Monday, May 11, 2009

Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Facebook - www.facebook.com

Facebook helps and connect and share with the people in your life.

Facebook is a great way to meet friends and keep up on what they are doing. Once you add a friend to your Facebook friend list you will always know when they are adding things to their blog or updating their profile. Join Facebook groups to meet people like you, or browse the profiles to find new friends. Facebook's classmates and co-worker search is good for finding friends too.

The services that are provided are:

Photo Album:
Add photos and photo albums to your facebook profile.

Blog Merge:
Use the blog feature to create your own simple blog or you can merge your existing blog right into facebook's blog.

Excellent Search and browse:
Search and browse for people on facebook using just about any search features.

The reason why people want to contribute to this community is because it is a good reliable way for social networking. You can keep track of friends and family and seek long lost friends or family members from all around the world. Facebook tells you when your friends are updating their profiles, adding to their blogs or have some other news on their website.

The type of topics being discussed are everyday general events such as how are you? Discussions can however be formal by linking onto friends, family or even business private mail. If you have a competitive side - you can always challenge a keen participant who you can play games with!

The ethical issues that may arise in this community is that anyone who you choose to view your page can at any time. However, if you want to be private about what you have to say to a person you can always choose to private mail them!
You can put on as much information about yourself as you wish..so do not freak out about ex closing information you would rather people now knowing. Overall, the ethical issues behind the facebook community are relativity safe for whoever wants to use it! you have nothing to lose!

Consider Facebooks material there are lots of benefits that this online community holds such as;
* Facebook can provide large amounts of information.
* Facebook can provide connections over great distances instantly.
* Facebook has the ability to connect with people of similar interests/ needs and concerns.
* Facebook can foster understanding and unity.
* Facebok has great speed of information sharing

However, with the good there always has to be the bad. Compared to traditional communities Facebook lacks in digital divide ( who has access) meaning that anyone who you have picked to be your 'friend' can access your account at any time. Due to a rapid growth of the community there are always changes being made (format wise) and advertisements randomly popping up on your screen. There can be cases of misuse by community users. There have been reports of bullying mostly between teenagers, due to the validity of information being shared.

Overall the online community called facebook has a great deal to offer. It can, if used constructively, provide support, entertainment and identify as a supplement to our everyday lives.








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