Facebook.com quickly became a trend that swept American college culture by offering online communication and social contacts, but two years later, is the site dying?
Its competitor is the multi-million dollar MySpace.com.
While both web sites offer students a chance to create profiles about themselves and their interests, Facebook is a private-access site. This privacy policy means that Facebook can only be accessed by those who hold a legitimate college web-address. This restriction may result in its slow spiral into online oblivion, since the site isn’t open to the public.
While Facebook is the safer of the two sites, its safety precautions may be the last devastating factor in the intense race for online network domination.
The information students provide on Facebook has been used in investigations by universities and campus police, mostly those concerning alcohol-violations and underage drinking.
An over-21-year-old Resident Assistant at John Carroll University was just asked to resign after she posted photos of her dyeing beer green on St. Patrick’s Day near an underage student. The pictures were seen as proof of unacceptable R.A. behavior.
Because of Facebook, students have been punished for criticizing university professors and administration, and coaches have begun to access the site to keep an eye on the players and regulate their public behavior.
This supervision has greatly damaged the social capabilities of the site, and in turn has damaged the credibility of its members.
Some university professors have created false profiles to gain access to student information.
Many members have unregistered; who wants to use a site that is being accessed by university administration, professors, and coaches?
Non-university employers have also begun to look at Facebook when reviewing job applications.
The type of monitoring has transformed the site from a light-hearted social connection between students to an archive and source of unauthorized background checks.
Facebook has recently made networking changes that also add to its decline in usage. The website no longer sends users an e-mail when people post pictures or message their accounts. If members’ fail to receive update notices, they are far less motivated to check their accounts. Without reminders to check, people forget, and visit the site less.
Because Facebook is a social site, its existence relies on how many Internet hits it receives a day.
This all has proven too much for Facebook to handle, whose popularity hasn’t decreased, but whose members’ usage has. Facebook members have long-established profiles and online histories, but don’t check them as religiously as they used to.
In light of recent occurrences, is the almighty Facebook dying?
It appears so.
