Everything in the world has good and bad aspects, and that can definitely be said as true for the phenomenon that is Facebook. Our lives have been taken over by this long running trend, one that has lasted more than a single season, in fact one that has lasted longer than any of us could have possibly predicted. It hasn’t been discarded like last season’s jacket, or pushed to the back of the wardrobe like last year’s shoes. No, Facebook is just as ‘in’ now as it was when it was first open to the global market. More so, even. And let’s be honest, what’s not to love? People of all ages can chat with their friends and family from all around the world for a price much smaller than that of a phone call. Still, everything comes at a cost, and I don’t mean that in a financial sense. So now to the real question: is Facebook a valuable communication platform beneficial to all its users, or merely a time waster that has caused more headaches than happiness? For me, an average, sociable seventeen year old, I lean further away from the latter. That’s not to say I don’t see both the positives and negatives of this successful website and social networking in general.
Certainly, there are many advantages to Facebook. The easiness of communication is the obvious one. Who could have possibly imagined that someone would create a space where we could communicate, share photos and keep up-to-date with our friends from all over the globe as long as we had access to an internet connection? The idea at the time definitely would have seemed farfetched, just as all the great inventions and discoveries of history, I suppose. Now look at us. The majority of people I know would struggle desperately to live without it. However, in my opinion, the benefits of Facebook and other social networking sites reach much further than the evident convenience of communication and general socialising. In a world that can unintentionally overlook the opinions of society’s youth, it has become a platform...