Has Facebook replaced the telephone?

No

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by Channing Denton

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Picture this: You walk into your house after a long, exhausting day at the office, and after an amazing dinner that was cooked just for you, you sit down at your computer and open Facebook, and there it is, another friend request. It is a joyous moment. Or if you didn't get a friend request, you see that your best friend of eight years posted something on your wall that made you smile. This is the joy of Facebook. Yes, most people of all ages, from 13-88, especially those aged 15-30, have become Facebook Addicts, and spend countless hours looking at other people's pages and catching up or reminiscing about the time they accidentally set their chemistry teacher's gradebook on fire in tenth grade, but it is because it is easy and very convenient. After being out of high school for however many years, it is nice to catch up with old friends, as well as new ones, and see how people are doing.

Facebook is a social networking site that allows people to create a page, for free, and put pictures on it and information about themselves that they want other people to know. It has been around since 2004, started by a Harvard student and his buddies, and is now the most-used networking site on the Internet, anywhere on Earth. Why is it so popular? It allows people to communicate, for free, regardless of where they are on a map. Whereas a phone call can cost money, especially to people who wish to communicate over international borders, Facebook allows the users to talk to each other, without paying a cent. Whether you find someone you graduated high school with in 1977, or a friend you met at Starbucks today while waiting on you double-Venti Caramel Macchiato, you can find each other on Facebook and catch up or get to know the other person better.

If you have never had a Facebook page, then you just would not understand. It is simply awesome. Yes, it is incredibly easy to spend hours on end, doing nothing but looking on other friends' pages, or writing/posting on friends' walls, or chatting, or looking at ex-lover's pictures, it is simply too educational to be a waste of time. It is incredibly popular now, but in only three years, it has expanded to include everyone, instead of just college students. In its first few years of existence, Facebook was offered only to college students. Over time, it was offered also to high school students, but after this was not seen as inclusive enough, anyone anywhere was able to have a Facebook page, which is how it is today. And while it is highly popular, it will not replace the use of cell phones any time soon. Most people, despite the vast amount of people who have access to the Internet on their cells, still use their personal computer to get onto the internet, and that is where they check their Facebook most often. It is convenient to be able to check it on the go, but having it right in front of you on a full screen is just better. And for the most part, Facebook is not immediate, and most people check it every few hours, or once a day, so using it for something like an emergency would virtually be pointless. Plus, you can't exactly call the police or fire department if you're on Facebook, or through Facebook, so a cell phone would be much more useful for something like that. Furthermore, most people are on their cell phones all the time, especially the people who use Facebook the most, aged 13-30, and they are not going to stop calling or texting any time soon, guaranteed.

Facebook is convenient, for sure, but it will not replace cell phones any time soon. After all, the only way to be on Facebook when not around a computer is on your cell phone, right? If you didn't have that cell phone, you couldn't get onto Facebook. Besides, people are too addicted to texting to give up their cell phones. But speaking of Facebook, time to log on!

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