Facebook: Runing My Life or Making it?

 by Sohail Parwaz

Their married life was going absolutely normal until one cold and chilling night of freezing December when Monika had chest pains. Francis immediately evacuated her to the nearest hospital where she was admitted as the doctors feared it to be a heart attack. Seeing this all, her husband, just melted and in the middle of the night he logged on to his Face book account where he messaged to a lady with whom he had a relationship during the University times, and folks that was the end of their happy marriage. The outcome was hubby’s working out twice a day, hence losing 25 lbs in 3 months and looking great. He started making excuses about going to ball games, and all other fun stuff in the city. During all of this Monika decided to sell her big house and found a nice smaller one that was much easier for her to look after but sadly, from there on the sad part started. The day after she moved in her new house, Francis left the town and phoned her that they had 10 great years but unfortunately she wasn’t the type for him. That’s how a social site supposed to reunite the old links and bring friends and relations closer, in fact played a negative role to separate spouses who were happily living together.

This was just a one accusation against the speedily becoming popular social page Facebook, while millions of other can be searched for on the cyber space. The site is being charged for the crimes like hacking, cheating, impersonation, blackmailing, breaking marriages, degrading and insulting the innocent youth especially the feminine gender that is keener then the masculine gender to appear and present themselves on the Facebook. Agreed, that the Facebook cannot be directly held responsible for all these scores of blames yet it can’t be denied that the site has however remained the space for the hatching of all these criminal and unethical social crimes.

‘The Facebook’ was started by a youngster Mark Zukerberg on February 4, 2004, while he was a student at Harvard University. Initially it was a way for the Ivy League students to easily network and identify each other. In six years this pet project had grown to over 150 million members and an estimated value of $5billion. What’s great about facebook is that unlike email, it creates a little online village of your friends – conversations are no longer singular, but circular, drawing everyone into the mix. What’s also great in a deliciously shallow sense is that it lets you act as your own personal PR agency. Careful selection of status updates, images and daily actions mean that, but it certainly becomes lethal when goes into the novice, ignorant and innocent hands.

The Facebook was founded for altogether a different culture and a society divergent to the eastern norms, customs and ethics; however it was not possible for anyone to keep one’s self away from this viral as was in the case of bird or swine flu, so soon it became an addiction for the folks of all ages in Asia, Africa and elsewhere in the world. The Facebook, Twitter and other social sites are not the problem. These are in fact merely the tools and one need to learn how to use them wisely and to quit being a baby and practice a little self-control. The actual problem starts when the novice users especially the soft gender refuses to take the responsibility for their careless doings.

A Western, designed the Facebook keeping the western social norms and practices in view, yet the more hue and cries are being made by the people from all walks of the western society. Imagine if that’s the case then how injurious and harmful it could be to our eastern and conservative and categorically the Muslim society? But I wonder if we are taking the disadvantages, of operating the Facebook casually, seriously. What we don’t realize is that by operating it absolutely carelessly, we put our lives on line for everybody to watch and exploit. Rest assured there are shady figures sitting in front of their LCDs for whom this face-booking is more of a spy gaming then fun. They are there on a whole time 7/24 job to monitor what the face-bookers write or post. Not to scare the ladies on the net but telling you the fact that they anxiously wait for the new DPs (display pictures) on the profiles or in the albums to download and later abusing after treating them in the Photoshop. These hackers, out there, have got nothing else to do except for having fun at the cost of the others’ reputation, respect and dignity and for you the site leaves only sulking, crying and repenting. For them it’s simply a game to dig out the most private natured mails or love mails from someone’s mail box and post them on different people’s social pages. Facebook is a walled garden and a spammer’s paradise cloaked as a place for you to connect. It requires you to post multiple photos of you, your friends and your life. (I know only one photo is required).

In case of Facebook, the saying ‘Ignorance is blessing’ is certainly not true because this social site is a stone heart, emotionless computer program which has a lot of shady shifty doings in the background. At the face the users simply click to accept a page, a cause, a link or an application but does anyone knows that what it means? You are virtually flushing your privacy down the drain as someone very rightly cried out of agony, ‘I am not as naive as I may sound but I believe that the moment I enter Facebook my privacy will go down the toilet.’ I wonder if any sane is willing to do this all cheerfully. Never forget that it’s a wretched and risky step towards the centralization of personal data.

The Facebook has come down from the desktops to the laptops and now virtually in your hands since the blackberries and IPods have created the clans of people who are unable to turn off and have become addicted to, often useless, information. The users are happy that they are gaining friends but what they are forgetting is that they are actually losing etiquettes and manners. Messaging, while sitting with your guests or hosts and ignoring them, not paying any attention to your elders, while they are addressing you, are the ruinous blessings of this social site Facebook. Honestly speaking no society especially we the eastern and Muslims can afford this social downfall.

Any home, where Facebook has entered through just one teenage member, rest assured that soon, others too would get infected. Just click on this social jungle and you will find youngsters, considering it a status symbol, making their parents members, especially the moms (since most of them stay back at homes), without realising the consequences. The parental guidance is simply off because those who are supposed to be responsible for this job are now worried for their own social networking. The worst scenario is that underage kids now also have access to this addiction. Guess your 12 years old son or daughter opening his or her account at Facebook and suddenly coming across an ad like the one, “Would you make a good boyfriend” and “Still single, why? Find girls here!” How would it look like? Still not worried?

The biggest syndrome is that we are naïve and above that we behave in a slapdash fashion. If not then can anyone tell me that what the ‘cookies’ are? These are the files stored on your computer by the concerning websites to save certain preferences (better leave this damn cookies jar in your hand and start looking for that other one). If you don’t delete them after a session then discreetly these cookies play their injurious part and when you are again on the cyber space at some other time, these hidden agents inconspicuously transfer your private data to the one who knows how to ‘eat these cookies’.

I don’t say that the Facebook is a useless thing, but go for a deep sea dive only if you are a scuba diver. Remember to keep your personal Facebook Page utmost light and data (including pictures) free. Never keep your very personal nature pictures there and one thing more don’t get addicted to it. The beautiful life is certainly beyond that darn screen, out there in the world. Don’t be your own enemy and an inopportune. Go out and enjoy the real life.