Facebook. Twitter. Those names are on every lips nowadays. And, I am not the exception. It's particularly hard to take a side about the social media, because there are almost as much advantages as disadvantages with them.
First, the advantages, in my opinion. I did the program "Explore", I did the program "Encounters with Canada", I went to school in Dégelis, I worked last summer close to Montréal with people that come from all around the world, and I am now living in Rimouski. With Facebook, that is the only social media website that I use, I can keep contact with all them, whatever if they come from Edmundston, Ottawa, New York, Berlin or Yellowknife. In 30 seconds, I can know if there is something new in their life, in 2 minutes, I can send a little message to ask some news from them. I am not the kind of people who will call someone that I didn't see for 3 months; I'll just lose contact with them. Nowadays, we do not need to call, to send a letter. In one click, we are on the person's profile. On one click, we see almost his entire life.
You are what you tweet.
In fact, I think there are more disadvantages, but the advantages are so huge, that almost everybody just close their eyes on the impact of the social media. Having an account on Facebook at 16 years old, to keep contact with your friend, your family, it is a thing. Having an account on Facebook, Twitter and all the other media social websites that I don't even know at 12 years old to meet new people, that is different. when I was 12 years old, I was playing with my friend outside, I was running beside my dog, I was laughing about the jokes my father and my friends did. Nowadays, a lot of 12 years old girls are talking with their friends online, they are running after boys online and they are writing "LOL" to every single thing that is not funny at all. Last summer, I was working with kids from 8 to 14 years old. After spending 2 weeks with them, they almost all add me as a friend on Facebook. I saw girls of 12, 13 years old almost crying because they could not go on the computer or use their cellphone for 13 days. When I saw that, I felt so old, as I was in another completely different generation. But, in fact, I am only 5 years older than them.
Facebook is an addiction. I admit that I am personally addicted. I must go on Facebook 10 times a day. 2 or 3 minutes each times, that is not a lot, but that means that I spend 30 minutes, half of an hour, almost 2% of my day on Facebook. The biggest problem with Facebook is that people do not realize the difference between private and public life. Facebook is not a place where you should published every details on your personal life, because what is on Internet stay on Internet. It makes me mad, when it was the time last year to find a job, to discover that some of my friend have published pictures of me with alcohol, that some of them wrote message on my wall with things about partying and drinking. I did a big clean up of all those things, that took me almost 3 hours. And, I perfectly know that somewhere, those things are still on the Internet, and I just hope everyday that it won't show up. When I see people of 13 years old writing things as: "Big party yesterday, I was so drunk, LOL" I feel mad for them, because I know that one day, they will have regrets about what they wrote. Do what you want in your own life, but Facebook is definitely not the place to talk about all that personal information.
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If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends.
If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.
Having 70 friends on Facebook is one thing. Having 1000 friends on Facebook is another. You may have 70 real good friends that you want to share your life with them, 1000? No. I have more than 700 friend on Facebook, I have people that I met only once, but that I want to keep, because I want to keep contact with them. At least, I know everybody on my Facebook. This is not the case for everyone. Before publishing a video, a message, a picture, before to "like" somebody else ones, before joining a group, I think at if I am totally sure that I want 700 people to know that. Often, I just do nothing, because I realize that I do not want everybody to know my own life.
I don't have a problem with social media. I have a problem with what the people are doing with them. Spending 4 hours a day on Facebook, having 1200 friends, that included 700 people that you have never met, publishing personal information, this is the things that I am against. Doing a good use of Facebook, and it can just have advantages. The problem is definitely not the website itself, the problem is the fact that people don't understand the stake behind it.
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