Let’s Face It, the Online Friends Are Here to Stay
By TOM MULLEN
YOU have received a new message from Roger. Joanne wrote on your wall. Paul has added you as a friend and Vince sent you a sheep.
If sentences like these don’t sound familiar to you by now then you are probably among the ever-shrinking number of people who have yet to catch the internet social networking bug.
According to a recent study, as many as four in 10 people around the region now use social networking websites, spending an average of five hours a month chatting, gossiping and swapping photos.
Many spend much longer on the sites than that, with some networkers admitting to checking their profiles more than 10 times a day.
The attraction, they say, is up-to-date gossip, finding long- lost friends, uploading pictures and having fun with the many gimmicks attached to the sites – everything from IQ tests to virtual fish tanks and gardens.
But some people are cautious about putting so much personal information online, worried about who might be looking.
Sexual predators are known to trawl sites like Facebook, there have been concerns about identity theft, and some businesses have been accused of visiting Facebook to ‘vet’ potential new employees.
Other people just can’t see the point, content to chat and catch up with friends over a phone conversation or a cup of tea.
Here, two people explain why they don’t use social networking sites while one tells us why he just can’t get enough of them.
Paul Maxwell, from North Shields, works as a manager for energy company NPower. He says Facebook is just another internet fad that will die out as soon as people realise how shallow it is.
"Firstly, I think it’s the social equivalent of begging for friends. People invite friends to their profile who they’ve barely exchanged two words with," says Paul, 28.
"It’s all so fake. If you really want to have friends there are other ways to go about it, like having normal relationships and chatting on the phone.
"These sites are for people who would rather have 18 friends online rather than two or three close friends in real life. I can see how it could be useful for contacting old friends, but if you really want to get in touch with someone there’s always a way.
"There’s also the thing about adding celebrities as friends. It perpetuates this celebrity culture we live in, and the idea being fed to kids that you’re not good enough unless you have a ridiculous number of friends.
"I think it’s symptomatic of the downfall of society in general."
Paul echoes the view held by many that the websites are in some way insecure, and could put the user at risk of identity fraud.
Sites like Facebook have strict privacy settings, but few take the trouble to activate them.
"I don’t like the idea of sticking all these details up there and the possibility of your employer seeing it all. If you’re going for a job interview, who’s to say your potential future bosses are not checking up on you?" Paul adds. "A few of my friends have signed up and that’s fine, but I don’t really have anything to do with it."
Catherine McGuiness, a council officer from Fenham, Newcastle, shares Paul’s lack of enthusiasm for social networking, but says she felt pressured into creating an account because so many of her friends have.
"All my friends kept asking why I wasn’t on Facebook and in the end I felt like I just had to join," says the 26-year-old.
"I was never really interested to be honest, I find it boring. It’s a bit impersonal. If I’m going to meet my friends I’ll meet them at the pub or go round to their house.
"There is this pressure to join up. I think it’s a bit of a popularity contest to see who’s got more friends than anyone else."
Catherine is also concerned about the issue of privacy, and admits she doesn’t know how to set the security Facebook account.
She adds: ‘There is a lot of scaremongering about this but I thik it is an issue when people have all sorts of photos and details up there.
"If you’re happy to accept to your account without properly checking them out there is no way of knowing for sure who they are. It’s particularly worrying for children signing up to these sites."
Peter Rooney, 27, from Heaton, Newcastle, is more upbeat about the networking craze. He says Facebook is a huge part of his social life and that he would be lost without it.
"I don’t know what all the fuss is about, I think it’s is a really positive thing and only helps bring people closer together. You can keep abreast of exactly what everyone’s up to without bothering them. It can be more useful than you think.
"If a friend has written on their page ‘My dog has just died’, then the next time you see them you’re not going to say ‘how’s your dog?’"
And social networking can save you money as well as time and elbow grease, says Peter.
"Why spend all that effort lugging photo albums round to friends’ houses when you can have everything uploaded in one place for anyone to see?" he says.
"Why spend the money getting day to day photos developed in the first place when you can just put them online?
"It’s also a great way of keeping in touch with people who might live too far away to visit regularly. I’ve rekindled lots of friendships in this way.
"And you can send invitations to social events and parties and things. It’s like having everything you need in one convenient place. "It doesn’t take long to set up the security settings. There are step-by-step instructions if you take the time to read through them.
"I would tell people to relax and embrace social network websites."
Well, it seems the social networking jury is still out. Perhaps there should be an online forum for further discussion…
(c) 2008 Evening Chronicle – Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.