0 Friends.. you're better off

After watching the South Park episode “You Have 0 Friends” all of the stereotypical things that are said by people about Facebook were justified. For one, people find the idea that these virtual “friends” that one obtains upon creating a Facebook page are not actually there real friends, but many people feel as though these cyber friends are actually true friends. Also, people compete, whether they admit it or not, to see who can have the most Facebook friends, especially amongst the younger Facebook user crowd, having the most friends makes them feel “cool” or “popular”.

The scene where the character Kip becomes to excited that Kyle added him as a friend and just because they became friends on this site allowed Kip to believe that him and Kyle were not best friends. Also they showed the concept of people taking Facebook and what’s on their Facebook’s so seriously and the idea that it can consume someone’s life so much. When Stan’s girlfriend becomes angry with him because it does not say “In a Relationship” in his personal information section, it shows you how some people care so much about what written on their Facebooks and could actually destroy friends or relationships.

Having a Facebook page myself, the whole idea that Facebook can consume someones life to such an extent, is dumb to me. Probably because I don’t pay too much attention to the information part of people’s profiles, and I don’t allow people to be able to view my profile that I have not personally approved as a valid friend. I use Facebook primarily as a way to share pictures and keep in touch with friends and family that I am unable to see all the time because I am away at school. Although, I am aware that people do take Facebook seriously and so I am careful as to what I write on there and only accept friend requests from people that I know and would not mind if they view the things and information I may post onto my webpage.

Facebook is a very public, much used website, and it is vitally important that people keep that in mind while using the site. Social networking sites like it can become dangerous when people become careless about who they are adding as “friends” and what information they allow these “friends” to see. Many times people who create these websites are creating fake profiles and tricking you into adding them as friend because they want to view your page. All of these things must be kept in mind to any Facebook page owner in order to maintain the safe care-free feeling, entertaining aspect of Facebook alive.