Fac(ebook)ing the Change - by Tina Dixon

The article was published by Tina Dixon in December 2010. It outlines in the issue of change in society and how social networking websites, specifically Facebook, are having an impact on the way that people live and communicate with others.

In the article, she discusses:

• The origins of Facebook
• The feel-good factor of using it
• Issues with privacy settings
• Globalisation
• Other perspectives

She explains where the original idea behind Facebook came from and who initiated, stating that it is an open community for anyone to use and browse. She describes this as:

'a noble ideal, to be 'open' to everyone in a world full of prejudices and hierarchies, a world where good looks open doors and fake breasts earn you a great deal of money if you are prepared to have them photographed regularly'.

The following video proves her point that Facebook, and social networking in general, is a vast community with millions of worldwide users. It is an open world full of potential and opportunity for many people. The video also points out that is can be used for business purposes and earns billions of dollars every week.

I agree with the points that she makes about social networking being a wide community because it is seen as 'the norm' in today's society for a person to have at least one account for a social networking account. As everything is now on the internet and easily accessed quickly by millions, it is an ever-growing part of society that general communications are made over the internet.

In the section about the 'feel-good' factor behind using Facebook, she tells us that there is a freedom for everyone to express themselves as individuals. She states that:

'Everyone who has an account on Facebook can represent themselves, can profile themselves, choose their own photographs, decide who they allow to be their friends, log on when they want to and not when they don't.'

She then goes on to explain that this is huge development of society as self image is very important and can be the most outstanding aspect of a person's life.

'The fact that ordinary people are able to self-represent is huge. This is a massive turnaround. The traditional media are full of constructed representations and stereotypes, with all of the negative connotations that go with that.'

However, some would argue that this is not a positive because the people in society are becoming more and more consumerist and the importance of self-image could be too much for people to handle. Many people argue that the use of social media accounts, such as Facebook, are causing people to have severe forms of depression as they may have heavily mediated lives online and they may also have a distorted self-image. The following video show someone explaining exactly why Facebook is bad for self image and what it is doing to people in society. He explains that people can post whatever they want online for people to judge and the people that read the posts can feel envious towards them about their lives.

I agree with the points made in the article by Tina Dixon because she is right about Facebook being a great way for ordinary people to express themselves. It gives them the freedom to create a different online persona for themselves. This could help them to gain confidence and feel good about themselves when people like and comment on their posts. However, I also agree with the points made in the video because it is true that people can feel worse when they see people posting pictures and statuses of themselves. They can see what others are doing all the time and see what opinions people have about current events and politic issues. They can feel as though they are not as good as the other people online and do not have as glamorous of a lifestyle as they do.