Is Facebook a Great Invention or the end of Privacy?

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Is Facebook a great invention or the end of privacy?
Facebook has become one of the most popular sites among several social networks sites; Facebook like most social sites is a great invention that allows users to interact with other people across the universe. Facebook is, with no doubt, a wonderful innovation that has some disadvantages and also creates some obligation too. This essay examines if Facebook is a great invention or if Facebook has ended privacy.
Facebook represents the beginning of a new era; users can learn more about the internet. It has created new communities and relationships. Facebook originally was invented by Mark Zuckerberg along with his roommate as an online yearbook containing names and faces of students living in Harvard residence hall. The main purpose was for students to get to know each other easily and share valuable information. When it went public in 2006, Facebook has since become the fastest growing exchange of messages (Stem 9). The site is popular around the world, with billions of people having signed up. However, experts question if people are losing privacy without knowing, or if it is appropriate to share almost everything happening in individuals’ lives.
The reason Facebook is with no doubt a wonderful innovation is that the invention is free and considered one of the best means of communication; when using Facebook, users connect to all types of people from everywhere. This gives users the opportunity to reconnect with old friends all over the world. People can search for their old friends and interact often in a closed group. People with the common interest can easily interact often through Facebook. With the dynamic functions, Facebook has become useful for learning as students can create study groups. Facebook is considered as a second learning tool as it increases user's skills in technology. Students share ideas about several issues affecting them as teachers also have recognized the importance of Facebook modifying their teaching styles (Atmaca 182).
Recently, Facebook revolutionized the way online businesses are conducted. For instant, small business can share their latest products to a few friends or people all over the world through Facebook. Sales promotion can also be done through Facebook reducing advertising costs. Facebook users can easily interact and share their feedback and experience of a product through Facebook. Privacy is managed through the privacy settings. All the post of a particular group can be modified to make it a closed group. This means anyone cannot see the group contents unless he becomes a member of the group (Atmaca 191).
Many scholars are constantly concerned about security, privacy, and inappropriate contents and cyber bullying that comes along with using such sites. Some colleges have the restriction on the use of Facebook to avoid its addiction especially to students as a way of controlling distraction. However, some scholars argue that Facebook cannot be used for learning because it is a tool for free time activity. Most students use it as a time killer and if one uses Facebook to learn, might get distracted and get interested in other things, forgetting to learn. Therefore, they emphasize that Facebook is an invention that has been distractive. Some of the features like messaging and games are addictive making teachers having no control of students use (Stem 15).
Apart from learning, Facebook acts as a valuable tool for information; users can receive vital information from close friends, various types of groups, fan page among other avenues. Using Facebook users can search for anything of interest and get the latest's information from entertainment to concerts and other social events. Facebook began in 2004, currently having more than one billion active members who use mobile gadgets to interact on the platform. However, several privacy concerns have been raised by people. One of them being the request to provide mobile numbers is perceived as an intrusive action since it can compromise individual's privacy. Facebook users are disclosing large amounts of personal information putting themselves at risks. With over 9.4 million users of Facebook are likely to be affected due to some serious flaws in this online system. Most students use Facebook sharing their real names. However, students are not aware of the complexity involved based on the college policies (Sutter).
Privacy on Facebook is affected by several factors that include users disclosing a lot of private details in which a third party can seek someone information using Facebook. There is low privacy protection in Facebook; this is because administrators and some law enforcing agencies search the site for evidence. Students breaking school regulations can be tracked using such sites as users post information without being aware that it may be shared without his knowledge. Furthermore in one of the recent researches, one in five employers search social network sites especially Facebook when conducting a background check on prospective employees. Users of Facebook submit personal information willingly without fully understanding how such information is associated with several risks. Facebook store surprisingly a lot of personal information about the preferences, habits and social interaction of user's. The fundamental question about the privacy of Facebook has been, why they do not identify the people involved in collecting information .this makes it easy for users to be exposed to advertisers and strangers without their knowledge. Social networks spread information to other websites without users knowing this. However, anyone who finds himself in such situations where his personal information has been misused can do little about the situation because they are the ones who provided this information voluntarily (Sutter).
In a recent survey, Facebook has been named as the best invention of the decade as more than 1000 participants named it as their favorite social networking site. As much as Facebook was built on the idea that users could connect and share information that seems personal, recently Facebook has become controversial due to its end of privacy. This is because usernames are increasingly being stolen by strangers, as some user's photos are used for bad intentions without the users; consent. Photos are tagged and whatever the users write or are intending to do in their lives is known by strangers putting them at a greater risk (Sutter).
Millions of photos are posted on Facebook after every hour. However, the people posting these images do not think about how secure the social media is goin...