Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Prespectives on The Effect of Facebook

The social networking website known as Facebook.com which has been a revolutionary way on connecting people socially, has also changed people and the world around them with general media and buisness. 
Face book's effect on people has for a fact been great enough that the general nature of peoples social abilities have changed in accordance to the website. 

Face book's effect on peoples lives have highly effected not only the people using them, but then spread to almost all kinds of businesses, and allows for a whole new kind of way to market their buisness as well.




David Kirkpatrick, a veteran technology reporter, committed himself to do a full report on the social networking site that he simply calls, The FaceBook Effect.
In his report, Kirkpatrick discusses the pheromone from Facebook and how the worlds new way of communicating is effecting everything.  In his Interview in the movie presented, Kirkpatrick discusses his report along with Facebook and its purpose when he explains that, "Facebook is meant to be a place to communicate with people you already know in the real world". It is astonishing to realize the power of the website, when with one month release of the website Facebook had 10,000 users, by 4 months in service, Facebook had offerings of 10 million dollars for the site. 


One feature mentioned in the interview on Facebook that is significant is the news feed feature. Before the news feed feature, Kirkpatrick describe face book as a site which people would "cruise on to other friends pages to see there profile".  The news feed addition to the Facebook system added the feature so that when on your own profile you would get updates as to what you're friends actions on the site were, this was initially seen as a huge invasion of privacy.  The idea of people enjoying the sharing and information of other people is what was to argue but as David Kirkpatrick explained, "it came and spread so quickly that people just didn't seem to care, everyone was doing it".



In an article by Amy Gonzales from Cornell University, named Mirror, Mirror, on my Facebook Wall: Effects of Exposure to Facebook on Self-Esteem. In her article, Amy expresses her opinion on the site and is fascinated how it "allows users to selectively self-present themselves in asynchronous media, and how people can select information to post about themselves they would like to emphasize".  the general way that people try to represent themselves of Facebook is for a presentation of themselves for others. In her text, she compared the presentation of ones self in Facebook and the media, when she explained, "self-presentation in digital media, also influences the impression of the self". an overall second digital idea of the user.




As previously discussed by David Kirkpatrick, Facebook itself has even gotten larger than Google or any other corporate buisness website. Today's size and accessibility to universally all people as mentioned before, gives a great opportunity to market use commercial media to promote themselves.  In an article from TIME magazine, author
Dan Fletcher discussed his perspective on Facebook as a buisness tool for marketing targeting the users.  In his article he explained how it is not an organization of connection, it is a buisness, making more than any other website. 


 


            For the User, Facebook, "gets you to share and make preferences to make yourself public, allowing for more personal data for businesses advertising". Another Facebook feature like the news-feed, called the 'like-button" allows gives advertisers information on personal preference of the user. For example when Fletcher discussed in his article that, "having those Like buttons clicked 100 million times a day gives the company 100 million more data points to package and sell." allowing advertisers to target users on a whole new level. The advertising platform is more complex than many may imagine now, advertisers can now target the user based off of their friends preferences(Likes). 
As Dan Fletcher once again explained that with the Like button feature, "if three of your friends slick a like button for Domino's pizza, you might soon find an ad on your page that have you're friends name", a revolutionary kind of peer-pressure. 
 Facebook's strategy is not forced to the user, only presented on a golden plate for the user to admire. Face book has changed people with the "friends connections, the likes produced by the users, has made Facebook the ultimate enabler of information. 

Facebook's effect on people should not undermined the fact that social networking does have beneficial purposes as well. In his article Use Social Media, author Franklin Mcmahon expresses how "Social media networking expands your circle of contacts in ways never imagined, t can provide a constant source of new information, connections and new opportunities". Although Facebook is a buisness, for the User, Facebook is something of memory and friendship. Personally from experience, I have pictures of me and some of my friends I will never meet again that are on Facebook that I can have forever for remembrance. Social networking is a " Social
networking is a large, organic, constantly evolving party." one must recognize that although the user may have power to acess anyone, anyone can acess you as well. 

Therefore privacy is very important, However the effect that Facebook should be in the users awareness so that they can recognize the influences and exposure that comes from having an account. 
Social media users on Facebook expand their personal horizon, with tools on the website, "you can effectively be your own publisher, broadcaster, curator, consultant, troubleshooter and even a troublemaker."
Franklin Mcmahon suggest that it people should start to join the social media networking now to absorb the new culture, "or what will be second nature to the generation entering buisness now".
For future entrepreneurs , on Facebook you can use it to benefit your company by making a profile page for the buisness.  some companies even hire people to keep the page updated and fresh in information.
We as a people are beginning to more away from the industrial age to the information age. As a world with social networking like Facebook as the dominant power, that, government, media and corporate powers are all growing and expanding to everyone with the new accessibility of information. People are destined to change when the world around them changes, it must it in the conscious awareness of what is changing and how the new phenomenon of social networking is an influence. 


















Work Cited

David Kirkpatrick. "youtube.com."thefacebookeffect.com. David Kirkpatick. 7/2/10.4/26/11 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nDCVvCw7r0>.

Fletcher, Dan, and Andréa Ford. "Friends Without Borders. (Cover story)." Time 175.21 (2010): 32-38. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.

Gonzales, Amy L., and Jeffrey T. Hancock. "Mirror, Mirror on my Facebook Wall: Effects of Exposure to Facebook on Self-Esteem." CyberPsychology, Behavior & Social Networking 14.1/2 (2011): 79-83. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 26 Apr. 2011.


MCMAHON, FRANKLIN. "USE SOCIAL MEDIA." Sound & Video Contractor 28.3 (2010): 50-53. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.







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