Origins
of Facebook
Facemash – that was how it all started on October
28, 2003. The website was invented by a Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, and
three of his classmates. It was inspired by Zuckerberg’s sense of humour as a
type of game for the students of Harvard University. The website allowed
visitors to compare two student pictures side-by-side and let them choose who
was “hot” and who was “not”. However, the website was shut down by Harvard
executives a few days after it opened. Mark Zuckerberg faced charges of
violating copyrights, breach of security, and violating individual privacy for
stealing the student pictures that he used to populate the website. He later
faced expulsion from Harvard University for his wrong actions. However, at the
end, all the charges were dropped. In January 2004, Mark Zuckerberg began
writing the code for a new website, known as 'thefacebook'. By June 2004,
Facebook was incorporated and moved its base of operations to Palo Alto, California. The company dropped ‘The’ from its name
after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005 for US $ 200,000.
Present
Status
Today, Facebook is undoubtedly one of the most
popular social networking sites with over 800 million monthly active users
according to their own statistics. Over 350 million of these participants are
accessing Facebook through their mobile phones. Since the initial website was
created, Facebook has changed its formatting many times and revamped the
overall appearance of people's individual profiles. Most recently it has
introduced a completely new type of profile called Timeline. This essentially
turns user profiles into a visual timeline of your life complete with all
photos, events birthdays and friendships. Facebook continuously changes its
formatting to suit it's users and will continue to do so.
Advantages
and Disadvantages
Facebook has helped to transcend the barriers of distance
and the lack of time in socializing. Facebook is a great way of keeping in
touch with friends, reconnecting with long-lost buddies and making new friends.
Facebook reminds us of birthdays and anniversaries. Facebook is preferred for
speedy spread of information – be it on marriage, travel abroad, new addition
to the family or even mood swings. Like all other social networking sites,
Facebook makes it easier to join communities that share common likes and
dislikes. Facebook has served to mobilize people to rally behind causes both
good and bad. Facebook has often taken the role of an alternate media
especially in countries where there are curbs on free speech. Facebook profiles
with photo albums have almost replaced the age of hard copy matrimonial biodata
exchanges. Even though Facebook serves numerous advantages, it also proves to
have certain disadvantages as well. It is quite obvious that a trade off is
happening between the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook. While Facebook
increases the communication and connectivity between friends and the online
community it also increases the risk of addiction, procrastination, dereliction
from the more important duties of life and makes it easier for others to stalk
a user especially when mere acquaintances are labeled as friends. Some use Facebook as a means to spew venom on
people they hate. Most are unaware that
doing so is a criminal offence punishable with up to three years in jail and
Rs.1 lakh in fine. One must be aware that Facebook names can be created
falsely, and profiles fabricated. Regardless of the above disadvantages,
Facebook is here to stay with thousands joining it every day.
State
of the Net Report
Consumer Reports surveyed 2,000 active Facebook
members, and spoke with more than a dozen security experts, who looked over
individual Facebook pages to find serious privacy problems. These are some of
their findings:
Some people are sharing too much.
Projections suggest that 4.8 million people have used Facebook to say where
they planned to go on a certain day (a potential tip-off for burglars). 4.6
million discussed their love life on their wall. 2.6 million discussed their
recreational use of alcohol on their wall.
Some don't use privacy controls.
Almost 13 million users said they had never set, or didn’t know about,
Facebook’s privacy tools. And 28 percent shared all, or almost all, of their
wall posts with an audience wider than just their friends.
And problems are on the rise.
Eleven percent of households using Facebook said they had trouble last year, ranging
from someone using their log-in without permission to being harassed or
threatened. That projects to 7 million households — 30 percent more than last
year.
To
read the full Consumer Reports study, go to:
The
Need for Caution
It is fun and useful to share
information on Facebook, but access to that information is not as limited as
you think. We must assume responsibility for everything that we post or upload.
People have a tendency to share too much about their lives on their Wall,
Timeline or whatever Facebook interface they might prefer. We must be careful not
to put too much information about our personal lives on Facebook as we may in
the process be endangering ourselves. We must protect ourselves from online
threats and cybercriminals. Seriously, we have to be careful and need to learn
how to conduct ourselves in Facebook.
