Blog #12

The article I read was Friends with benefits: Do Facebook Friends Provide the same support as Those IN Real Life? Written by Kate Dailey and published in Newsweek on June 15^th, 2009. A friend named sue that she went to announced the death of her young son and was surprised that she had chosen to share something so personal online. She realized that Facebook is the fastest way to disseminate important information to the group without having to deal with painful phone calls. Numerous studies have shown that a strong network of friends can be crucial to getting through a crisis. Facebook attracted 67.5 million visitors in the US in April and the fastest growing demographic is people over 35. Even though Facebook may not replace the full benefits of real friendship but it defiantly beats the alternative. Having a large group of friends eager to comment on the persons daily life could be good for the person’s self-esteem. Shy people who may not always be able to engage friends in the real world are finding solace in the structure of Facebook.  By posting personal experience, no matter how painful also allows acquaintances who have lived through similar experience to reach out. Still there are experts who worry that too much time online keeps us from living satisfying lives in the real world.

I can see both the positive and negatives that the other said. I have around 700 friends that I either went to high school with or played a sport with. Most of my friends are acquaintances. I can see why sue put on Facebook that her son past away because she didn’t want to have all the phone calls and  have people ask about him when he isn’t alive. I do agree with the author when they said that we spend too much time online and it keeps us from living satisfying lives in the real world. Some people go by what people are posting on Facebook because they think that is in style now.