Anna's 10th post

The death of Phoebe Prince has affected greatly affected Americans, and I hope our society learns from it. For those who don't know, Phoebe was 15 years old when she hung herself on January 14, 2010. Although suicide cannot be blamed on anyone except for the victim, her case is strongly connected with online bullying. After moving to a new school in Massachusetts from Ireland, she was targeted. Her family says that her personality changed so much as a result of the bullying that she was practically a different person.

This particular case was both social and cyber bullying, using Facebook. I believe that since so much of the bullying was taken place at her school, the school should have taken action, especially considering parents and students often report the bullying and no action is taken. Phoebe Prince's mother talked to school officials twice. However, how can Facebook and other online slander be monitored? What draws the line between freedom of speech and harassment? These are questions with no clear answer. Three years ago, a poll reported that 1/3 of 12-18 year olds have been harassed online. There is no doubt social networking sites are beneficial, so how can their misuse be stopped?

To make matters worse, online bullying feeds itself. After Phoebe's death, a Facebook group was made in her memory. These are used for loved ones to write memories, last words, prayers and encouragement to each other. On her page someone posted an insulting message that Phoebe was obviously depressed and deserved to die. What more evidence do you need? The internet provides a safe haven for bullies to say things they wouldn't in person and harass anonymously.

15 states have made cyberbullying a crime, although it is still unclear what is defined as cyberbullying. Besides stating the obvious that people should be respectful and mature on the internet, Facebook, Myspace and other websites should discard inappropriate members. And these social networking sites are just one problem, there is the whole other issue of sites made soley for bashing, such as "The Dirty." It is too bad that progressive technology is being used in such a harmful way.

Facebook

In the March 2010 issue of the magazine Fast Company, there was an interesting article on the social networking site Facebook. Facebook was co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg (who is the face of the company), Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes out of a Harvard dorm room.

From these humble beginnings, Facebook has developed into the behemoth that it is today. Facebook currently has over 350 million users (according to Wikipedia), with hopes of surpassing Google's 800 million users in the future.

How do they do it? Facebook finds employees who are driven by their love of innovative technology and they encourage interaction amongst their employees. They also put each employee through a six week "boot camp" upon hiring to teach them the ropes of the various parts that make up Facebook, and require all (generally) employees to attend an all night meeting about every other month. This allows employees to feel free to throw ideas on the table, interact with coworkers, and helps each employee realize and understand how hard their coworkers work to bring ideas to fruition. Also, Facebook staff are required to work on every part of the site at one time or another so that they become familiar with different areas of coding, and how it all ties together.

What are some of the potential problems associated with Facebook use? There is the obvious one - content that you post on Facebook can be seen by potential employers who may decide not to hire you because of views expressed in your posts, or pictures that you upload to your profile. So beware of what you put on Facebook! There are also issues such as the recent malware problem that some users of the application "Farm Town" experienced. According to an April 12, 2010 article in PC World, a Shockwave Flash advertisement has been redirecting users to a site that sells fake antivirus software. Then today, ironically enough, I personally had an issue with Facebook. I received a request from a friend to go to an application that claimed to have riddles. So, trusting my friend and being curious, I clicked the "accept" button, and it immediately sent the same request to all of my Facebook friends without my permission. Then, it took me through a series of never ending advertisements, never providing an answer to the opening riddle. Here's hoping that it was simply annoying and not dangerous to my computer, or the computers of any of my friends (I did post a warning, so hopefully they will catch that before being dragged into the same farce as I was!).

Despite these issues, I will still continue to use Facebook. It has allowed me to reconnect with several friends that I had lost touch with, and even with a cousin who put me in touch with my biological father who I had lost touch with 20 years ago. I will simply try to use caution and common sense when utilizing the site.

Hide your Facebook from your Employer

Well if you're thinking of applying for a job with a dirty facebook? think again. most employers now check the persons facebook before they hire them to see who they are hiring. A recent survey commissioned by Microsoft found that 70 percent of recruiters and hiring managers in the United States have rejected an applicant based on information they found on their facebook.
What kind of information? Inappropriate comments by the candidate, unsuitable photos and videos, criticisms of previous employers, co-workers, or clients. Even inappropriate comments by friends and relatives.
For better or worse, online screenings may be a permanent part of the 21st-century hiring process. The Microsoft survey found that 79 percent of U.S. hiring managers have used the Internet to better assess applicants. Big ten schools are looked at as big party schools, which many students are very upset about because it hurts their reputation of getting recruited by big companies. so if you're graduating in the near future and have a facebook, look at it and see if it's appropriate for your mom and dad to look at. many companies have software that can access your facebook without the person knowing, so don't think just because they are not your friend they can't see your information.
this is something new and it's staying for good, many of us should be careful on what we put in our facebook or other networking websites.

Facebook Interface Changes

If you don't already have a facebook, you at least know what it is. Facebook is a social networking website and is used all around the world. Over time facebook has grown to perhaps the most popular networking website on the Internet. Facebook is used by many from small children to the older generation.

It seems as though, everytime you get used to their set up and learn where everything is at, they go and switch it up on you. If somebody is just joining and then the next day facebook changes thier layout, it can really confuse those individuals. People get very frustated when facebook changes the layout and usually don't like it at first. It takes time to get used to it and then before you know it, the layout is changed. I'm not too sure what their logic is behind it besides probably trying to keep things up to date. I'm sure they don't want people getting bored with it so they try to change things to make them more interesting and user friendly. However, even when facebook does decide to mix things up, people don't just stop using it because they don't like it, they deal with it and get used to it. Facebook has a large enough base of people and is constantly growing, they have the ability to do these things without losing any users to make any significant loss.

Overall, I don't like the fact that facebook changes their layout as often as they do and don't feel like its necessary. My concern is irrelevant to them and they do what they feel is best for their site. They are growing in numbers and any change they make won't lose any ground for them.

Anna's 6th Post

Social networking sites have become extremely popular in the past five or so years. From Xanga, to Myspace, to Facebook and Twitter, it seems like everyone uses them at some point. They are a great way to stay in touch with friends and family far away and share pictures. A recent article explains that these sites peaked in December, although I don't understand why because that is such a busy time of the year. It claims that the time spent on social networking sites increased 82% in the past year.

The same article tells that of these types of websites, Facebook is the most popular and 67% of social networking users are on Facebook. Not surprisingly, the majority of the people on social networking sites come from the United States. Australia takes the title of most time spent on these websites though, averaging about 7 hours a month per user. Honestly, that doesn't even seem that high because i know so many college students who are probably on Facebook an hour a day. The United States spends the 2nd most amount of time on the websites.

Although it doesn't seem like that much time is being spent on these websites, it is really scary how the amount has increased in the past year. From December 2008 to December 2009, the time spent on Facebook in the United States doubled and Twitter use rose by 368%. Although I'm in full support of these websites, I think everyone needs to realize that computer interaction will never be the same as face to face interaction, and it is important to get out of the house, move around and interact.