By Emeka Aginam

Although  designed for good  as a social network to keep up with friends, share ideas, photos, links and many more, its humble creation on campus at Harvard University in 2004 after the site’s designer, Mark Zuckerberg came up with Facebook, it has become an integral part of people’s lives. With over 600 million active users worldwide, Facebook literally has become an overnight success, impacting on life and living.

Instant connection
Marshall McLuhan, who conceptualised a global village in the 60s in two books could not have envisaged what is being made to happen on Facebook; he died in 1980. In the digital era, connecting with those who live far away from us through social media is now taken for granted.

Irrespective of where we live,  a click, either on the desktop, laptop, or the handheld assures connection. Apart from normal e-mails,  there is  something about Facebook that allows for ultimate understanding of what is  going on in someone’s life. Pictures,  status updates, for instance give a better picture of what is going on in people’s lives.

Information
Information is power. While keeping  in touch with  friends and families, people post some useful  information or links on Facebook that can  interest others. People have gained employment through Facebook, while students share information about class work, assignments and many more on the site.

End of secrets, privacy
Those who designed Facebook probably have the obsolescence of secrets in mind. If you are on facebook, the whole world is with you. Social  media websites, for instance  have been  blamed for just one-third of divorces around the globe as people have the opportunity to keep up tp date with their ex girl or boy friends.

Users have the privilege of keeping up to date on everyone else’s lives, including their exes and enemies. Not many people know that there is no privacy in the internet. Although social media offer users the opportunity to meet new people,  onnect with old friends, privacy is equally compromised.

Socialising
Social networks like Facebook no doubt,   provides  opportunities for you and others to meet new people, which can be  helpful in life or the other way round. By making new connections, you are  not only being the social creature you have  been designed to be, but you’re also broadening your horizons and  learning new things about yourself and the world.

Poor diction
For many people, writing good English in the social media is a mere  waste of time, especially among the teenagers.   Their posts appear to have killed the art of writing. These days, nobody is using good diction  as a result of influence of internet, a development which has grossly affected creative writing among students.

An addiction?
Everybody has got one addiction or the other. The same way people are addicted to smoking or drinking, some people are also addicted to Facebook chat or Tweeting. Is this good? In the offices for instance, it has been observed that people spend more time online than doing the real work they are paid for.

Also in the class rooms, students who are addicted to Facebook, Twitter lose focus in the course of lectures. They appear to spend more time tweeting than reading.  Keep a date on these pages for trends in the social media.