Facebook and its Effects on Relationships and Privacy Settings
By Kayla Berro
Abstract
Facebook is the fastest growing social network that is taking over the world by storm. Facebook distorts the idea of relationships and how we define friendship. This social network is also incredibly personal which is the cause of lots of cyber bulling, that is very common in this day and age because of all the personal information that is required to use certain apps on Facebook. Facebook users fall into the trap of putting too much personal information on Facebook and they forget that there are people out there that can track them and find out a lot about them just from the things that they post. Facebook alters the idea of both romantic and business relationships because when you post about your relationships it can lead to cyber bulling and threats towards your safety. Facebook affects both boys and girls differently and the way that guys and girls react to the drama that is seen on the site. Because of the users who extensively share personal information on this site there is lots of domestic abuse that we see on the social network. The internet allows for users to secure their information allow many think that it won’t happen to them and therefore they don't adjust their personal security.
Literature review
I wanted to address how the social network, Facebook, affects interpersonal relationships. In my research I found many articles regarding this dilemma. Facebook affects the two major types if relationships being the romantic and business ones. It also distorts the meaning of friendship in that many of the friends that people have on Facebook are sometimes people that they don’t even know or haven’t met in person. The role that gender plays with regards to Facebooking is very essential to see how people of both sexes are influenced by cyber bullying and domestic abuse. With the ability of people to put all the personal information on their profile they are unaware that this can be very detrimental to their safety and can lead to threats or abuse.
Another article that I used was the idea of how when a relationship was made FBO (Facebook official) it is a public statement and it is what everyone on Facebook seems to focus on and once that relationship ends it’s as big of a dilemma as it was when the relationship started. It can lead to Facebook or cyber abuse by one or both parties that were involved. Another thing that this source shows is that the hardest way to break up with someone is face to face so many turn to the social network or texting to make it easier and no one wants to find out that there relationship is over via public social network such as Facebook. We can tell how much of an impact Facebook has on the public because being Facebook official is such a huge deal. Facebook relationships statuses, according to this source, are getting more and more complex because you have so many choices some of which include engage , single, in a relationship, its complicated and many others. We see more and more that some of the relationships that we see are fake relationships because most people don’t want be that sad single person so they create a fake relationship to make themselves look better to their peers. The older generations seem to have legit relationship statuses. Also this article points out the idea that some people just friend people to see if they are taken or not. The Facebook relationship status is so important to the Facebook users and many don’t believe that it is legit unless they see it publicized on Facebook.
In another source they talk about the idea of being “Facebook friends” and they say that the friend list is a combination of casual friends, acquaintances, romantic partners and outsiders. Facebook truly does distort the meaning of friendship because many of the friends that Facebook users have on their friends list are not legit friends. According to this article many users admitted that most of their friends are not close or casual friends. Another idea here is that many of the users have involuntary friends such as their relatives. This source also talks about online relationships and that many people who have online relationships are unable to communicate face to face so they use the internet as a way to have a relationship. Also the online relationships create minimum security risk as opposed to meeting face to face. More Facebook users tend to form online relationships more so. According to this article the people that have online relationships score higher on the shyness scale because they are not comfortable talking behind the shield of the internet. This article also concluded that the more time that users spent on Facebook the more that they were likely to form online relationships.
Another source that I found was about Facebook’s privacy settings and how important they are. This talks about what happens when you post personal information on the site and how anyone that is searching for you will be able to find out that info unless you set your privacy settings to prevent that. Facebook has needed to establish good and safe privacy settings especially with the idea in mind that many young people are starting to use the site and they are usually very unaware of how the things that they post are out there for the world to see unless they limit the info that they post or If they set their privacy settings.
Facebook distorts the meanings of friendship and severely affects both romantic and business relationships because it largely ignores face to face interaction, publicizes romance and promotes less privacy. Facebook is a social network that makes friendship and relationships seem to be something that is only internet based and nothing more. Facebook is a growing business but it often comes with a price.
Online dating is very common in the younger ages and for those who don’t have very much luck with face to face interactions. The internet is the face for those with insecurities. “Research also found that individuals pursuing online dating were not happy with their offline opportunities” (Atwood 11). The internet is the tool that many use for long distance relationships and those who have loved ones in the military. Many of the people who engage in online relationships have insecurities about their interactions with others and this is the best way for some people to break the ice with their partner. Facebook is a very common sight for online relationships granted that most of the relationships that we see are those involving real life relationships that people want to broadcast to the rest of the world because they care about their partners so much (See figure 1). Also with the publicizing of relationships comes the heavy price of what often happens when that relationship ends which could be domestic abuse or cyber abuse (see figure 2). And there is also the idea of a relationship being “Facebook official”, which many claim that if it’s not put on Facebook then it’s not a real relationship.
