by Derek James

Created on: July 12, 2009

The rampant increase of social networking activity presents harsh consequence to those unwilling, or unable, to join the hundreds of millions of users accessing Facebook. The website, which, much like Myspace and the all-too-forgotten Friendster, focuses on an intense user interaction by means of a simple, basic interface, and is structured to provide the individual with a network which renders him or her available to the other users who share the network.

Facebook houses many intelligent features, which for the most part encapsulate the vision of creator Mark Zuckerburg. That is, to give the user a whole world of interest, without the buggy glitz and clumsy control of rival site Myspace. Because of this, it's not so surprising that the website boasts more than 200 million members.

The dilemma, then, resides in the context of the user. For some, an occasional login is all that's necessary to monitor their close circle of friends. Others require frequent, potentially obsessive, visits in order to satisfy their social fix. It is perhaps best argued that the only real consequences are spawned upon those who make Facebook their first social priority.
We must take into account the demographic of the website. Millions of users are actually well beyond their college days, arriving at the Sign-up screen simply out of deference to the socially passive lifestyles of their younger family. Facebook represents the generation's evolving egress into mediocre communication; it's an awkward method. Wall posts have replaced telephone calls. Messages have supplanted, and made useless, entire e-mail accounts.
Theoretically, the greatest threat imposed by Facebook is to the future of social and familial communication, not so much to the individual himself. It is more than possible for a user to endure the unavailability of his Facebook account, but the problem, essentially, is the straggling inability of his peers to resist the draw of the social networking charm.

Attributing to the social sentiments of Facebook, former methods of communication now seem almost obsolete, its users preferring condensed, second-hand contact over the annoying fizz of a telephone line. The satisfaction of systematically accruing virtual friends, of collecting them, is a feature intrinsically conducive to the development of one's fixation.
Nobody wants to be alone; thus have we arrived at the greatest consequence of departing from the Facebook experience. The role of technology in our lives has rapidly exacerbated to form stance as an important means of socializing, and, as such, the reality of our world has essentially been reduced to a URL.

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