7.5 million Facebook users are under 13

This article I read is mainly concerned with the young children using Facebook. In a recent study, researchers found that 7.5 million out of 20 million users are minors, under the age of 13. This wouldn’t be a big deal if it weren’t for the fact that 7.5 % of these children reported being bullied, harassed, or taken advantage of while using this site. 

 

Do you believe young children are at risk if they spend too much time on Facebook un-supervised by an adult?

Does Facebook make us sad?

It is human nature to compare yourself to others. It is also human nature and habit to overestimate other people’s happiness and compare it to yours. Many people log on to their facebook and read about all the new relationships, babies, and exciting events that people post thinking that their life isn’t as great. 

Most people don’t post the negative things that happen in their life giving others a false picture of their life and reality. Thinking that everyone around you is so much happier leads you to feel more sad and depressed, and even alone.

Question: Do you ever feel that people seem so much happier than you do when you log on to facebook and read other’s statuses?

Facebook's Impact on Your Self-Esteem

Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has become a frequent part of the average person's day. With over 500 million active users who have an average of 130 friends and people spending over 700 billion minutes per month on the site, it is clear that Facebook impacts the lives of several people. 

 

Some people spend more time than others on the site because they love the interaction and see it as a major self-esteem boost. However, some dread checking their Facebook knowing that they won't have any notifications at all and thus find their self-esteem lowering.

Question: Do you feel as though Facebook affects your self-esteem at all?

FACEBOOK OCD

In this article, psychologist Seth Meyers argues that Facebook is compared to OCD with most people with today’s society. Not only that it’s a problem, but it is also the cause for many relationship problems. 

They believe that Facebook is giving many people symptoms of jealousy and paranoia. When people are interested in someone, they will end up checking their Facebook page obsessively every time they are on. This is because they try to get more information on the person to see if they are with someone else or what have they been recently up to. But when they actually get into a relationship with the person, then the Facebook stalking gets worse, because they try to see who else is writing on their partners walls and how do they know each other. Also, people tend to get worried whether they are being mentioned in their partners statuses or if they have posted and pictures on them two together yet for everyone else to see. 

The article compares the Facebook situation to “OCD” because it is basically at the same level as OCD since people are always on Facebook and use it for so many things that is has now become a problem. One of the worst things about Facebook is that it breaks a lot of relationships because of someone posting up pictures or a wall post that upsets the partner. 

Or even sometimes it’s because of misinterpreting something that was meaningless. Another thing is that when going on the social network to look someone’s Facebook, it will sometimes ruin people’s day because they would see something that upsets them and even though they knew they should have not looked at it, they now did and it makes them feel sad and lonely.

My Question to you is: Do you think you have Facebook OCD? And has is affected any of your relationships?

Facebook causes relationship problems

Facebook can cause problems in relationships.

How?  You check your boyfriend/girlfriend/person you like page and when you see something that makes you jealous, say talking to a member, a fight ensues. Seth Myers talks about how we check the persons Facebook page everyday, and how it is an addiction to us.  

When we see a picture of the person we like, we automatically assume something is going on between them and another fight is caused.  The ways to end this is to get rid of your Facebook so you won't be tempted to look at theirs, or to temporarily deactivate your account. 

This hopefully would break your addiction to checking the persons Facebook and end all of the fights.

THE QUESTION IS:
Does Facebook lead to problems in relationships? 

Facebook & Narcissism

Facebook has officially become the new Myspace. Its so common to have one or the other, probably even both. We can "connect and share with the people in our lives" But maybe we share a bit too much.. For example, people automatically post good news or bad news as soon as they get it. Its like they want the reassuring attention from people who will take interest in their actions. Constant updates such as these will lead to a gap of our time being taken up by checking on our profiles, reflecting upon our lives as well as other, which is really unreasonable since facebook is completely unrealistic. It gives us a chance to get our thoughts and feelings out, yes so maybe in a way it is therapeutic, but we definitely all have reached that point when were looking at the screen with nothing let to do, no messages to return, no chats to wait for... and we refuse to close the internet window. 

Maybe its because we unconsciously want to talk to someone, or maybe were too attached to the online community. Either way it allows us too much time to sit at the screen without any purpose, what happened to aim & myspace profile where there was music & 'about me's'. Facebook also gives business's the opportunity to publicize themselves and expand through out advertisement But can cause compulsive disorders, Psychologists have actually developed a new mental condition called: Facebook Addiction Disorder.

Facebook Facts

• More than 500 million active users
• Average user has 130 friends
• People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
• There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
• Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
• Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
• More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
• More than 70 translations available on the site
• About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Do you think too many people post personal information to public websites such as Facebook ? What do you think is their intention of displaying statuses ... do you agree that we spend too much time reading others, and stressing about what's going on in the unrealistic online world rather than realistic issues such as finishing homework, or distract us at work ?