Facebook

I remember sitting in my friends living room, watching television and eating Chinese, when sounding slightly panicked and startled, I exclaimed "I have had a friend request from...................... my MOTHER!!!"  An alert had just appeared on my phone and it suddenly occurred to me that my mum would now know virtually everything that was happening in my life.  I use this as an example of how Facebook is now being used by virtually everyone, all over the world, as an everyday tool in life.

This Web 2.0 site is a social networking site and now reports having over 800 million active users.  As many people will know it was originally founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard University room mates and was only meant for Harvard students to use as a support network.  It quickly grew though and as time went on it was opened up to more and more universities before making millions of dollars and being used all over the world.

If used properly this is a very useful interactive website.  Once you have set up your own page you can 

• express your opinions and ideas, 
• stay in touch with new, old and current friends, 
• share your pictures and videos or download them from the internet to show others, 
• keep up to date with birthdays and
• play games free of charge.  

For me it is extremely useful as I have travelled all over the world and have many friends, so it is a great way of keeping in touch with them.

You need to be very careful and aware when using it though.  

• Ensuring you have your security settings in place is extremely important as I personally do not want everyone all over the world to be able to view my profile and use my information against me.  
• The example I use of my mother is a good reminder that what you write on Facebook can be seen by all your friends, therefore, if you don't want people to know then don't post it.
• Cyber bullying is a big problem with this application and although you should be aged 13 to use the site many parents cannot control what their children are looking.  Fake pages have been set up against people, which can mean bullying no longer stops at school and has on rare occasions ended in tragedy.  
• Some children have been placed in very dangerous situations too, after agreeing to meet up with who they believe are other children only to find out they are in fact grown adults.  This is an example of how security is very lax and you can pose as anyone.
• The site can now be accessed so easily and quickly using your laptop, mobile phone and IPOD and in today's busy world this can be a great thing.  However, last year's London riots were an example of how this speed is not good, as Facebook was used quickly to organise mass meetings, causing ultimate chaos.

I use the site as a support network at university and this has been very useful.  It has helped when I have a question I am worrying about and often reassures me I am not the only one confused.

If monitored, set up and used correctly this is a great Web 2.0 Application which has proved very useful and now feels like we could not live without it.  If I was a parent however, I would certainly be thinking twice before letting my child use it.