Preview

Is Facebook a Waste of Time?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1044 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Is Facebook a Waste of Time?
Eng 100
Essay #2
Final Draft
Is Facebook a Waste of Time? Are young people spending too much time on Facebook? Maybe. This is the opinion of Michael Duffy, the author of the article “A Dad’s Encounter with the Vortex of Facebook”. He argues that teens are given an illusion of privacy on this website because parents aren’t tuning in. He is also worried about the possibility of cyber bullying and stalking on that the social network offers. However, he states that what concerns him the most is the fact that teenagers waste too much time on the website. I disagree with Duffy’s arguments, because young users are able to educate themselves about how to use Facebook responsibly and safely. Also, Facebook offers many priceless benefits. However, I do see others disadvantages to the network that Duffy doesn’t mention. The first point the author makes is about privacy. In other words, he says that teens know their parents won’t be reading things on Facebook since that generation usually doesn’t know so much about technology. Therefore, they carelessly think they can post whatever they want. This may be true for a few ignorant teens, but most of the people I know are smart enough to know that employers and colleges check Facebook. They don’t post drunk pictures of themselves. Anyone who does that deserves to have an employer or college think twice about them, because this is not wise at all, and this is not the fault of Facebook. It is the responsibility of users to set their privacy settings correctly and to post intelligently. Back in France, I knew someone who was posting pictures of himself drinking wine while in class, and we could clearly recognize it was my high school in the background. He didn’t think professors would see the pictures because he was posting these pictures on Facebook and only had people of his age as friends on the website. He got kicked out a few days later. No one knows how it came up to the administration but one thing is sure, it



Cited: : Duffy, Michael. “A Dad’s Encounter with the Vortex of Facebook.” Time.com. 27 March 2006. Web. 7 October 2011.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Sources of Disagreement

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Regardless of whether one participates or not, there is no denying the significant impact that online social networking sites, such us MySpace and Facebook, are having on America’s younger generations. These trends are duly noted in Alice Mathias’s New York Times feature, “The Fakebook Generation” and Dana Fleming’s New England Journal of Higher Education article, “Youthful Indescretions: Should Colleges Protect Social Network Users from Themselves and Others?” Though both writers agree on the significance of these types of sites, their views differ greatly as to the impact the sites are having on America’s youth.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In her blog “ The Fakebook Generation,” later to be published in the New York Times on October 6, 2007, Alice Mathias enters the topic of the most used social networking service worldwide, Facebook. Mathias debates on Facebook’s claim of being a forum for “genuine personal and professional connections” (438) and tries to influence her readers to ask themselves if the website really promotes human relationships. Alice Mathias, a 2007 graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire has wrote several more columns before, in which one of them was even awarded the Waterhouse Research Award.…

    • 1553 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Is Facebook Making You Mean?” an article by Lauren Tarshis, the author questions whether the negative characteristics of Facebook on children actually outweighs the positive aspects of social media. The author writes using different styles to both emphasize the important information and also to hold the interest of the intended audience. She begins by telling the story of a young girl named Anna who didn’t think through the words that she commented on another girl’s Facebook post and though not intentionally malicious, deeply hurt the receiver of those words. Tarshis immediately recognizes the opposition as she goes on to discuss the impact of those words not only in Anna’s case but also in the hundreds of similar scenarios that happen nearly every day. She then continues with the topic as she discusses both the positive and negative impact that Facebook has on the younger generation. Finally, Tarshis presents her own personal argument showing that social media can actually be extremely beneficial, especially to those who might have trouble being social in the physical world. She also recognizes the need for and…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In our society as individuals Social Media, Television, and movies has changed in how we interact in our everyday lives. This new technology has a changed our American cultures many of the ways, today we do not follow the traditional and proper ethics we once lived by. It has also had a huge impact on the way we communicate with others; Facebook and Twitter have become the communication outlets for our society. Facebook has three ways it is possible to share your information: friends only, friends of friends, or everyone (Albanesius, 2010). This establishes what type if privacy you prefer when an individual want to view your profile (Albanesius, 2010). Although it has caused our younger generation to display content that is unethical. This generation has also become quite materialistic, causing them to want the top name brands to keep up with their peers, at all costs in some cases. Teens have hurt other individuals recorded this event, and then post this on these social media sites for their own satisfaction, not thinking about the life altering affects this would have on the individuals. In some cases the result has been suicide. In this case there have been many negative effects to individuals with no regard to others.…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    With the huge explosion of these networking sites Christine points out that it is interesting to see how the first generation facebook users are becoming older and more youth are becoming connected. Its growing effect is taking more of a stance in society and could essentially become just as relevant part of anyone’s routine. The prevalence of sites like Facebook have even developed social norms that are even discussed in regular daily interaction, things like; friending, commenting of others walls, posting relationship statuses all focuses back to the individual and their intentions.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    People have become dependent on the internet over the years, using it to catch up with old acquaintances or even finding out the latest stories of what’s going on in the area. Since the internet was introduced it has evolved greatly, causing social networking to become a huge part of our everyday lives. Having the ability to use social networking sites at all the time allows people to stay connected to friends, family and acquaintances. Commenting and liking on friends’ pages, posting pictures and talking about your current activities, have lead people to live “fake” lives. In the words of Mathias, “I’ve always thought of Facebook as an online community theater” (Mathias 2). She explains that Facebook gives us the ability to pick and choose what we think is suitable for the world to see. For example, a person may have taken several pictures while out with friends, but only put up the ones that they are most satisfied with and want others to see. Additionally, for the younger generation, Facebook is a form of escapeism where users transform their real lives into drama and genuine relationships into…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    media

