These days, it seems you’re nobody unless you’re on Facebook, Myspace, Bebo or one of the many copycat sites springing up all over the internet. My friends spend hours updating their profiles, adding pictures of drunken debauchery, messaging mates and pimping their pages. It seems everyone is in on the craze. Except for me, that is.
My friends have unsuccessfully tried to convince me that I’m missing out on something amazing by refusing to sign up to these sites. Devout followers of the Myspace and Facebook religion, they claim the sites have revolutionised their social lives- plans can be made, groups formed, pictures posted and friends messaged. Then there’s the capability to search for long lost friends, random people you meet on nights out and exes.
But I’m not convinced. I admit to browsing Myspace occassionally, usually to check up on boyfriends or find out whether an ex’s new girlfriend is better looking than me. Which brings me to my first point; it encourages unhelathy behaviour. I know of people who obsessively check their other halves’ profiles for inappropriate photos and messages, and I’ve lost count of the number of rows caused by flirty comments or bitchy remarks posted in cyberspace. I have a friend who was gutted to discover a workmate slagging him off on a mutual friend’s Myspace page. I also have friends who repeatedly check their new partners’ status. Are they classing themselves as single, or in a relationship? It appears you’re not a couple until Myspace says so. And isn’t there something a bit, well, weird about almost anyone being able to view all your info online?
Myspace is the largest website in the world with 60 billion page views a month. In the past year, the site’s membership has increased tenfold. All the US presidential candidates had a Myspace page, as did Nicolas Sarkozy. But the likes of Facebook and Bebo are quickly catching up, with Facebook boasting a 523% increase in it’s audience in the last six months, a rate nineteen times faster than Myspace’s. Bebo’s has increased by 49% to 4 million and it looks like it’s not just a passing fad.
They can, admittedly, be an effective way of maintaining relationships with people, especially friends away at university or on gap years abroad. My friends insist that Facebook acts as a social glue, holding friendships together. Fair enough, except most of them while away the small hours chatting to their closest friends, most of whom they spend all day with anyway. Then there are the other kind of ‘friends’, many of whom are mere acquaintances at best and almost complete strangers at worst, that are collected in a bid to win the online popularity contest that is encouraged by these sites. You can even be friends with bands. It also means that people you have no desire to speak to can track you down online, like forgotten school friends. Most of the time, they’re forgotten for a reason.
It’s probably true to say networking sites are excellent aids to procrastination, providing a great distraction from essays, revision and pretty much anything else. I remember my frustration when attempting to find an available computer to type up an essay (granted, I probably shouldn’t have been trying to do it the morning of the day it was due to be handed in) to find the majority of PCs occupied by Facebook addicts. I’ve also seen students browsing Myspace during workshops and seminars, and my friends check theirs several times a day. I’m beginning to think normal conversation will be replaced by writing on walls.
Despite my best efforts to avoid all association with these sites, there are many (mostly unflattering) photos of me looking the worse for wear all over Myspace and Facebook, courtesy of my friends and colleagues. I have no way of knowing which photos are out there, or who’s viewing them. And therein lies the problem; you have little control over who’s watching you. Even with the ability to censor certain information under private settings, as soon as you add someone as a friend, they can see everything. And mates aren’t the only ones. One in five employers admit to searching for potential employees online for extra information. It’s not just job applicants at risk either. In August, an Argos employee was dismissed for gross misconduct after setting up a Facebook group criticising the company, which was discovered half an hour later by company bosses. Organisations such as Lloyds TSB and British Gas also use filters to prevent staff accessing sites such as Facebook whilst at work. Recent research found that a quarter of workers in the UK confessed to being addicted to using networking sites during working hours, with Facebook members averaging 143 minutes a month on the site.
Like legwarmers and yoyos, it’s possible that Myspace, Facebook and their ilk will be a temporary craze. But with Facebook bagging 15,000 new members daily and boasting 52 million international users, it looks set to stay for the foreseeable future. But while my mates are posting blogs about their lives on Myspace, I would rather be out living mine.
Kay Weston
October 12th, 2007 at 2:06 am
i think my admiration for you has doubled,in the words of tyler durdan ‘you are not your profile count’
October 12th, 2007 at 7:19 am
Really good article. It makes you think, and I’m mainly thinking I’m very ashamed of myself for my Facebook addiction. If only it was as easy as just, deleting your profile…
October 12th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Facebook was really good for catching up with people but I’ve started to go off it now with all this application malarkey
October 24th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
The thing that disturbs me is the idea that people can now view your facebook by googling you. Seriously who thought that was a good idea.
Also I find it slightly worrying that people put their addresses, phone numbers and email up on these sites…I had to warn a young cousin of mine who naively but up his address and name of his school on myspace. It can be more dangerous than people realise