Introduction Facebook is a social is a social network service which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004.
This is the most commonly used website with over 600million active users according to the report given in January 2011. This is considered to have created a very strong network of communication with its capability to connect people across the world. The services have both negative and positive effects to the individuals, families and societies since it is accessed by all the people irrespective of the age and experience. The study below concerns the major effects and consequences of this network service to the society at large. Effects or consequences of Facebook on the society Humans are social beings thus there is need for them top keep connected or have a good network to socialize with each other. According to the results of the study on Compete.com done in January 2009, Facebook was ranked to be the most used social network and it has more benefits than just communicating but also provision of essential information in communication. It is the best and the most powerful tool for collaboration and interaction between people or friends. Considering from the sociological perspective Facebook sites are considered to improve social capital which is particularly essential in striking up a conversation or enabling people to access information from the internet. A study carried out in Michigan State University found that the services are beneficial especially for eth individuals with low self esteem and less self satisfaction. From the psychological perspective, the site enables the individuals to meet and share with the others with common interests hence share the experiences and get motivated or gain knowledge to handle life issues (Goldman, 2008 p. 7).
Facebook makes up a cheaper way of keeping up with friends by reinforcing the existing ones or expansion of the network by enabling the creation of new ones. Each individual member has a profile page on which he or she invites all the people to be their friends. They post ideas on their walls to be shared amongst the friends and those of their friends and also have a chance of accessing what their friends have to share thus more and diverse information and knowledge is shared. It also serves to strengthen the bonds especially between the individuals who do not have enough physical contact or have not enough time for direct interaction. This is possible by providing individual information as well as views and opinions thus the others may be able to learn more concerning the individuals.
There is a lot to be done thus people do not have enough time to visit or interact with their friends, Facebook offers the opportunity for the individuals to interact and share views and opinions even as they carry on other duties. It is a good chance for the individuals to gather information concerning people of interest like professionals thus they may be able to pproach them on official duties by knowing their personalities. People acquire more and diverse information from all corners of the world, for example the cultures of the other communities and how various individuals across the world handle life challenges. It is a good and effective medium of communication since so long as the facilities are available the account holders access the sites on daily basis either on computers or through the mobile phone hand sets (Matthew, 2008 p. 345-365).
Other than the benefits these social services also have disadvantages on the society. Excess usage of these social sites is resulting to the increase in the societal crime rates especially those relating to immorality or sexual abuse. There is no age description of the individuals who are qualified to hold accounts on the Facebook thus the young children, the teenagers and the adults all share the information that is posted on the profiles. The young people access and put in practice ideas which are far much below their standards. Some of these may be pornographic materials which may abuse the young children. Excessively exposing of the information concerning people for example, their occupation is having effects on the societal crime rates for instance the robbery and carjacking because the criminals will be able to identify the individuals of their focus and monitor their movement depending on the information that they provide (Martinez, 2009 p.
73-82).Although these networks are considered as an effective links for the distance relationships by connecting the individuals, it also has negative effects on the relationships. This is resulting to wrong decisions because the individuals may be influenced to be engaged in bad relationships. Most of the people who use these websites do not express their original characters but mostly try to show the best. Some of these relationships may not last because the parties are forced to separate when they learn the true characters of the others. The individuals also blame each other for being unfaithful through by accessing the information that they share with the others.
Most of the people especially the young people are not able to balance the time that they spend on these sites and on the other activities. Many of the employers are complaining of their employees not producing the best or as expected as they spend most of the time chatting or sharing ideas with their online friends. This is found to be one of the factors causing the financial instability in the society as many of the people do not concentrate on the economic activities. The learning institutions are also not left out especially the colleges and other higher learning institutions. The performance of these institutions are declining since the students spend most of their time on these social networking thus they have no time for their assignments and studies. These students are forced to either dump the assignment or examination tests if they are not well prepared or have not revised.
After they are through with tthe training they are not able to maintain a good relationship with their employers since they do not concentrate in their workplaces or may not have acquired enough skills to perform their duties as expected (Sonvilla-Weiss, 2010 p. 102-112). The more time the individuals spend on the social networking sites, the huge the content of their privacy they expose to the public as they post their ideas, feelings and interests online. The society seems to be becoming more open without any privacy thus some people are becoming unappreciated in the societies when the personalities discovered of them are unexpected. This is also affecting the social relationships between the casual friends, children and the adults or parents because some of the information exposed shows the individuals to be lacking good moral behavior especially if the information they share is more intimate thus their parents or friends are likely to mistake them. This site is seen as a face value of the society we live in although a times it communicate false information (Gutwirth, 2010 p.
127). The cultures of the societies are highly changing due to the influence of the Facebook. This is because people are forced to change and adapt the styles of living acquired from the information that they share with the rest of the people from across the world. Some of these cultures for instance the language change is not acceptable in most of the communities. For example, the language used by the children to address the adults in certain communities may not be accepted in others and are likely to cause disagreements.
This is reflected by the gap between the older and the young generations in the societies since the older people consider the young ones to be misled by the current events in the society thus are reluctant to interact with them (Matthew, 2008 p. 276-281). The social networking is considered to be having effects to all the life factors including political, social and economic. By interacting with the others the local leaders have an opportunity to share and copy the leadership styles which may or may not be accepted in the societies although a times they have positive impacts. It also have both negative and positive impacts in the economic sector since people wastes a lot of time on them than they do on the economic boosting activities. They may also provide ideas on new activities of economic development through sharing with the others.
Conclusion Facebook is a social networking site which is the most popular and widely used to connect across the world. It has both negative and positive impacts to the society through influencing all the life aspects like political, social and economic. The leaders have an opportunity to share with the other leaders across the world thus they improve their leadership skills. Although some of the people waste a lot of time on the sites other than carrying out the economic activities, sometime they benefit by acquiring new ideas on economic activities.
