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Ana Huerta
Professor Vana DerOhanessian
English 115
03 December, 2014
Facebook Has Everything
Social media has become a huge part of societys life, that if one day it disappeared, we
wouldnt know what to do with our selfies. One well known social media is Facebook. Facebook
was originally made for college students to interact with one another virtually instead of in
person and expand communication throughout the students. In 2006, Facebook was made
available to the public, which infuriated the college students because the sole purpose of
Facebook was to help college students intermingle with their peers. Now society has taken
advantage of Facebook, and has made it their primary source of communicating. Facebook has
also robbed many users from utilizing their time for other productive errands, like homework.
Society goes along with what is trending in the social media because it is all part of the nature of
humans, we seek acceptance, and so if Facebook is the new way to communicate, then it is the
new way of communicating.
Social media is used differently by everyone who is part of the social media life, for
instance people especially teenagers and young adults are in search for a virtuous party to relieve
stress or to meet new people. After Facebook became open to the public, it has expanded very
rapidly and gained more users compared to when Facebook was only accessible for college
students. Now the younger generation and also the older have jumped on board with social media
but some peoples world revolve around the social media. Most people take a great amount of
their time trying to become Facebook famous and gaining friends each day, for the purpose of

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what? To feel important? Gain fame? Feel loved? What is it that one gains after the effort of
reaching thousands of people you hardly know and naming them friends? I see people are
searching for acceptance from society. For society, if you are not connected with Facebook,
Instagram, or Twitter you arent really a part of society. We use social media like Facebook to
feel accepted, and not be alienated from people who will never be pleased.
Though, Facebook also exposes the privacy of the user, as oppose to back then when
times were more conservative. We are unaware that Facebook has led us to believe that it is
alright to post what once used to be considered private. For instance, there is nothing wrong with
me sharing that I am walking by myself, at midnight, by the liquor store, at Reseda Boulevard,
because well, what are the odds that someone will read my post in Facebook, and decide to
follow me, or worst-case -scenario become a missing child, but hey, I will probably become
famous now. Sadly, this is a common case for young teenagers because they are unaware of the
dangers of sharing what should be private to the social media. Society tends to go with the
flow, because we dont feel comfortable being on our own, we try to be differently similar,
makes no sense right?
In Figure 1, I present two pictures of a girl and a man whose story is about an incident
that happened to 17 years old, Ashleigh Hall (right), whos desperation for a boyfriend led her to
find one in Facebook. She was led to believe he was a teenage boy, but turned out to be her soon
to be murderer, 33-year-old Peter Chapman (left). Peter Chapman has a history with the police,
he is one of sixty dangerous sex offenders monitored by one over worked and untrained
policewoman (Paul Sims For Mailonline), even if the policewoman was trained and did her job,
there are many other perverts who look for vulnerable teenagers and have them as another
victim. Ashleigh Hall was brainwashed by sweet comments from who she thought was a guy her

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age but behind the screen was a murderer who ripped all her dreams and her life. Though it
seems like there has to be more than one young girl murdered until society takes precaution.
Many teenagers expose themselves to the virtual world, and they are rewarded with likes and
comments from creepy old perverts who are in search of their next victim to kidnap.
Besides the insignificance of the meaning of privacy, a website that was created to
enhance communication between people has robbed us from many things. Facebook users have
dedicated their time to chat online instead of interacting face to face. Though, when the
opportunity comes to talk with someone in person, they are too busy with their phones because
Facebook is also available in mobile devices. The worse part of having a social network easily
accessible through a phone, is that it can affect the attention span of the user, like Edward
Hallowell, a psychiatrist stated, The stress of trying to process information as rapidly as it
arrives is reducing us to quivering wrecks of indecision and demoralization (Hallowell). I am
part of those people, because I need time to go back to what I was doing before I got my phone
to see who messaged me or where I got invited to. Sometimes I feel like a zombie, scrolling up
in my news feed and checking my Facebook page every minute to see if something interesting is
happening. As always though, I have earned nothing but lots of videos of cute animals and a lot
of time wasted. I have become prone to have my time spent in reading what people are deciding
to wear this Halloween, instead of making plans with my friends and do what humans are meant
to do, socialize.
Facebook also has some benefits according to E.J. Westlake, Facebooks events
feature allows users to inform each other about face- to-face gatherings with amazing success
(Westlake). This proves that it all depends on the person who is utilizing Facebook. We do not
have to be lonesome, living under a rock, we just have to make the first move and Facebook has

