by B Borcyk

Created on: December 15, 2010   Last Updated: December 17, 2010

Facebook, one of the largest, most popular social networking websites, is a very powerful source of marketing, an awesome way to keep in touch with long-lost friends and distant relatives, and a great way to network for potential career opportunities. However, this type of technology could be extremely dangerous if not used with discretion. Otherwise, normal friendly communication can ruin lives and relationships.

Social sites like Facebook are prone to misunderstandings between friends, family members, lovers, and even coworkers. Parties involved do not always know when others are using sarcasm or if they are just plain mean. It would be easy to tell face-to-face due to the inflections in the other person’s voice. Online, this is not the case.

Also, in this day and age of Internet dating, people are using Facebook to hook up with others. It starts off fun, and users enjoy flirting. Then, even by accident, one of the parties is less than truthful about particular aspects of him or herself. One major example is marital status. Although people tend to falsely advertise this in person, Facebook seems to allow people to become bolder and try to be somebody he or she is not.

Another issue with Facebook is the tendency of people to become jealous. It is fairly simple to find out who people are communicating with on these types of sites, so it allows those who are prone to jealousy a vehicle to express this unfavorable trait, similar to going through the person’s cell phone contact list or text message log.

Some features of the site allow users to share video clips, links to other sites, photographs, and other forms of media. This can be harmless, but it can also cause extreme amounts of humiliation. People have gone to parties and taken pictures, posting them on Facebook for everyone to see. Public embarrassment makes life difficult for the person or people involved, and this negativity can last for a long time.

Employees have actually been fired over status messages posted on Facebook. An employee posts “I hate my job” or another similar message, and a manager views the post. This is bad for business, because the public usually would rather not deal with a company who treats employees poorly. Therefore, the employee is terminated. Facebook can ruin business relationships.

In general, Facebook users should remember that Internet applications, including e-mail, are not private. The information shared in them can be retrieved at any time, making it available as evidence to be used in lawsuits or simple hatred between parties. Nothing should ever be said online that one would not want repeated, especially if the relationship in question is a valued one.

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