Facebook - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

There have been many bad reviews of Facebook. If you haven't heard about a story in the press then you would have been shown one in an educational context. Places such as guidance classes in schools when discussing bullying, or a school assembly on the dangers of talking to people online. You may even have come across  a negative story of Facebook in college, university or even on the news.Therefore in this post I have decided to take a look at the pros and cons of using Facebook. I will refer to the pros as "the good" , the cons as "the bad" and include stories to show evidence of how Facebook can be bad. I will call this "the ugly".  So here it goes;

The Good:

Facebook can be used for a number of good things. These include ;

• Contacting relatives who live abroad.
• Finding family members that you have lost contact with.
• Finding old friends from school/college/university.
• Sharing photos with distant family and friends
• An affective way of joining groups that involve your interest.

The Bad:

However Facebook is used by a large minority as a tool for bad things. These include ;

• Creating pages or groups with intent to offend,upset or intimidate others.
• Creating a profile that does not represent the real you purposely and using it to hurt others emotionally.
• Using the website to promote a personal prejudiced judgement and discriminating against others.

The Ugly:

The Story of Hannah Smith

Due to an app on Facebook Hannah Smith took her own life after she received many messages stating that she should kill herself. Within the article (above) are others who have also experienced the same kind of behaviour from the website. Many lives have been lost through people using the site as a way of bullying people. Although Ask.Fm requires you to provide your name, you can choose to send messages and remain anonymous from the person receiving the message.

Bullying on Facebook is something I have not experienced personally. However a friend of mine from school and college was a victim of cyber-bullying through Facebook. He passed away in November 2012 and had many aspirations and ambitions. His main ambition was to be a photographer. Unfortunately due to Facebook many people have lost their lives. The people who choose to use Sites such as Facebook to cause hurt and distress to others are taking away the good things that Facebook is capable of doing. Below is a link on Lewis' story. Feel free to read the article and i hope this blog has cleared your thoughts on the Pros and Cons of Facebook.

Lewis' Story