Bob Fales posted on October 31, 2011 14:34
Using Facebook has become part of daily life for many people, but it does have its drawbacks.
Journalist David Plotz took aim recently at Facebook’s iconic birthday greeting, something he felt was devoid of personal feelings. He created three birthdays for himself on Facebook, all in July. The first one resulted in 119 birthday greetings from “friends.” The second, two weeks later, resulted in nine skeptics and lots of “friends” wishing him happy birthday for the second time. By the third birthday, a mere three days later, he had 16 skeptics and somewhat fewer but still significant greetings from “friends.”
If there is a moral to this story, it might be not to send David birthday wishes on his real birthday, which is January 31. He’s suffered enough.
Meanwhile, another journalist, Joanna Geary, picked one Twitter update at random and was able to find the Twitter user’s entire family on Facebook in nine steps, while Stanford University’s Jure Leskovec found that adding “friends” isn’t as random as we thought.
Studies have also indicated that:
· Students who checked Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period got lower grades.
· Facebook users were narcissistic.
· Kids using technology daily were prone to anxiety and depression.
And the final moral to all these stories? Facebook is still huge, so get over it.