By Gayathri Jayaraman : Ever since the time when every house desired for Internet connection, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, etc became an addiction among people. Sources say that Facebook ranks the most famous and entertaining social networking site. According to a survey, today, there are more than 500 million Facebook users across the world . It is believed that most of the people engage more time on Facebook by poking, uploading photos, updating their status messages, changing their Timeline cover photos, sharing links, commenting on some random fan pages and cropping their farms in Farmville. Just as we find few impressive changes in the development of technology, so do the Facebook users welcome changes to Facebook applications.
There are many reasons why people are so obsessed with Facebook. Facebook’s fascinating applications may be one of the reasons why people are so attracted and driven into the world of entertainment. A twenty-one year old writer says, “I have been using Facebook since 2008 and now I feel so addicted to it. Though I don’t get more time to stay on FB, I make sure I share some edifying links, my write-ups, or my blog links on Timeline. Also, Facebook’s new feature on subscribing to journalists, celebrities, political figures is very useful. I get to share my writings and get feedbacks from my subscribers and friends.”
R.I.P, MALINI MURMU : Although the fun side of Facebook continues to quench people’s boredom, it sometimes creates an emotional trauma to the weaker minds. Malini Murmu, an IIM-B student, was found dead in her hostel room on the 19th of September, 2011. Sources say that she had problems with her love life and committed suicide after seeing her boyfriend’s Facebook status post, reading, “Feeling cool today. Dumped my girlfriend. Happy independence day.”
“My daughter was forced to commit suicide following the mental torture,” claims her father, Murmu.
Hearing the news, a lot of adolescents voiced out their outrageous opinion. Some people commented, saying that the boy has to be jailed for posting such status message on Facebook and others contradicted by stating, “Facebook is surely not at fault. In that case, there would be thousands of suicide attempts every day.”
FACEBOOK AS AN INSTRUMENT IN INVESTIGATIONS : Besides these controversies and criticisms, Facebook is still being used as the most advantageous site for criminal investigations. There had been many cases in which Facebook took active participation in helping the investigators. For instance, On November 17, 2011, a man robbed a Bank in Seabrook, Texas. When police arrived on scene, they captured pictures of the man from the surveillance camera and posted it on the department Facebook page immediately. The Seabrook police arrested the man hours after they got information about him through Facebook.
“There may be a blending of fun and flaws on Facebook, but it all depends on how effectively we use it,” says Nizar, a frequent Facebook user.
Facebook is surely a boon. Everything comes in a package. Its upto us to use and misuse. Again, cool article with nice and apt words …