of my family and friends in CHCH. With phone lines down it was invaluable to be able to see up to date information. Even people in CHCH have been using Facebook to contact and support one another. I heard an amazing story of a girl whose father lives in Christchurch and was non contactable in the hours after the earthquake. She had FB’d her brother who is living in America. He posted on his FB page that he was seeking help looking for his dad in Christchurch. His friends than re posted his message on their pages and on Twitter pages, his plea for help being seen by 10’s of thousands of strangers around the world in less than ten minutes. Within 15 minutes he had a response from a guy in CHCH, who was in grid locked traffic and only a ten minutes walk from the man’s fathers house. He got out of his car and walked to find the man’s father safe outside his home. To me this is an amazing example of the power of social networking and the kindness of the human race.
Facebook is only 7 years old and with 600 million active users (people who have logged on at least once in the last month) it is arguably the 3rd largest country in the world. Available in 70 languages including ‘Pirate’ and with 1700 employers based in 12 countries it is easily the most multicultural ‘country’ in the world. Like any country you can choose to live there or just pass through when you get the time. It is what it is but more importantly I believe like any country I have visited Facebook is what you make of it, good bad or indifferent.
While I absolutely loved my times in the Baltics there is no denying that I was giddy with excitement at the thought of venturing into the tip of Russia, St Petersburg. A lot of people are deterred by the strict visa restrictions and rumours of corrupt police. The visa was a lot easier to acquire than I had anticipated and while its true that the police are corrupt you just have to know how to handle them. The main thing is to always have a copy of your passport and your invitation when walking around, and if they ask to see your passport never give the original document because they have been known to hold it and demand a sum of money or they won’t give it back. I met some French people who hadn’t registered their visas and were stopped by police who demanded 3000 rubble on the spot. Ah Russians!
