The ages before the birth of Christ are commonly labelled BC and those after – AD. It makes me think of the world now, and what comes to my mind is that we should introduce new acronyms to refer to our times – BF and AF. What do these stand for? Have you already guessed?
Before Facebook and After Facebook. I am old enough to remember those times before Mark Zuckerberg introduced facebook. I even remember the times when the Internet itself was a novelty (yep, I’m old – sad but true!). And what can I tell you about those ancient times, which for you are probably something not much later than the era of dinosours? 🙂 Well, life used to have more meaning. It’s not that I don’t like facebook. Like many other people I start each day from a cup of coffee and checking what’s new on fb and in my email box. But still it makes me nostalgic when I think about those good old times. But to the point. 
Let’s take birthday as an example. In BF times it used to be so heartwarming when your friends called you or wrote to you to wish you happy birthday. In AF times it no longer has such a meaning. Why? Well, what matters most for me is to know that someone really remembered about my birthday. Because if they did, it means I am someone special for them. In BF times you could be sure it was your friend who remembered, not facebook. My friend has recenly carried out an experiment. He intentionally changed his date of birth in his facebook profile. And what happened? Instantly on his facebook wall lots of birthday wishes appeared! Only his real friends didn’t fall for this trick. I guess after this experiment he did some defriending and removed these people from the list of his fb friends. Just in case, my birthdate is not included in my fb profile:)
Another issue – some people say that if something is not on facebook, it does not exist at all. A year and a half ago I met my schoolmate in a shopping centre. I was pregnant at that time and what I heard was: “Oh my! You are pregnant!? Impossible! There’s been nothing about it on facebook!” Well, I looked at myself in the first mirror I passed, just to make sure I was really expecting a child, despite the fact uncle facebook knew nothing about it:)
It chills me to the bone to hear that some people even get to know from facebook their partner has dumped them. It’s so easy now, isn’t it? You don’t 
have to look this person in the eye, you don’t even need to call them. The only thing you do is change your relationship status on fb from “in a relationship” to “single”. You click it and done!
I sometimes wonder what would our life be like, if one day we woke up and saw facebook had disappeared for ever, together with twitter and other social networking sites. Would it be a disaster or a blessing?
Pictures sources: www.someecards.com; lolzombie.com; webdonuts.com
I often forget when my friends have their birthday. It’s a shame that I don’t remember about something that important, so I cheek it on facebook. I think that if somebody did an experiment like your friend I’d also write some wishes. I don’t like if somebody doesn’t say “Hi” when he sees me in the street but on facebook he pretends that we are friends. He writes me birthday wishes and comments my photos. Pathetic. But I think that facebook has also good sides. It is a great communicator and we can find interesting things there. I also think that if somebody breaks with us on facebook it’s not facebook’s fault. It depends on the character of this person.
@Malwina I do agree that social networking sites have lots of advantages. And I guess you are right saying that we can’t blame facebook for people’s irresponsible behaviour. However I think some people just get lost in it and facebook becomes their primary life, while reality plays second fiddle.
Everything has its good and bad sides. Of course it’s a shame that nowadays birthday isn’t the same birthday that used to be in BF era. Also we get a lot of friends request from people we have seen once, or twice, or never. The good thing about FB is that everyone we want(or sometimes don’t want) to contact is there, and we have a lot of information about them. This last is being recently used by some employers to get more information about their potential worker. When they invented internet we are bombarded by more and more information and innovations.
Someone from the internet compared FB to fridge – You open it a few times a day watching if something has changed.
@Paweł I absolutely love the fridge comparison! 🙂
In my opinion nowadays using facebook is some kind of addiction. Many people waste their time on a social networks activity (for example they play on a useless games on a FB, they follow their friend, friend of their friend and really unknown people) it makes them spend many hours in virtual reality and it makes them have no time to meet friends in the real world. So I think that facebook changes social relationships.
The other question is that the people in social media become exhibitionists. They show their private life not only to real friends, but also to friends of their friends and finally other people. Many people usualy look for applause on facebook. They only collect “likes”. It is really weak.
However FB also has good sides. It makes communication simplier and you can stay in touch with old friends who have moved out to other cities or other countries. I think it is the biggest advantage of using facebook.
Social networks aren’t bad until we can live without them. I deactivated my facebook account a year ago. It was hard to get accustomed because I couldn’t access my class group. Today, I think it was a good decision and I know who remembers about my bithday date 😛
I think that in all things there should be moderation. Facebook isn’t dangerous, provided that you use it with moderation and common sense. This page has many good qualities. First of all, we can easily communicate with others. We can get to know the “slice of life from our friends” also birthdate is useful. (Personally, I have a big problem with remembering birthdays of friends and I always have them written somewhere 🙂 The experiment with a false date of birth was very painful, but I think that no one had bad intentions … I hope. Unfortunately , I know people about whom I can confidently say that they are addicted to facebook. However, I hope it will pass with age.
For me Facebook is one of the ways to communicate with people. I use it to send e-mails and sometimes chat with friends. If Facebook disappeared for ever, that would be no problem for me. I’m not dependent on Facebook. I can always call my friends or meet them in real world.
Facebook is stupefying for many people and especially for teenagers. They publish a lot of stupid photos with deformed faces. They make duck’s little beak. I think without Facebook people would be happier and wiser. This social network takes time and energy away. Life in reality is much better and interesting then the virtual world. I think is healthier if people make push-ups in this time .
I personally use Facebook, but I have my limits..
I use it to contact friends of browse the Facebook plate. Invitations to games annoy me. I think it is boring because Facebook isn’t for playing, just to communicate with others.
My friends did a similar experiment and removed the date of birth and what.. ? The answer is clear. Most of your friends from Facebook completely forgot about his birthday and wishes for him, but few of them posted 🙂
Many friends from Facebook are only our virtual friends.
I think now people got used to the network, Facebook, Twitter and so on, so definitely it might be difficult for some people, but honestly, before our generation people could live thousands of years without even electricity, so we would be still alive!