Facebook
English Draft
Dear Readers,
Facebook now has millions of users and that number is growing daily. It is one of the most popular social networking sites and even though there are some dangers that users are confronted with a large majority of people use Facebook as a way to chat with friends and never encountered any such dangers. I was shocked to read an article by Janet Street-Porter stating that ‘Facebook is a toxic addiction’. A few comments held true yet most were over exaggerated. One such comment was that ‘going online to chat is like taking crack’. By referring to drugs she is implying that Facebook is addictive, which in some ways I agree with as a few people have this problem but not everyone does as she is saying here. Those that do become addicted find that it is only a passing phase and for others there are people and websites that can help them to stop. The effects of being addicted to Facebook are nothing compared to that of drugs so this reference is hugely exaggerated and unrealistic. The article also states that ‘for a worrying number of young people it is proving to be harmful if not deadly.’ There are then examples of cases in which young people had gone to meet with people they do not know and how they died tragically. These events only happen very rarely and much more action is now being taken to prevent such things happening. For example, parents and schools are now educating young people more seriously about the dangers of facebook and what they can do to be more safe and responsible. Writing about such extreme cases in her article also shows how desperate Ms Street-Porter was to find a problem with Facebook. She writes about the ‘Innocent, normal kids who took their lives after being bullied on social networking sites.’ I understand that bullying happens frequently on Facebook yet there are many courses of action that the victim can take to stop this. They can take a print screen of the messages as evidence to show to the
Dear Readers,
Facebook now has millions of users and that number is growing daily. It is one of the most popular social networking sites and even though there are some dangers that users are confronted with a large majority of people use Facebook as a way to chat with friends and never encountered any such dangers. I was shocked to read an article by Janet Street-Porter stating that ‘Facebook is a toxic addiction’. A few comments held true yet most were over exaggerated. One such comment was that ‘going online to chat is like taking crack’. By referring to drugs she is implying that Facebook is addictive, which in some ways I agree with as a few people have this problem but not everyone does as she is saying here. Those that do become addicted find that it is only a passing phase and for others there are people and websites that can help them to stop. The effects of being addicted to Facebook are nothing compared to that of drugs so this reference is hugely exaggerated and unrealistic. The article also states that ‘for a worrying number of young people it is proving to be harmful if not deadly.’ There are then examples of cases in which young people had gone to meet with people they do not know and how they died tragically. These events only happen very rarely and much more action is now being taken to prevent such things happening. For example, parents and schools are now educating young people more seriously about the dangers of facebook and what they can do to be more safe and responsible. Writing about such extreme cases in her article also shows how desperate Ms Street-Porter was to find a problem with Facebook. She writes about the ‘Innocent, normal kids who took their lives after being bullied on social networking sites.’ I understand that bullying happens frequently on Facebook yet there are many courses of action that the victim can take to stop this. They can take a print screen of the messages as evidence to show to the