Too Much Information

Facebook gives people of all ages an avenue to publicize one's private life for the entire Social Networking community to see. Through statuses, relationship changes, and wall posts, others are able to access information about people that would otherwise be left unknown.

Created and launched in February 2004 by Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, the site began as a network strictly for Harvard University. Two months later, the site expanded to include other Ivy League schools. After that, the college network slowly grew and by the end of 2004, Facebook had registered more than one million users. Today, there are more than 500 million users who combine to spend a total of 700 billion minutes per month on the social networking sight.

What really is the purpose of Facebook? It seems as if it's for a person's privacy, well, to not be so private. According to one of the creators, Mark Zuckerberg, in a press conference at TechCrunch, "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time." To him, sharing information is the popular trend.

For others, yes it's popular, but it is viewed as giving an excess amount of information. According to Mary Thede, 17, and a member of the Wyoming Seminary Class of 2011, stated, "People's statuses and wall posts on Facebook have reached a point where you're knowing a person's day to day routine from morning to night. You know what's going on in someone's relationship as well as in school. It's TMI (too much information), and personally, I don't care. People need to learn what is appropriate for the public eye."

Facebook is a great invention that allows people to communicate with others from all over the world. But the next time you feel the urge to tell everyone the details of your love life, please ask yourself, "Do I really want all 800 of my friends to know this?"