    • 2248 Words
    • 7 Pages

    "Facebook 10 years on: how has the social networking site changed your life?." theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 4 Feb. 2014. Web. 29 July 2014. .…

    • 2248 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some debate that Facebook, and other social networking sites are undermining our ability to communicate and the use of such sites dehumanise what is an important part of community life and living together. However, if anything, I believe these social networking websites allow us the opportunity to meet and form friendships with people that we may not otherwise communicate with and to create these friendships faster. They allow us to keep in contact with friends and family, whether they are in our own city or on the other side of the world, with greater ease. In today’s fast paced environment nobody has time to sit down daily and respond to individual emails; Facebook and MySpace allow us to reach all of our friends and colleagues with a simple click of a button. For the introverts among us, social networking eliminates the pressure of face to face contact and can help those shy people with the initial contact of meeting others. Facebook’s photo sharing application is rated the most used on the Internet, drawing more than twice as much traffic as the next three sites combined. These statistics show a great emphasis on the online community, especially when 14 million photos are being uploaded every day. With active users doubling every six months and more than half of active users returning daily it is clear to see people all over the world are embracing the convenience of social networking.…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unfortunately, in this day of age, we as a society have become far too dependent on technology and social media. Just taking a moment to look around yourself you can’t help but see so many people either swiping away on their phones or mindlessly lending over towards their computers. However, you can’t help but ask what are they doing? More than likely everyone was on one of the many social media platforms. In the article “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” the author argues that Facebook, one of the most popular forms of social media ever, is the reason why much of society is the way it is. For example, there used to be a point in time, where friends and families remembered each other’s birthdays and would mail you a birthday card, offer to take…

    • 982 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A significant social trend in our generation’s youth was the explosion of the social networking sites. From the first social networking site started back in 1995 social networking was introduced by AOL (America Online). Shortly after it was followed by Classmates.com in 1997; moreover, social networking had began it 's peak with Blackplanet.com bring in 3 million users then Friendster was born in 2002, not long after Linkedin was created in 2003 bring in 30 million members. Meanwhile MySpace.com hit the networking in 2003 tripling Linkedin 's users. Finally Facebook.com was created in 2004 but only for Harvard college students then two years later Facebook was launched to the public and today Facebook has 150 million members. Facebooks model is to promote honesty and openness. Christopher Nickson inaaccurately states in his article that “It seems people really enjoy beings themselves, and throwing that openness out there for all to see” (Nickson1). Nickson does not see that online people are allowed to put whatever they want other to see and think about their life. Such sites allow people to be…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hempel, J., & Kowitt, B. (2009). How Facebook is Taking Over Our Lives. (cover story). Fortune,…

    • 2760 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kevin Cain’s article, “The Negative Effects of Facebook on Communication” argues that Facebook is completely changing how we communicate with one other. He says it is creating a society that values, “…frequent communication more than meaningful communication,” (Cain). He believes this has caused us to have shrinking attention spans and has made us want to share more personal information that we normally would not be comfortable sharing with others. “[We] overshare a variety of information that was once unthinkable for public consumption,” (Cain). On the other hand, Lori Takeuchi’s more researched article, “How Tweens Use Digital Media to Develop Their Identities” is not quite sure what kind of consequences our overexposure to the internet will have. She believes it can have both positive and negative effects based on a child’s exposure to the internet and the parental involvement surrounding its use. Takeuchi writes, “…reading Club Penguin’s newspaper, for…

    • 2867 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many teenagers love social media because of its wide connectivity and function that people can receive it for free; it does not require money to make an account and use it. Facebook is the most visible among various social media. What’s impressive about this site is that you can easily connect with your long lost friends and see how they’re doing, or vice versa. You can also make new friends in Facebook. Though this could get addictive and may divert our attention away from the real world. Like what Cornell University’s Steven Strogatz said; “Social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media.” I strongly agree with this statement. Also, people become a whole new person, because it’s the Internet. People can be anything or anyone in the Internet.…

    • 648 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Is Facebook Necessary?

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Face book is a social network which allows you to communicate with your family, and friends from all around the world. Some people may say that Face book is necessary because they find it to be easier to communicate with their friends and family. Other may say that it is unnecessary because they thought that face book is just another way to keep in touch with their friends and families.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Is Facebook Good or Bad?

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages

    However, Facebook also has its disadvantages. Some people get addicted and spend too much time on Facebook to update their status, comment on other people’s status, uploading pictures and chatting with their friends. Their time can be put to better use by pursuing other hobbies like sports and games, reading, outing with family and so on.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics