To Facebook or not to Facebook?

                  When my mom got Facebook, I thought I was going to die. Soon after, my dad got it, my grandparents got it, as well as aunts, uncles and younger cousins. By now, I'm pretty used to it, but I know I was not the only one to experience that initial shock when my two worlds started to mesh together in a very uncomfortable and unwanted way. But how normal is it, really, to think of Facebook as a "world"?

                  When it started in 2004 as thefacebook, it was only available to college students. But now according to their website, they have over 800 million users worldwide ranging from infants to old people (although the sites terms and conditions state that users must be 13 or over). 50% of the site's active users visit the site at least once a day, but most people I know (or at least the ones that show up on my Newsfeed) visit much more often than that.

                  Facebook can be a way to reconnect with old friends and people you grew up with, to keep in touch with long-distance family, to keep up with and communicate with friends, to network for businesses, or simply to post every detail of your life for attention. We friend our coworkers, teachers, classmates, and family members, creating a circle of "friends "that essentially goes around the world. Without Facebook, how else would we remember our friends' birthdays or see pictures to remember what we did last night?

                  Even with 800 million users relishing in the convenience and connectivity, some still feel like Facebook is not for them. Rachael Ferranti, a student at Plymouth State University, deleted her Facebook two years ago. Who would delete their Facebook, you ask? Isn't that social suicide? Ferranti worried at first that it may have been, but soon realized "how utterly pathetic it is to measure the success of your social life by a website that actually distances you from the people in your life." While Ferranti is definitely not alone in those feelings, she is one of the few brave ones to actually take the plunge.

                  Many people feel like they'd be better off without Facebook, but can't bring themselves to delete it. Maxine Drakely says "I would love to delete my Facebook so I didn't waste so much of my time checking my newsfeed. I've almost done it a couple times." Drakely says she hasn't been able to pull the plug because it is "the easiest way for me to connect to my family and keep them a part of my life since we live so far apart." Drakely's dilemma is similar to others' in that friends and family often live far apart and rely on Facebook to keep up with each other's lives and to communicate.

                  While Facebook is a great way to keep up with people, it is also a concern of many that you may have a bit too much access to other peoples' lives. One student says that while he recognizes his "manic need to check Facebook every ten seconds" to see if anyone is commenting on his wall or pictures, he also realizes that his privacy is "ever decreasing" with his use of the site. Prospective employers use Facebook to check you out before hiring or even agreeing to interview you. They don't just judge your comments, behavior, and pictures; they also look at those of your friends to judge you by the company you keep. You can't possibly control what every one of your friends does on Facebook, and you may not always want to be judged based on that. We think of Facebook as a safe and private place, but that isn't the case at all.

                  One more major complaint about Facebook other than the obvious privacy issues is the drama it can cause. The main reason I heard from people as reasons they either took a break from Facebook or deleted it altogether was "drama." People get a lot braver when they can hide behind a keyboard and say a lot of things they may not necessarily say to someone's face. When Ferranti deleted her Facebook page, it was because of drama. Relationships and their ups and down are all made public with a handy little box for people to comment on either your rants about your relationship or your changed relationship status. Ferranti says, "a relationship isn't even a relationship anymore unless it's ‘Facebook Official,'" and she's not wrong.

If you don't have pictures of your relationship and a proudly displayed Facebook relationship status, is it really a relationship? If you aren't friends on Facebook,  are you actually friends ? Ferranti says "yes, I see the people that I want to see, stay in touch with the people that I want to stay in touch with, and have managed to do this all without the assistance of a social networking site." The popularity of Facebook is not going away any time soon, but neither are the issues it can cause. An important question to ask yourself is:                  could you live without Facebook?