Is
destroying our brains?
By Nick Egan, Blog & Alumni Editor
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg on US TV; CNN reports on how Facebook cost one girl her job
Facebook cost me my job, ruined my marriage and caused 1,500 people to gatecrash my party. No, not me personally, no-one is that unlucky, but these are just some of the headlines the social networking site has created in the past few months.
There's no doubt that the website is a brilliant way of communicating with people, but it is the ultimate procrastinating activity, as any student will tell you.
When Mark Zuckerberg sat in his Harvard dorm five years ago and launched Facebook he could not possibly have known that it would become the global phenomenon it has.
Nor could he have known that millions of students across the world would spend the first ten minutes of every lesson checking who has updated their pointless, yet perversely interesting(?) status... until the lecturer finally asks you to get on with what you’re supposed to be doing.
It now has more than 200 million active members, who spend/waste a phenomenal 3.5 billion minutes each day on the social networking site.
The average user has 120 friends and yet experts are warning that the site is making us all socially inept. Leading neuroscientist, Lady Greenfield has warned that Facebook is ‘infantilising our minds’.
Social networking sites have been accused of everything from causing cancer (the Daily Mail of course), shortening our attention span and increasing recklessness.
Research suggests that the number of hours people spend speaking to one another face to face has fallen dramatically since 1987, as electronic media use has risen.
So, should we be worried that were all becoming mindless morons with short attention spans and no social skills? Well, before you panic and warn all your pseudo Facebook friends by changing your status or setting up a group, consider this:
When the clock was invented, it was accused of stopping people interacting with natural light; the printing press of making people inherently lazy; the telephone of making people anti-social; and the television was said to turn people into mindless zombies.
Maybe this is just a debate that happens every time a new technology is invented, who knows? In five years' time we may well be discussing how the hover board made us all fat and lazy.
More than 20 million users update their statuses at least once each dayLaunched five years ago by Harvard Student Mark ZuckerbergMore than 850 million photos uploaded to the site each month140 new applications added per day40 translations available on the site, with more than 50 in developmentFacebook employs 700 people worldwideThere are more than 30 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices
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Comments
My mate got fired from work because of going on facebook all the time. She kept getting into trouble for going on it in the office, so they banned facebook.com from the computers but I told her to go on facebook.fr (France) and she did. They found out that she got round the system and she was fired.
Well, I don’t think facebook can ruin your life - it depends if u let it. However I think it is the most addictive thing ever as it is the 1st thing I check when I get on the internet, the first thing I do when I’m bored and the first thing I do when I can’t face doing my work. Sometimes I actually have to tell myself to get off it!
It is addictive, and has resulted in me losing a lot of my free time.
Facebook has improved my social circle, whereas as in the past I wouldn't have necessarily phoned friends for a chat, I can keep in contact with people easily. I don't have to make small talk as I would on the phone
FB cannot be blamed for peoples actions. end of. "facebook ruined my marriage" - yeah I’m sure that was the ONLY reason you're wife left you!
1500 people crashed a party?? Well maybe you shouldn’t have put it as a public event, or better yet, just text the people you wanted to come instead.
Like everything else, facebook is just another thing that people misuse and abuse, and I don’t think it’s right that it gets blamed for being abused by people.
It’s great for nosey parkers! Especially for those of us with very close younger siblings and ex-boyfriends to keep track of. Ha Ha! There is nothing sacred! Some might consider it stalkerish....
In a way yes I can see why everything they're saying about it making people all socially inept being partially true, I probably spend more time than I should on it and sometimes is it a little worrying that every time I go online the first thing I do is check facebook... a few months ago something happened to mine which resulted in a majority of my friends list being deleted and for a moment it did feel like my whole world had caved in on me.
There lies no blame in a new technology or fad or whatever it is. I reckon it’s more often just the luddites being luddites.
After all, myspace brought me to live with a stranger in America when I was young and impressionable…meeting people off the internet is creepy and brilliant. No sense in cowardice taking over, go bananas!
Facebook is one of those things that people participate in because everyone else is doing it. It’s the new craze, the website of the moment and like you say Twitter probably will be the next stop in the journey.
I must admit that I am addicted, it’s a way of escaping the pressures of work. I update my status pretty much every day meaning that yes, I am most definitely a statistic.
I can see why people think Facebook ruins relationships but let’s face it that’s a blatant lie.
It makes you realise how small a world it is when you see some people's mutual friends.