Response to Devins Post on Facebook Usage

    On google reader, I saw a post by Devin that discussed the distraction of Facebook while doing homework. I have experienced the distraction that is Facebook many times and it has added many hours to my homework load.
   

“After spending hours on homework, anyone can get lonely. Facebook is the solution to that and soon, the victim will be doing other stuff other than chatting.

       Chatting leads to other activities. For example when someone logs on, they see a wall full of people who have commented. This drives curiosity and the next thing you know, you're checking out what your friend or friends' friends said. Sometimes there are links to quizzes and you feel like taking that quiz just to say how you rank or what you are. See how a simple chat leads to so much time wasting. This is called the snowball effect.”

    I think Devin makes a very valid point when he says the snowball effect happens when a student that should be doing homework is on Facebook. I think the site is designed to keep users occupied with enticing graphics that hook users into staying on the site longer. The snowball effect happens when a user keeps clicking profiles and pictures and eventually spends a lot of time on the site, Facebook. When a user sees something interesting on their news feed then they feel inclined to click it and participate in it such as a quiz.
    Social networking sites, like Facebook make their money when people see advertisements in the side bar or when they click them. It benefits Facebook when people click pages on the site because that means more views for their advertisers which mean more money for the site. If pages are exciting to click then Facebook gains more and more money. When people have a lot of fun on Facebook, they send invites to people that are not current Facebook users and when they join, this adds to Facebook’s revenue and entertainment value.


NOTE: While typing this post, I checked face book twice spending a total of 14 minutes on the site. This shows that Facebook is truly an epidemic. ;)

Response to David's Post about bullying

I found this quote on David Su’s Blog about bullying and how it should be stopped.

“Everyone should speak up when someone is in trouble. Students shouldn’t be afraid of the bully at all. i also suggest that teachers and the principle should pay more attention to each student. When using the internet, i suggest staying away from signing up for websites where random people can comment anonymously. When using Facebook or Myspace, make sure that the friends that you approve aren’t strangers.

Building a comfortable education where young adults are happy is important to their educational career. if bullying cannot be stopped, kids will live through their educational career in fear and depression similar to those in the civil rights movement and the girl that committed suicide. i understand that stopping bullying takes a large amount of time and effort. But, as long as everyone puts in some effort, it can be stopped permanently.”

    I think bullying is a big problem in schools today. Bullies make life miserable for their targets and I think it should be stopped. David’s suggestion that teachers and principals should pay attention to each student is a good idea except that at most schools there is not enough people to watch every student. Another one of David’s suggestions is to stay away from anonymous forums because people often troll on them. “In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.” It is important to set privacy settings on sites such as Facebook or Myspace so not everyone can comment on you pictures or posts.

    Bullying anonymously over the Internet can feel like a shield to bullies but it still really hurts the people that get bullied. If bullies dont see their victim face to face then it doesnt seem real to them. I would assume that most bullying happens online between people that dont even know each other in real life.