Facebook: Social Networking or Social Distraction?

Facebook: Social Networking or Social Distraction?

My first interactions with Facebook

Five years ago I discovered what I would like to call the “black hole” of social networking: Facebook. In 2005, I graduated high school and that summer I became a member of Facebook. At the time, Facebook was only available to college students or people that had a registered college e-mail address. I received my e-mail a couple of months before I actually got to West Virginia University, so I was able to register with the Web site. At first, barely anyone that I knew was a member of Facebook. One of my friends had told me about it and I decided to join because I was really bored at that moment in my life. I thought it was cool when I could upload a profile picture on the Web site.

The next step of my Facebook experience was when I joined my first ever Facebook group, which I am still in today. Someone from my soon to be dorm, Dadisman Hall, had created a group called “Dadisman Hall 2005…Partying Hard!” and invited every person that had Dadisman as their room location at WVU. I looked at the people who were soon to be dorm mates. This was all very new to me and it was actually intriguing me that such a Web site could connect so many people from various cities, states and countries.

Fast forward five years.

Here I am today, in my first semester of graduate school and I find that Facebook has changed from a social networking Web site to a huge social distraction! I live in my sorority house at WVU and I am surrounded by 32 girls every day of my life. Each of these girls is completely obsessed with Facebook. Like these girls, my life has been annoyed by this obsession. When I get home from my graduate assistantship, I usually find my roommate Facebook “stalking” or looking at pictures on Facebook. Facebook “stalking” is a term that my friends and I have made up for someone who looks at another person’s page for more than five minutes. Facebook is a bottomless pit of information, pictures and applications. I find it difficult to steer myself away from the Web site when I log on. Unlike many people though, I can easily click away from the Web site when I have homework to do. Some students get lost in the Facebook world for hours on end when they have homework to do.

Facebook: Negatively Effecting GPA’s?

Researchers at Ohio State University recently conducted a study on students who use Facebook on a daily basis and on a group of students that don’t use it. The study shows that students who spend more time on Facebook spend less time studying, which could result in a drop of a whole letter grade. The problem with the study is that the group that doesn’t use Facebook could be less socially inclined than the group that uses Facebook (Facebook’s, 2009). I personally think that this could be true. If students are spending more time on Facebook and less time on school work then there is probably a decline in the student’s academic performance.

I find it difficult to consider Facebook a social networking site anymore. I have too many friends that I do not know and have never met on the site. My boyfriend can’t even have a Facebook page because he wants a government job and government employers would definitely look him up on Facebook. Some people lose jobs because of their Facebook accounts and some people lose prospective jobs because of inappropriate pictures on Facebook. How can Facebook be considered a social networking Web site if it has the potential to ruin someone’s career or cause a decline in a student’s GPA?

References:

Facebook’s Negative Effects: Why Your GPA Might Plummet. (2009). Retrieved December 27, 2009, from http://www.cklin.org/index.php/observations/facebooks-negative-effects-why-your-gpa-might-plummet/

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