Facebook Makes You a Braver Person...or More of a Coward?

Coming from a person who actually does not like any type of social networking site, I do have a Facebook account. Some might be embarrassed to admit it, but it is addicting. A lot of people do not want to admit that they secretly check their Facebook to see what their friends are doing, if their ex-boyfriend/girlfriend is now talking to someone else, if they were tagged in any new photos, etc. Do I think popular websites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter motivates anyone to be more “kindly”? No, for the most part, I think that with the increase of social networking people find it easier to create more problems (or drama) online, hidden behind a screen.

I think it is funny how in high school, for example, many girls do not make the effort to talk to you, yet when they see you are new to Facebook it is the perfect opportunity to add you as a friend to their already-super-large friend list (and probably only a small percentage of those people are actually their real friends). This leads me to my big point; Facebook does not make people act nicer or motivate them to show that they care about others. I am not saying that people on Facebook are so evil and enjoy bashing other people or confronting others over the internet. It does, however, make it easier. You can easily see what someone’s status says and usually people draw conclusions, make their own assumptions, or judge other people quickly. Girls especially tend to act cattily towards other girls on Facebook from personal experience. I am not saying I am not guilty of this but it is the truth; if you send someone a message telling them that they are a "bitch" or "pussy," no one is going to jump out of the monitor. You can always hide behind it which makes it easier for people to say how they really feel about someone.

My final thought on Facebook? It is a fun, attention-grabbing, problem-starting, helpful website. There is good and bad but the ultimate goal of Facebook is to keep in touch with friends and family and meet new people, not act like a nice person. People are not going to lose sleep if a person says something mean about someone else and then come to realize, oh they are one out of your 781 friends. Usually you forget, they will not notice (unless it is a good friend who checks up on you) and if they remove you from your friends, then onto the next person.