My team was given the subtopic of Facebook negative and we were faced with arguing for the negative aspects of Facebook. As for how I think my group did; the numbers speak for themselves. Our team won unanimously against the opposite side. I was very impressed with the way that my team worked together to prove the same argument through a number of different inter-related points.
There are pros and cons with everything, this is fact is especially true when it comes to the arguments surrounding Facebook. The main points that my team thought of for our argument are the lack of user privacy, cyber bullying, and the fact that since everyone is on Facebook people feel a kind of social obligation or pressure to conform by joining Facebook. Each of these major points branch off to many smaller points such as having our “personal” information sold and all of the spam that comes with the lack of privacy. As for the point on cyber bullying, Facebook provides many different ways for individuals to cyber bully and be cyber bullied from the chat to comments on pictures. In my opinion, the last point is the strongest as it was the last point presented in the conclusion of the debate and was presented in the form of a rebuttal. I believe this point to be the strongest because it is most likely the reason that there are over 500 million users on the social networking site that is Facebook. Although it was not brought up in the debate, I think the strongest pro for Facebook is the way in which it unites people across the world and is able to create great social change. If not for Facebook, many people would continue to fall victim to the dictators governing over their countries. The major countries that have seen their freedom from diabolical dictators as a result of the networking abilities of Facebook consist of Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and others. However, in the debate the pro Facebook side’s most important point was the fact that everyone has Facebook. Unfortunately, I did not see how this point proved any type of argument for the social merits of Facebook.
Truth be told, when using Facebook I don’t think of the above points on a regular basis, but I have thought of many of them at one time or another. In the past I have thought about why so many people are on Facebook and of course I thought about the Arab Spring when it was a global focus in the media. Also, I have thought about the privacy of my profile and have made adjustments to the settings after hearing stories revolving around the lack of privacy setting in place for some people’s profiles.
I believe that many of my peers do worry about issues of privacy and sharing information. I believe this to be true due to the fact that - like me - many of my peers have privacy settings that do not allow people who we have not accepted to see our profiles. This is both an easy and key step in ensuring adequate online privacy. As for the sharing of information, we do not know what our “Facebook friends” are doing with the information that we share. Fortunately, Facebook has taken a number of steps in ensuring that its users feel comfortable with their privacy and as a result has created many different privacy settings so that users can dictate who is able to see what information.
In class, we watched as other groups debated over other topics relating to the social merits of different forms of social media. The debate that stuck in my memory the most was the debate on the pros and cons of Twitter. I thought that the majority of the debaters presented their arguments well and were able to convey a definite pro or con from each of their points. The main cons of Twitter were rioting, the fact that it is an open form of social media so that anyone can see or follow tweets, and any tweet can be re-tweeted. The point of rioting was supported with examples of the Vancouver riot which saw many cars torched. The fact that anyone can see one’s Twitter profile is a strong point because current or potential employers as well as teachers are able to see what one is tweeting about without that person’s knowledge. The last point is also a strong one because someone could tweet about something thinking that only their “X” number of followers would see it, but in reality anyone can re-tweet that tweet, meaning that the potential number of people who are able to view it is endless. Well, not really endless seeing as there are over 200 million people on Twitter; but that over 200 million people could potentially see any tweet. In contrast, the pros for Twitter were the ability to follow the every movement of celebrities, the free cost, the fact that there are over 200 million users, and “trending” topics. The first point means that people are able to further lose touch with their own lives and follow those of celebrities; which to some may be a pro. The fact that Twitter is free does mean that more people are able and willing to express themselves in 140 characters or less. There are over 200 million Twitter users which provide a broad spectrum of different idea, opinions, and thoughts to follow. This allows people to view many different angles of the same trending topics. Trending topics are basically topics that get a lot of buzz from a great number of people on Twitter. This can be seen as a pro because it provides updates on such information as global issues and events.
In conclusion, I enjoyed being able to work with a team and debate about a topic. It was enjoyable trying to prove a point whether we believed it or not.
