Facebook: The New Barney?

It seems that the argument of whether or not Facebook and other social networking sites are making us more kind can go three ways; either one agrees, disagrees, or most likely is impartial. I would say I fit into the impartial category leaning more towards the disagree side. Although everything that is said or conveyed over public feeds, user statuses, and comment pages can be viewed publicly, the comments are not usually harsh because of this public ability to view most pages. It is rare to see hateful, mean or rude comments, although it exists, because even if someone wants to say something they are monitoring themselves. In this sense people become more kind, but not because they actually are kind, but because they're putting on an act. This would not constitute as actually being kinder, but perhaps acting kinder. Just because one acts kind does not mean they are actually kind.

With all this information available about thousands and millions of people, there is a lot of room for critique. People start to judge people they have never met based on pictures and their interests. With so much more information about a person available, there is much more room to be critical, by criticizing and coming to conclusions; sometimes positive conclusions, but other times negative conclusions. Say someone made fun of or insulted another person in their high school class; it is only hours or days before this gossip gets around depending on the student body and size. The insult comes back quickly to the person who said it. You now have millions of these high school and college students online now and as your friend lists increase and distance increases between friendships, there is more room for criticism that will probably never reach the person. The point is that now those 'bullies' have more room to bully, without anyone finding out, which in a way feeds the habit. This is the mentality of 'Hey, nothing happened this time, or the past two times, I can say and do what I want.' It's almost addiction in a way which can grow to make people seem more kind while in reality they are becoming less kind.

Either way I have a Facebook, MySpace and MySpace's for music and when these sites are used correctly they can be very useful, whether it be for staying in touch with friends, attracting fans to your band, or creating networking events such as shows. On the other hand, many use them to stay in touch with friends, while gossiping about past friends or complete strangers at the same time, with no immediate consequence.