Many would say that, on the other hand, the face talk is not the same as the real thing. The face to face interaction in person is one of the most important things in a relationship and without it; it is very difficult to keep that relationship. Many people want to be near the person they are dating. They want that person to hug then when they are depressed and they want them to be able to be there for them and care for them in person. These face to face interactions are not personal at all. You can only see each other and hear their voices but that will not last forever. With the growing use of online relationships Facebook has created the face talk.
The online relationships are not very personal because many are just hoisted on a pedestal and some are not even real life relationships. Facebook makes a big ordeal about the types of relationships that you could be in such as in a civil union, single, in an open relationship, divorced and so on. Because of the extent that these relationships statuses are used Facebook has added more and more so that people can use these statuses to their desires. Relationships for the younger generations are often for either casual dating. One source that I found says “Thus, a younger generation may be using online dating to establish romantic relationships in a less serious manner (Atwood 11).
Because so many users put al lot of personal information out there, there are a lot more cyber bullying risks. There are lots of security risks that come with the younger generations that are creating accounts and not paying attention to the privacy settings. Also many of the relationships that are fake and made up the people that are involved in the relationship could be bullied and not know anything about it because they don’t set their privacy settings. Because the site is so common and appears to be user friendly the parents of the younger ones are sometimes not concerned with the safety risks that could be out there. Younger generations don’t pay attention to the privacy settings and they don’t realize that they could be putting their safety at risk.
Facebook users do not pay enough attention to the privacy settings or worse the privacy risks that follow. Many Facebook users are not concerned with their privacy settings and they don’t realize what they are posting and how detrimental it is for their safety. According to a poll taken by researchers twenty six percent were concerned about the privacy setting compared to the thirty five percent who used the settings once in a while. Also researchers have found that many users are not aware that although they have logged out of their accounts somehow their activity is still being tracked even though they are no longer actively on the site. This tracking of Facebook activity brought a great issue to the table for the chief of the Facebook site and several users have filed a suit against the company. Privacy and security settings is a serious issue especially for the younger generations who are creating accounts and it shows that they should be more aware of their privacy settings. Despite the fact that many users are unaware of security settings, Facebook continues to change them. In one source that I found they said “Facebook establishes and implements default or recommended privacy settings for every new account which if left untouched enables everyone to find you in a search. The amount of information people see on your profile when they click your name from a search is by default your name, gender, profile, username and networks” (Miller 106).
Annotated Bibliography
Honeycutt, James M.. "Scripts and Communication for Relationships." googlebooks.com. Peter Lang Publishing, 2011. Web. 13 Apr 2012. http://books.google.com/books?id=5jN4vbNdNygC&pg=PA300&dq=facebook relationships&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ty6IT96LH8HeqAGVu8yFDA&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBA.
This source was helpful in that it gave me an idea about what it takes for an online relationship. It showed how much the Facebook relationship statuses have advanced and the many choices there are for stating your relationship.
Atwood, Joan D. "The Effects of the Internet on Social Relationships: Therapeutic Considerations." googlebooks.com. Iuniverse, 2011. Web. 13 Apr 2012. http://books.google.com/books?id=xQUUuxaN3esC&printsec=frontcover.
This source was helpful in that it showed that many of Facebook users’ friends they have they haven’t even met in person. It shows the amount of privacy or abuse that could happen by people that they barely know.
Social, Network. "The txt book: Your Guide to Social Network." googlebooks.com. Authorhouse, 2011. Web. 13 Apr 2012. http://books.google.com/books?id=intGDPMpA8C&pg=PA55&lpg=PA56&dq=facebook relationships.
This was helpful in that it was basically a how to when it comes to Facebook in general and in my case Facebook relationships. It showed what the reasoning was for more online relationships than legit real life ones.
Miller, Matthew. “Facebook Companion”. Googlebooks.com. Wiley Publishing 26 Apr 2012. http://books.google.com/books?id=2uuueAYAi8MC&pg=PA106&dq=facebook+and+privacy+settings&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EvCZT8KgGJOo8gTxoYniDg&ved=0CFEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q= facebook%20and%20privacy%20settings&f=false.
This source was helpful in the way that it showed the privacy settings that come with your account when you set it up and how the privacy settings have had to advance based on the technical problems and cyber bullying that has been going on.
