Hey, that [insert your name] is pretty responsible with [insert your gender-specific possessive pronoun] use of Facebook

Facebook has become a social networking powerhouse. Facebook has become a definite way for people to get themselves out there and really explain and show who they are, and give people an insight on all the things that represent them. Facebook is forever changing, as well as the people who control their pages. There are constant updates with the site, whether for the good or bad Facebook will never be the same from when it initially came about. Everything is completely different and will forever be changing.

Facebook and I have been long time friends, since 2007 we have had our ups and downs and I consider us still going strong in our relationship.  A good amount of the time I get sick of how much everything keeps changing and how annoying some of the new functions are, especially when it changed over to timeline I was not a happy camper. Yes I always complain about people’s daily update on what they are doing that very second, constant invites to events I will never go to, and just the daily jibber jabber on how someone’s baby daddy’s ex-girlfriends cousins sister is a bitch fills up my newsfeed, yet I keep my Facebook and go on it every day because myself and many others can’t get enough of it and have to be in tune to everything going on always. There will always be the people who bitch and complain about how they didn’t want a certain someone to find something out well new flash if you put it on the web its fair game and you’re an idiot for not changing your privacy settings or blocking said person, a lot of employers today will check a person’s Facebook before hiring them to check them out and see if they really are qualified for the job. I have known more than one person who has been fired because they were stupid enough to call in to work but post on Facebook that they were out shopping at the mall. Everyone needs to learn to pay more attention about what content they are putting out for the world to see. I am always careful about what I am putting on Facebook because I don’t know what future employers might look at it or who might see it, I’m friends with my little cousins and some of their friends and I want to be viewed as a good role model. That also goes for what you post on someone else’s page. The one article talked about how they conducted a survey seeing who was alright with having people have access to their profile. The majority of the people only agreed to posting things that were ok to their family and friends and even people they didn’t know rather than posting things that were inappropriate and gave them a bad rap.

I use Facebook mostly to keep in contact with the people who I don’t see on a daily basis and the friends I made while working at Disney who live all around the world. I worked at Disney in 2008 and after that experience of meeting people from England and Madrid and many other places keeping in contact with them on Facebook was the easiest outlet to do so. I can constantly send messages back and forth without any hassle of using any other outlet. Except now a days I have 300 different aps on my phone to talk internationally or the option to just Skype with my friends. But, it’s nice to see what they are doing and with my close friends Facebook has become an outlet to stalk people and gossip about what people are doing with their lives (we are mean girls). Facebook can also be used as an amazing marketing tool; you can get your name out there and do advertising for the low cost of FREE! You don’t have to pay to promote your business or event. The last project we worked on we did some amazing work for organizations or companies that didn’t have any acknowledgment on Facebook.

Everyone has their own separate reasons for using Facebook and what they actually do with it. In some cases like mine they use it to keep in touch, some may use it to meet new people, and others could utilize it for events. But, there will always people the people who live in their parent’s basements who are 55 year old virgins who have nothing else to do with their lives then spread viruses, spam people and hack into people’s accounts. By giving people the permission to access your information you are giving them the permission to spam and attack everyone on your friends list.

As a class we were instructed to make separate Facebook pages due to the fact she didn’t want to know anything from our personal lives. This makes complete sense because it connects to mixing business with pleasure; I don’t trust that my friends wouldn’t make a mockery of the project or class so It made me feel at ease that we weren’t allowed to use our personal one, my school life and personal life are on two completely different ends of the spectrum. Our secondary accounts are only business and school related content that are only going to be viewed by the class and our professor. But with that being said I don’t quite understand how smoothly my personal profile works and my brand spanking new one keeps locking me out and I can’t stay logged into it for more than a minute.

In regards to my information on Facebook and whether its private or public, it is very public because I am careful and cautious about what I put on there and what I want people to see or know about me. If I think something isn’t appropriate for my friends, family, or employer to see then it doesn’t go on Facebook, simple as that. I will never understand why some girls and guys thinks it ok to post half naked pictures on the internet or doing drugs and stupid shit along those lines. Anyone has the ability to access your account.

At this very moment there aren’t any specific etiquette rules in place for Facebook uses. But, if I were to enforce some rules they would be:

1. Don’t update your status with cryptic messages
2. Sending a HUGE mass private message is uncalled for, so that whenever any one of the 200 people respond to it, you think you have new and exciting mail
3. Countdowns to a not life changing experience are unneeded ex) 125 days till I wash my hair
4. Don’t post chain statuses asking you to post whatever it is in YOUR status to “spread the word”
5. Chill with the pregnancy/baby picture overload
6. calling in sick for work yet making your status “Crazy Night… Still Bombed!” is a no no
7. posting awful pictures of people and tagging them is just rude
8. don’t add people you work with/for and talk about bad experiences in your life that those people shouldn’t know about which can also go along with don’t diss your workplace/co-workers/boss whilst forgetting they are part of your network.
9. carrying out personal conversations only you and another person are in on. A lot of people just don’t care.
10. Posting important news (death, wedding, pregnancy) instead of calling people individually
11. Application overload is also uncalled for, I don’t want to play your stupid games and if I wanted to I would make my own decision to do so
12. Adding people you are not friends with is kind of creepy and not safe
13. Last but not least don’t make a fake page

 

I feel that I have never had an awkward situation because of Facebook from what I had posted because I am really careful about that kind of stuff but then again I can be an airhead at times so saying that it never happened would be a lie. But I do know of many people who have been caught in sticky situations. I actually know someone who broke up with their girlfriend via Facebook status and tagged her in the status so all her friends and his friends could see it happening.

In conclusion, you have to be smart about what you post on Facebook. Anyone at any given time anywhere in the world could be viewing your page and getting your information. Facebook could be the result in whether you get that job you wanted or getting a stalker in the matter of seconds. We all need to classy and remember that the internet is forever, just because you think you deleted that picture of you jello wrestling or smoking a joint it is still somewhere on the internet and can be found.