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| Photo by Sarah Marshall, courtesy of Flickr |
Quite often I find myself reflecting on how quickly the world is moving these days. Trends come and go and what excites the world one day gets forgotten the next in a fashion that has never before been experienced. Whether you believe this to be a good thing or not, it is hard to argue that the immediate nature and availability of an internet connection in most parts of the world is at the root of the phenomenon. The vast user base of FaceBook is the most obvious example of how one person can find themselves entwined in this connection, but unlike how Shaina Garces argues in her blog post, I do not believe that the solution is an outright ban in Canada. My main disagreement with Shaina is on how best to deal with negative effects caused by misuse and overuse of the service.
In 2009 FaceBook was blocked from use in the entire nation of China. It is very commonly believed, as stated by Investopedia in this case, that this was the result of independence radicals in the province of XinJiang using the platform to spread their message and gain supporters. The government of China reacted by blocking the site completely and it has not made a return in the decade since. While the country has replaced FaceBook with a site of their own only available there, there has been a lot of up-cry about this decision. I am usually pretty hesitant to use the word "censorship," but in this case I feel like it's appropriate: the government of China stripped its people of one of their key sources used to interact with others because of some political opposition. The main concern of the government, as expressed in this post by digital activity experts from NSDesign, is to protect itself from what it decides is harmful to its continued hold on power, which seems to be FaceBook. Would we follow in China's footsteps and isolate ourselves with a dedicated national social media app here, or would we not even bother filling the gap? Shaina presses that we should be questioning whether FaceBook "serves Canadian society," while I believe we should be questioning whether removing access to it would serve Canadian individuals. It's a slippery slope from banning one piece of social media to banning them all.
While the majority of people that I know use FaceBook for the pleasant, time-passing aspect, there are also those that use it as an extension of their work. Many businesses in my area, especially small businesses, use FaceBook to reach a larger audience than with physical ads or to offer a spot where customers can comfortably reach out and interact with them. It works too, with many unaffiliated sources even recommending the service, such as the government of Queensland, Australia. There is a specialized branch of FaceBook that is designed to help businesses with this task, as well as numerous easily accessed blog posts and articles by people with experience on how useful it is to take advantage of. A ban of FaceBook, even if we were to replace it, would force all of these businesses to start over from scratch in building up their viewership.
Studies such as this one weigh the positives and negatives of using FaceBook and many have come to the conclusion that the importance lies in balance. I would never make the argument that FaceBook does no harm with prolonged use, but I am of the opinion that a level of responsibility does lie with the user themselves. We should all have a personal limit to the amount of online content we consume daily especially if we or the people around us notice negative effects on our psyches and not be so quick to blame outside sources for all of our issues.
Search Engine Optimization:
I played with the idea of using the word "dangerous" in my title, which has a higher Google Trends rating than "ban," (55 to 51) but I ended up sticking with "Fear" which is more popular than the both of them(69 in comparison). I thought that the term "social media" would have a fairly high score as well, but "FaceBook" absolutely dwarfed it (1 to 88) and everything else I tested. I was also very close to using the title "We have nothing to fear from FaceBook" until I pitted "we" against "you" on a whim and found "you" (94 to 8) to be MUCH more search-friendly.
Thats a convincing blog post about Facebook. I totally agree with your argument and how businesses have benefits from facebook and allows them to reaches a much larger audience. i agree that its not really the best solution to just ban Facebook and your evidence supports it well enough. One thing i think you could have done better was to include your personal thoughts. Other than that, great post.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting points about Facebook! The world is moving fast and Facebook really allows people to connect! One thing I would say is that I would have loved to see more ideas about why Facebook is important, for someone who doesn't want to open a business and promote it on there! Nonetheless still a really good post!
ReplyDeleteYour argument has a really good research base and one thing i liked about your blog is that you mentioned about today's world which is more into entrepreneurship and how it has help people.Other thing i liked is the conclusion that everything should have balance.I really liked you argument.
ReplyDeleteI like how you directly engaged with the other students' blog post. I really liked you post.
ReplyDeleteit is an interesting article. I agree that banning Facebook is not a good idea. you have rightly pointed out that facebook was banned in China in 2009 and it has been replaced with another social medium which could be used for the same purpose that Facebook was used for.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point on not banning Facebook, and your supporting research is good. The responses from the original blog also are well written and persuasive towards your argument.
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