A book of faces? ...Hmmm... (facebook.com)

Name: Jozeyu

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Product:	facebook.com
Date:	03/12/08 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Communication, Flair, some apps are fun for a while.

Disadvantages: Privacy issues, incompetent admins, boredom

After a year of hearing 'Facebook this' and 'Facebook that', I finally caved in. I signed up, and had a bit of a browse around the site. Back in the old days (three years ago?) it would be 'FriendsReunited.com' or nothing. A few little fads like Myspace and Bebo came along, but most got boring after a while. Facebook? It'd be just the same, I thought - Some fad. Well, I must say, this fad is taking some time to die!

My first experience of horror was seeing a great big picture of me and some friends in the most unflattering poses imaginable slapped across my front page for all to see - "You've been tagged in a photo!", I was told.
This hit me like a brick. Holy crap, I thought. Other people can upload pictures and videos of you without your permission for all to see!? This is the biggest invasion of privacy ever!
There was nothing I could do except sit and watch as I gradually saw the personal lives of my friends neatly illustrated on one page. It was nifty, yeah. But only if you enjoy poking your nose in where it doesn't belong. Or if you like sharing your life with the world. Most people keep Facebook antics between friends - but then you get invites from a friend of your friend, and then their other friend, and then their friend's cousin's dog, and the dog's mum too. So basically, you're sharing personal information on the internet with a bunch of complete strangers. Congratulations.

With everyone bombarding me with 'requests', 'pokes', 'invites' and violating my personal space with mindless comments, I decided to hit that 'leave Facebook' button. MSN was just fine for me, thanks. I couldn't give a crap about who was breaking up with who and who got tagged in what photo. I wasn't going to give Facebook another thought!

But uh-oh, unfortunately the power of the Book is like a growing black hole; an inevitable apocalypse that everyone gets drawn into sooner or later. Hell, my younger sister has a Facebook and she's only ten.
My friends had a hissy fit, throwing the excuses of 'It's so fun, we can play games together!' and 'You can customize your security settings!' into my face, which made me reconsider (out of defeat) and re-join the queen of procrastinating sites. Having amended my security settings so that I couldn't be tagged and that none of my friends were able to have a tiddle on my privacy like before, I felt a little bit safer. In fact, I started to find it worthwhile visiting Facebook.

That last comment makes it sound like I enjoy visiting - please note that I seriously don't. I don't get 'Facebook withdrawals' like some people. It's still an annoyingly insensitive site for me. What makes me keep coming back is the core of the site, I suppose - the community aspect. Being involved in an industry that involves so much communication, Facebook has become the only way to make sure your messages get read. No one uses e-mail to tell anyone there's a party going down, it's always on Facebook. If someone is ill, they'll post a grammatically incorrect message telling everyone about it.

In short, I feel Facebook is the site for every average Joe who wants to either make a fuss about themselves or enjoy knowing everything (and I mean everything) about everyone. It's the world's biggest social networking site, and doesn't seem to be slowing down in popularity. Good or bad? It really depends on the person. If you like to chat and post stuff, then I guess you'll be fine with this site.

Summary: For me, it isn't so great. Happy Facebooking!