FACEBOOK  Young people's awareness.

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with their friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. Anyone can join Facebook, all that is needed to join Facebook is a valid e mail address. To connect with co-workers or class mates, you can use your school or work e mail address to register. Once you register, you can join a regional network to connect with the people in your area. Since Facebook was launched it has become a kind of an obsession amongst young people. More and more young people are signing up to the application each day as it becomes more popular. Facebook has many positive and negative effects which need to be identified, in order to investigate these particular effects. I have completed a random survey amongst one hundred students living in the Vale. I asked them what they thought of Facebook and the implications that they think it may have towards their day to day lives, and the success of their studies.

Each of the students questioned had indeed signed up to the Facebook application, and they told me that they could not think of one of their friends who were not members of Facebook. They also informed me that they found themselves checking their Facebook EVERY DAY for messages and updates. They also informed me that they thought the site was a very efficient way of keeping in instant contact with their friends, making new friends and finding out what was going on in the community. This however made me think if they spent so much of their free time sitting at the computer, and communicating through the internet, would the site also have any long term effects on these young persons social and communication skills?. Surely a healthier source of communication might be a trip to the cinema, shopping, outdoor activities including a walk in fresh air, to have a ‘catch up’ and a chat!. The young people I spoke to did in fact agree with me but also told me that as society is changing, young people spend less time partaking in these activities. In fact the time they spend away from their computers is normally used spent night clubbing or binge drinking.

 A number of young people whom I interviewed also told me that they thought Facebook was a big distraction from their studies, as they use the computer to complete their course work or dissertations, yet they find themselves automatically signing into their Facebook accounts, and speaking to their friends, rather than completing their work!. In fact one young lady joked, “I wonder if Facebook give Compensation to those who fail their degree/exams ”.However this is a very serious matter, that definitely needs to be addressed.

Facebook do believe that people should have control over how they share their information, and who can access it. People can only see the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks. People can use privacy settings at any time to control who can see what is on Facebook. However, it is still very dangerous as people who are perhaps more naive than others, may decide not to use these privacy settings. So who knows who will be scanning your profile, finding out personal details about you, and finding about where you will be going out at the weekend etc. In conclusion, Facebook is a alternative way of communicating and finding out about different things going on in your community, as long as it is not used excessively but safely so that it does not interrupt young peoples studies and daily lives.

By   Hollie Tasher.