Facebook is a very popular social networking site with over eight hundred million users. It has become so much a part of people's lives that we can learn the life story just by checking their page. There are positive and negative effects that Facebook has on people and they can be quite significant.
Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with your family and friends who live far away. With the status updates, messaging, video chat, photos, and profile information, it can keep us up to date with the happenings of all of our close ones.
Facebook makes meeting new people extremely easy due to the fact that it allows you to add up to thousands of friends and act as a social melting pot of the internet.
Facebook makes expressing oneself very simple with status updates. It is a lot harder to feel embarrassment over the internet than in person. So, people find it easier to 'vent' their feelings on Facebook.
On the contrary, on Facebook it is very easy for cyber bullies to thrive. They can harass and/or gang up on one person. There aren't moderators that go around monitoring what people say to each other. Anything can be said.
Furthermore, it is clear that school grades will suffer when spending too much time on Facebook as valuable study time is lost. Besides, some studies suggest that so-called teenage “hyper-social networkers” are more likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as smoking, drinking, drug use, fighting and promiscuity.
Active, but overt, monitoring and open communication about appropriate usage is the key to all the problems. This active role could prevent serious consequences such as depression, anxiety or even suicide. It is also important for parents to stay abreast with online trends and the latest technologies, websites and applications.
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