Boycott facebook - Say no to Facebook - Party Gatecrashing, privacy concerns
Introduction - Boycott facebook
Started by a university student in the early 2000s, facebook has grown exponentially, with users signing up from all over the world. It has broadened the way people communicate and network dramatically. However, there are drawbacks to using this social networking site.
Reasons not to use Facebook
Timewasting. In order to be effective, users of social networking sites must regularly devote time to keep their 'profile' up to date. This includes posting information about anything that would be pertinent to their friends (activities, thoughts, feelings, etc) and writing comments both on their own postings and also on their friends. All this takes time, and it is not uncommon for such activity to use up to an hour a day.
Your time with people overly diluted. Facebook users who boast about having more 'friends' than any other may be spreading themselves so thinly across so many of their 'so called' friends that they have shallow relationships. Having fulfilling, meaningful relationships with a few dozen close friends is far better than shallow relationships with hundreds of people.
Identity theft threats. The amount of information stored on facebook about a person can be staggering. There is the obvious: photos, employer, school, suburb/country, likes/dislikes, etc. A skilled high-tech theif can use those few bits of information to launch a social engineering attack against the victim's friend in order to glean more information. Eventually, residential addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc can be obtained. From there, it is easier than ever to start stealing personal information by using email phishing and even stealing mail items from letter boxes.
Unable to control the storage of information. You have little control of how and where your information is stored. Every message and photo you post to facebook is stored on some server in the United States. Whilst you may have read a privacy statement, there is nothing stopping an overseas organisation such as facebook from doing as they please with the data about you, whether it is ten years or 50 years from now. It is also very risky for all involved - if hackers obtain access to the databases, potentially millions of peoples' data could be leaked.
Traditional forms of communication eroded away. Instead of a phone call, written letter or a physical visit, friends rely on social networking sites to communicate. The effects of this are twofold - not using a phone anymore, it is leading to a reduction in fixed landlines for telecommunication companies. Postal services are also seeing less use. This is increasing the cost of such services, and those that still rely on these services will suffer.
Over reliance on technology. Being so used to using these sites to communicate, users may 'forget' how to use trditional forms of communication. So, when the user's computer breaks down, their ISP has connectivity problems, or even when the Internet breaks down, these users will have trouble making
Forces social isolation for many. There will be people who simply cannot afford to have an internet connection. There will be others, who, due to their religion, are not permitted to use online social media. And there are others that, due to their occupation, do not have the opportunity or time to get online and 'update' their profile. For these people, social isolation will occur, even to the extent of being oppressed by their friends who have given up trying to convince them to sign up to facebook.
Devastating to lives of those with certain mental conditions. For those with mental conditions such as OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), social networking sites can 'take over' the lives of these people. They may spend as much time as possible in front of the computer in order to keep every detail of their profile up to date, reply to everyone else's comments, and coninually reading information about others so they can be 'informed' busybodies.
FB has created a new wave of mental illnesses, with users often showing withdrawal symptoms after they become addicted.
Someone else gets richer. By using social networking sites, you are making the owners of such sites richer. After all, each user, at one stage or another, will end up clicking an ad or two.
Dangerous for party invitations. Traditional party invitations were by card and post or personal face-to-face invitation. So only those invited would turn up. However, with FB, outsiders can often see the invitation, start a completely new discussion elsewhere and tell others about the upcoming party, all without the inviter's knowledge. The next thing the inviter will know is a mob of uninvited guests gatecrashing their party, often leading to dangerous, rioteous activity, risking property damage and injury.
See Also: Facebook an avenue for Cyberbullying