Are you a wise Facebook user?

This has been discussed widely out there, but it still came as shock to me, to discover that if I wanted to find out the latest updates about someone, just log in to Facebook.

To show that I’m not out to diss FB, I would say the advantages are obvious:
- It’s simple and quick. Just log in and you’ll find out instantly what’s been going in someone’s life. And even other people as well. (Basic assumption that the person enters status updates regularly.)
- Reaches a large group of people very easily. Organising events, spreading good news etc, can be done easily and effectively.
- Bottomline is, regardless of whether it’s Facebook or any other social networking medium, you get the information you seek. You find out about a friend’s troubles, happiness, and you are able to respond and build your relationship with that person. So, regardless of what goes on in between, you do achieve your aim of connecting with another person.

But I’m biased. I would hate to find myself relying more and more on FB (or any other social networking medium) in order to find out how my friend’s doing. On a normal day, I’d rather remain un-informed or at least drop an SMS. It’s just something in me that is adverse to this form of reliance on a virtual thing, I can’t really explain. I figure that if I’m not willing to make a little effort to sms or call you, then I’m probably not really interested in you.

One simple example is invitation to events through Facebook. Sure, it’s an excellent tool to organise your event, invite people, spread the news, find out who’s attending. But hey, we know that some of our friends don’t have an account of their own. So, do you invite them via other means like email, sms, a call? Do you really care? Yeah, enough said.

Likewise, if you don't sms, email or a call about something wonderful or something terribly sad, then maybe I don’t really need to know. If I happen to log into FB and find out, fine. If not, too bad.

If anyone should think that this reliance on the virtual reality doesn’t exist or that it can be controlled or prevented, think again. I think there is enough proof out there to show that people can become reliant on or addicted to FB, from the extreme of incidents arising from social disorders (arising from overuse of FB) to our own friends struggling with pulling themselves away from FB.

I don’t deny the power of FB and the advantages it can bring, if wisely used. After all, I have an account myself! I just think the fact that FB has such power to become something necessary in a person’s life, is a sad truth. It is a useful tool, no doubt, but it shouldn't become the only tool.

It’s ironic though, FB was created by humans, but now it controls them. So sad, so stupid. And if I may quote the fictional Dr Bailey of GA: “Like I said, the stupidity of the human race.”

(Obviously I probably don't care much for who reads this, otherwise I would share it through Facebook! Hah!)