A recent study by Philippe Verduyn of Leuven
University has shown that the more someone uses Facebook, the less satisfied he/she
is with life.Many studies have found that using Facebook is associated with
jealousy, social tension, isolation and depression.
Do such media reports make you fearful of using
Facebook? I strongly believe that Facebook
can have very positive impact on personal lives, professional lives and also on broader society. I will explain how?
1.
How FB can impact our Personal lives
As everyone knows using Facebook can help you better connect
with your friends and family members in a globalised world, which would be
difficult to imagine otherwise. You can
make new friends and connect with like-minded people from across the world
thanks to Facebook.
You have some hobbies like writing,
photography, personal finance, Toastmaster, or health etc. There are number of
communities and experts on any area of interest on Facebook which provide regular
info in those areas. Subscribe to communities related to your area of interest
and you would get regular feed on your FB page. Thus FB becomes your daily read-list. Otherwise
you might forget some or other thing. So Facebook helps you grow as a person.
You are desperately looking for answer to some
question; put that question on FB community and you will get multiple answers
instantly.
Recently I had a question related to
Toastmasters whether to join multiple clubs, I put it on FB and within day I
received a number of responses from different perspective. So on Facebook I not
only get an answer but from multiple perspectives also, making my knowledge
more balanced.
2.
Professional
Unknown people, companies, and artists can
easily create something unique and become famous overnight with the help of
Facebook. All it takes is one friend to share a video,
blog, a nice piece of art, and it can quickly spread like wildfire through Facebook.
You have talent for music, writing, or painting or anything else. Create your
oeuvre and publish it on Facebook.
Rebecca Black, the American pop singer and
dancer is a Facebook creation. There is a Chicago based painter who sells 90%
of his collection through FB. You want to write a book, keep publishing
snippets of your ideas through FB and you would get instantly feedback on your
idea, you can refine it and when you finally publish your book it would be much
better quality.
Want to start a local business,
facebook is the place to advertize.
“Got What It Cakes” is part of a new wave
of online commerce: F-commerce. Annual revenue at the end of her second year in
business was a little more than $40,000.
3.
Society
Communities and organizations are using Facebook
to educate, inspire, and mobilize people for positive change.Want to do
something for society, want to promote a cause; raise fund for cause you care
about, Facebook is THE place. Viral videos may not only attract millions of
views just for their entertainment value; they may create awareness about an
important political or social event in a bid to encourage opinion, voice anger
or support. Arab revolution came about because of Facebook. It was just a small
Facebook message by someone and people started gathering in the Tahrir square
in Egypt and entire history was re-written.
Put your views on Facebook, and see how it
gathers momentum and bring profound changes in our society. In India, we have a
different kind of cleaner politics being played today, thanks to Facebook. JustGiving,
a UK based charity, raised 22m pound through Facebook campaign. There are
numerous examples like this.
Conclusion: When someone creates
a tool his intention is always to take humanity to next level of evolution, while
creating it he never thinks ofdestroying or harming humanity with it.
Facebook as a social networking tool is
neutral. It all depends on how we use it. Facebook is like nuclear energy, if
harnessed well it can enlighten our lives like nuclear energy provides clean
electricity. But if not, it can destroy humanity like nuclear bomb can. So be a
Facebook user and spread goodness.
