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The Attack of Facebook: the Negative Effects It Has on Its Users

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Mary C. WRD 104/Rozzell 27 October 2010 Research Paper The Attack of Facebook: the negative effects it has on its users In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg created a social network called Facebook that would affect the lives of millions. A social network is defined according to Danah M. Boyd, a PhD candidate in the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley and author of Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship as a “web-based service that allows individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (Boyd). Facebook, …show more content…

Facebook is causing a decrease in face-to-face interaction and communication. It is like people have become so accustomed to communicating via Facebook that they do not know how to interact with people in person. As Posner brings up Facebook users would rather have these internet “friendships” with a large number of people over real face-to-face friendships with maybe one or two people. According to Scott Caplan, an associate professor of communication at the University of Deleware: “some people prefer the online social world to the face-to-face world.” People like this “tend to be more depressed, more lonely and have lower social skills,” to begin with, and the opportunities the Internet provides to mingle with others exclusively online rather than in real life can worsen those problems and further erode their offline relationships” (Clemmitt). So not only are Facebook users lowering their social skills but they are putting themselves in bad predicaments. They are more likely to be depressed and feel lonely which will also cause them to interact with real people even less. Along with a decrease in face-to-face interaction, Facebook has caused many problems with people’s relationships—both with couples and friends. Certain wall posts or relationship statuses become problematic for some users. One

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