We also need to know that what we post on
Facebook can sometimes cost us a job. Facebook is not private. Employers and -
more importantly - potential employers are good at spying
on your profile. Never post anything negative about your
employer: It has a way of getting back to them. If you think it is safe to
simply cleanup your profile before you start job hunting, think again, because
there are archiving websites that make searchable copies of websites and then
store the copies forever.
If you ever want to close your Facebook profile,
deactivate it instead of shutting it down altogether. Deleting an account can
take up to a month, and information can remain in Facebook's database for up to
90 days. Deleting the account makes it completely inaccessible, while
deactivating allows you to re-visit it if you want.
If you are new to Facebook ask yourself:
Should
I fill out the entire profile?
How much do others need to know about me, such as
my sexual orientation, if I am in a relationship, or what my interests are?
These questions should be filled out from the perspective of how the person
wants to represent oneself at a job interview. It is exciting to be a part of
others lives through the Facebook, but it is also important to ask what would
be the impact when a prospective job hunter or matrimonial search investigator
goes through your profile.
How
will I decide who my friends will be?
Some may request you to be their online friend.
Do you know them through a reliable source? It is not wise to trust someone in
the net whom you have not met or at least do not know through someone you can
trust. Some of these others whom you want to add as friends may have questionable
material on their profiles, such as photos of them drinking underage, what will
be the impact on your testimony? What would happen if one uploads an
inappropriate photograph or belongs to an inappropriately named Facebook group?
What conclusions would one make about the company you keep?
Should
I join any of the online communities/groups?
Some students may ask you to be a part of some of
their groups, which might be groups made up for fun. Once again, think about
how you would like to represent yourself professionally and what the advantages
and disadvantages to joining these groups are.
What can I do to keep myself safe?
Here are some security tips that I recommend
every Facebook user consider: check your Facebook privacy default settings
and make sure you are comfortable with them. For a first timer who doesn’t
understand what all the terms mean, it is better to remain well within the safe
zone by adjusting the settings as follows:
Whom
do I connect with? Connect only with people you know. Specify: Who
can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided? Who can
send you friend requests? Who can send you Facebook messages?
Control
Your Default Privacy: Limit it to Friends
and Not friends of Friends
What's
on your mind? Restrict that to Friends
Who
can post on your Wall? Make your wall private, meaning for friends only, and set up separate
family wall posts, visible by family members only, not all 400 of their
"friends." Remember, sharing info with "friends of friends"
could expose it to tens of thousands. Check this periodically by viewing your
profile while logged out to see if anyone else can see information you want to
keep private.
Who
can see what others post on your profile? Only Me.
Review
posts friends tag you in before they appear on your profile: ON
Who
can see posts you've been tagged in on your profile? Close
Friends
Review
tags friends add to your own posts on Facebook: On
Who
sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded? No
One
Ads,
Apps and Websites: Even if you have restricted your information to
be seen by friends only, a friend who is using a Facebook app could allow your
data to be transferred to a third party without your knowledge. As a new comer
it is better that you can turn off all
Platform apps. But remember, you will not be able to use any games or apps
yourself. Also set limits to the Audience for Past Posts.
Take
care of the content that you post: You must assume that
everything you post will be available to the general public for the rest of
your digital life. Many of us are inadvertently giving away too much
information about ourselves, including telling the world when we are not going
to be home. Remember: the people you share with can always share your information
with others, including apps. Finally, think twice before posting
photos that you will regret later. Remember these photos have a way of lasting
forever online.
Don't click on strange links, even if they're
from friends, and notify the person if you see something suspicious. Don't
click on friend requests from unknown persons. If you come across a scam,
report it so that it can be taken down. Don’t download any applications you
aren’t certain about. When using Facebook from places like hotels and airports,
text “otp” to 32665 for a one-time password to your account.
Conclusion
We are the Facebook Generation and Facebook has
changed the way we interact with each other. Facebook has significantly enhanced
the quality of our relationships. But if we do not trod with care we may even
be inviting trouble for ourselves. We must learn how to conduct ourselves in an
appropriate manner and use the marvels of technological advancements for the
glory of God. Do you share too much
information on Facebook? When was the last time you read through your privacy
settings? Next time you log in check out to see if you are well within the safe
zone. Happy and Safe Facebooking!
