Facebook is a phenomenon that can hardly be ignored: everybody talks about it, the media report news concerning him and also subject of some importance when it comes to exploit it to communicate with the public. Probably not even its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, could have imagined such a success. After all, the basic idea was simple: create a social network that would allow students to universities and high schools around the world to maintain contact with each other. Yet, in July 2007 figure of the top ten most visited websites in the world and in 2008 there has been a real boom. Among other things, Italy is high on the list of countries with the greatest increase in the number of users. Welcome, then this new powerful tool of communication and sharing ... no? Not really. A social network is made up of people, and people, you know, are not perfect ... The dizzying ascent of members shows his unquestionable success, over time, however, have begun to emerge the likely criticism and controversy. Just look for the word "facebook" in the archive of Repubblica.it and Courier and see how many cases of the news (often black) is connected ... Experts have bread for their teeth. Jason Alba, communication expert, has written a book about ( I'm on Facebook - Now What?? ), which focuses on the intersection of confirm or ignore : what to do when asking friendship is an unpleasant person? The ignorant, you say. According to Alba instead is a situation that often affects the user and forces him to resume contacts with the past by surrounding unnecessary friends. The president of Netdipendenza explains that many people are obsessed by the thought of increasing circle of friends, to be considered popular . According to Danah Body (researcher at the School of Information at UC Berkeley) social networks used to the real life: "we are moving towards a society of people more and more awkward and less accustomed to facing. Write a sentence every now and then it is easier, so here because we also accept friends who do not consider themselves as such. " Alessandro Meluzzi, psychotherapist, Facebook is a communication tool unexplored "until a few years ago our lives were identified with a uniform path that allowed us, year after year, to sum among those who went and those who remained. There were past and present. The social network is no longer the distances transforming the past into a continuous present. " This eternalizzazione of life can have interesting effects, but it is to consider the risk of compulsive use, the risk of the syndrome of hyper-reality.
policy. An element that can not fail in a society, virtual or real, is politics. The debate moves from the bar to social networks. In addition to numerous groups named after political figures, they too have their own page on Facebook, followed in person or, more likely, by the secretariat. Veltroni, during the party organized by his "friends" on Facebook December 13, 2008, said he regarded the network as a "tool to meet the Italians." Good intentions or self-promotional maneuver aimed to gather support? In any case, the profiles of political riconcorrendosi increase in a race for popularity, the number of fans becomes a trophy to show off.
groups. Belonging to a group aspect of a user's status, from a simple preference to his political beliefs, or taking a position on a topical issue. Within the group born discussions, comparisons and, sometimes, real fights. There are plenty of examples ... I remember the group in favor of Toto Riina and the controversy regarding its removal, the groups in support of Saviano with a collection of signatures and sit-ins, many groups for or against the Gelmini reform, the difficult struggle to remove groups of orientation openly racist, but you re-create, in disguise. It can also be organized via Facebook protests, as in the sensational case of the first hunger strike in Saudi public, whose participants are organized through the network. Serious subjects alternate with controversy manifested in a more ironic.
From reality to the screen Return . You find yourself on Facebook and then we find ourselves in reality. Apparently, many of the virtual links lead to a meeting face to face, often collectively. Gatherings organized by the class to revise his old comrades at mega party with invitations extended to thousands of people. It 'happened in Rome, then it was the turn of Milan and Bari The so-called Facebook Party have been very successful, although there have been disappointments of those who have complained about the inability to socialize (given the huge crowds) or that people are more sociable on the net. It is difficult not to think that the possibility of coming into contact with a large number of people does not encourage superficial relationships. How to deepen when you are moving en masse, in order of thousands? Many friends, too many = no true friend. Privacy
, this unknown ... Facebook has been called "collective autobiography" at your fingertips. Perfect definition, because users write at any time, what they do, what they did, where they were, who they met ... Experts speak of the "paradox of privacy." Put simply: when you ask questions, offering guarantees of privacy, the answers are scarce. When privacy is not named, the secrets abound. Not evoke risk in short, makes people very willing to talk. It 'still a fact that only a quarter of users Facebook uses to size controls how much information about you other people can see. And the point is that do not seem to care. And yet the news regularly shows us that excessive exposure can cause problems. While parents are enthusiastic about this new means of controlling the children, some spies have less justifiable intentions: the case of stolen identities and profiles handled the discovery that Facebook is one of the sources of information preferred by hiring managers and recruiters in companies colleges, several cases of dismissal, the phenomenon of the party that track vandals parties and appear on the site without being invited, not to mention the phenomenon of cyberbully and pedophiles. Yet these negative examples do not appear to increase the users awareness of the need to protect their privacy. Indeed, the threshold of attention on what is prudent to make public self seems to subside.
With all its limitations, drawbacks and defects, is an indisputable fact that Facebook is the most popular social network at the moment (as it was before him, MySpace). Its future depends on the persistence and passion of its members. Surely, one such technology that can eliminate distances and create communities in which we find ourselves sharing views and experiences, is highly seductive power. That should survive beyond its simply be a fad.
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