Implications of Facebook

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Implications of Facebook Facebook is a social networking site (SNS) that has grown in popularity since its creation in 2004. One of its main aims is to provide ‘friends’ with an easy way to communicate and interact online. Viewing ‘statuses’, ‘liking’ photographs, writing on ‘walls’ and sending private messages are all ways in which communication is possible on Facebook. This essay focuses on Facebook communication and the different personality types that use Facebook. The essay will be presented in two sections; the first will look at how communication through Facebook can affect our interpersonal relationships; whether online communication is a good way to interact with people and how it affects us emotionally. The second section of the essay will explore whether people with different personality types (with varying communication skills) adopt different ways of using Facebook, what they access and for what purposes. Personality traits examined are those who show unwillingness-to-communicate face-to-face, extraverts and introverts. The much studied rich-get-richer hypothesis and social compensation hypothesis will also be presented. Well-being will be discussed in this section also. Everyone feels the need to be included and loved in interpersonal relationships (Pornsakulvanich, 2005 cited in Bonetti et al., 2010). We can use Facebook to attempt to build on these relationships. Facebook is clearly an effective tool for keeping in touch with friends (and perhaps for making new ones) and thus could be seen as a great way of fulfilling the desire to be wanted. It can help us to create/maintain these relationships that are so vital to our existence. This said a question that should be considered might be: is communicating on Facebook detrimental to the user’s relationship with friends and family? It also considers if Facebook is a more

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