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the feature to do so. It is very easy to create an event, for example I would rather interact with
my friends from Facebook and to do so I would create an event. Due to the time of the year, a
Halloween theme party seems more logical, then I simply invite everyone who I choose to invite
and send them the invitation which saves a lot of time and with a click of a button everyone who
is connected to Facebook and gets and invitation will not be able to resist a rad college party.
Another great benefit of Facebook is that it can be used for educational purposes too. I have
personally used Facebook to connect with my peers from my classes in high school, through a
group page. I was able to get help from my classmates, with my assignments, and the group page
also made it easier to agree on a study date and a location for the dreadful days of exams.
Facebook is also used to connect with relatives or new people around the world. People
utilize Facebook as a way to connect with their family members who live in another country, by
messaging each other or to talk with them face to face. In Figure 2, a man is using the
Facebooks feature that allows communication face-to-face. This is an advantage for families
that live far away, because there is no charge when making a video call through Facebook to
interact with the loved ones. In reality, many social media users still rather text or message
because it takes the pressure off from verbally talking. There is nothing wrong with messaging
instead of talking in person, because sometimes it is beneficial when it becomes difficult to get
the words out verbally, and writing it in a text without having the problem of stuttering or
pronouncing makes messaging more preferable.
Society has grown fond of how easy it is to communicate with anyone who is also
connected with social media. Now, it has become easier to feel closer to our favorite celebrities
and know what they are doing. There are also Facebook fan pages where fans are able to show
their appreciation by being part of the community of many other fans. By the result of this, many

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people have met new people which share the same interests as them, increasing happiness I
would say. Though, not only are there fan pages of famous bands and a certain author fan page,
but there are also pages to gives awareness for breast cancer for example. Facebook is a great
way to spread information on what is going on in the world.
Overall my observation of Facebook has led me to believe that society has used the social
media for multiple reasons. Everyone uses social media a different way but yet it is all similar.
Society has used Facebook to communicate, whether it is with family, friends or to meet new
people. As I compare our society from today to back then, I noticed that there arent as many
children outside playing. I am sure they are inside the house, exposing themselves to the virtual
world of social media and connect with their friends online instead of hanging out. Privacy is
also a major issue nowadays, with the social media expanding and more children getting access
to the social networks without parent supervision, it can lead to impulsive decisions. Not only are
they exposing themselves to everyone on their friend list but they are also becoming more
vulnerable to being exposed to danger like stalkers. If all of society had good intentions then
Facebook wouldnt be much of a big deal but sadly good intentions in people is not in everyone.
More and more people are becoming part of the social media world, leaving out the misfits who
are not connected. Pressuring them to believe they are not part of society if they arent part of
their world. Facebook will soon die out like MySpace, and society will find a new trend because
that is what they do. When something has become overly used and common, it becomes basic
and boring, then it is time for a new social media that will introduce us to new dangers and new
ways to expand our fame or whatever we get out of it.

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Work Cited

Figure.1

Figure.2

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Work Cited
"Connect with Friends and The world around You on Facebook." Facebook. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
Day, E. (2009, Nov 01). Focus: Society: How the tyranny of email keeps us in touch - but drives
us all apart: Texting, facebook and emails were supposed to ease communication, but
now a new book by the editor of granta argues that they also reduce human contact. is
technology to blame or are we? elizabeth day investigates. The Observer Retrieved from
E.J. Westlake. "Friend Me if You Facebook: Generation Y and Performative Surveillance."
TDR: The Drama Review 52.4 (2008): 21-40. Project MUSE. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
"Facebook Confirms Skype-powered Video Chat, Launching today." VentureBeat. Web. 28 Oct.
2014.
Laura Topham for The Mail on Sunday. "Sarah's Mother Thought She'd Done Everything to
Keep Her 12-year-old Safe Online. She Couldn't Have Been More Wrong." Mail Online.
Associated Newspapers. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. Figure 1
MailOnline, Paul Sims for. "Scandal of the WPC Charged with Looking after 60 Sex Offenders
Leading to Facebook Killer Slipping the Net." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, n.d.
Web. 01 Dec. 2014.