Facebook.  Friend or Foe?

Most people have heard of Facebook nowadays.  It is a firm fixture of modern life for some, and for others, something that fills them with terror!  If you are one of the rare people who doesn’t know about it, the film The Social Network is very interesting- it charts how Facebook started and why.  Do watch it- I enjoyed it very much.

How does it work?

For personal users, a profile page needs to be set up, which lists information about you and helps others to contact you.  You can reveal as little or as much as you like about yourself.  Most people have a photo, their name, and location. Some people are happy to reveal their marital status, their birthday, their education or languages spoken and much more.  You can set privacy so that only the basics show up in a google search and only friends can see your personal page. This page, also known as your WALL, where you can write what you are doing, or what you plan to do, comment about things in the news, post photos and videos, and share all kinds of information.

The idea is that you gather a group of friends around you. Friends have to apply to you to be accepted before they gain access to your Wall.  Once you have some friends, you can have a look at their Walls to see what they have been up to, view their photos and send them public or private messages.  You can also chat with friends using Facebook’s instant messaging service.  You can gather information about your friends quickly by looking at the Home page of Facebook which lists all the latest activity from your friends.

What can Facebook do for you? 

You can keep in touch with a large group of friends on a daily basis, and find out what they have been doing or what their opinions are on a huge range of issues in the news or just their lives.  You can see their photos easily and share yours.

It is great fun and easy to do, and another form of communication which can take place anytime and supplements the phone and email.

What should you be wary of?

Anything that is posted on your Wall on Facebook is shared to all your friends and maybe work colleagues, and it is not a good idea to put anything too sensitive on your Wall.  Be careful about the photos you put on.  It is something that could come back an haunt you sometime.  Internet fraud is on the increase- if predators can get hold of your date of birth, photo, town of residence, and school attended as well as names of your friends, you could be targeted.  Only share basic information!  Make sure all your privacy settings are for Friends only and that you only add people who you actually know.