Emmajayne1987’s Weblog

What exactly is the purpose of Facebook? It is defined as a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. (Taken from Facebook – about Facebook, accessed 10/01/2008) But do any of it’s users become members in order to keep in touch with new friends or to get back in touch with olds friends, or do they become members because it is another way for people to be who they want to be? You can write absolutely anything on your Facebook profile, so what’s to stop people from telling a few white lies to make themselves look better. That’s when you start getting involved with the quizzes and questionnaires to discover what you would be called if you were a gangster or a drag queen, or you can even be a type of sports car by answering a few questions. In the words of the Facebook team “the possibilities are endless”. 

 The main reason I went on to join Facebook was because the majority of my friends were on there and I kept getting reminders via email that I was behind the times and needed to set myself up with a profile so I could join my friends and become addicted myself. However the first time I ever heard of Facebook was when a friend told it was a website where you get your photo viewed by others (most of whom you will not know) and they determine whether you are “hot or not”. There is an application like this Facebook but that was not what it was solely about, yet that was why many people used it.  

“Facebook is announcing that it has hit 30 million active users today. Unlike MySpace, Facebook doesn’t pad its numbers with dead accounts: these people log in at least once a month. As you can see by extending the graph below, the number of active users has doubled since the start of the year.”

The Facebook team contradict themselves by saying that the purpose of the site is for people to keep in touch with those they know or used to know, yet they state that it can be a way to learn things about the new people you meet as a Facebook member.  How many people on Facebook have got friends they have never even met or heard of before? I would say a lot, as there are so many of my friends who have up to 300 people as friends on their profile. I have 77, but these are people I actually know and have talked to in person during my life.  Research has suggested that having too many friends on sites like Facebook and MySpace makes that person look insecure; they have been branded “Facebook whales” and name used for those with over 800 friends on their profile. The use of Facebook has grown rapidly over the years, and the number of hits it has received has double since 2004.  The above graph shows how much the use of Facebook has grown over the years. (Obtained from http://mashable.com/2007/07/10/facebook-users-2/, accessed 10/01/2008)

Now that Facebook has become a household name and now that so many people are using it, it starts to become addictive, and a major source of time wasting. People who wish to go online to send comments or messages to their friends are now forever confronted by the many new applications created by either the Facebook team or users of the site. What started as a swift check of messages and quick hello to friends now turns into a quest to beat your friends on PacMan and movie quizzes. Facebook has become one of the most addictive time wasters, and no longer seems to have a definate purpose.  

Souces used:

http://mashable.com/2007/07/10/facebook-users-2/

http://yorksj.facebook.com/about.php

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/12/18/facebook_whales_800_is_too_many_friends.html