If you have a passion for underwater basket weaving or a love of a special hot sauce chances are there is a Facebook group already made complete with links to home pages, coupons, when the creators are coming to town and thirty other people with the same obsession.
Bridges are build daily on “common interests, experiences and pursuits,” (Bucy, 2005, p. 8). I am currently in about thirty Facebook groups online including sports teams, clothing companies, philanthropic events and suicide prevention. All are gateways to worlds of information. Groups can be searched via online communities and hundreds if not thousands will return.
There are chat rooms connected with the groups therefore people can share ideas and
arrange meetings. Ideas and opinions are are constantly buzzing. In July of 2008 a online version of Scrabble called Scrabulous shut down due to legal pressures. When fans couldn't’t access the game, “The backlash was instant. Bloggers denounced Hasbro, howls of protest flooded message boards, and new Facebook groups were created with names like “Down with Hasbro.” Although some people spoke up to defend Hasbro’s rights, most people jeered at the company, calling it everything from ‘short-sighted’ to ‘technologically in the dark’ to ‘despicable,’” (Timmons, 2008).
This uproar was seen by thousands. Despite the negative connotations of Hasbro, not all groups promote negative publicity. Other groups such as the suicide prevention group that I am a member of provide information and statistics about the cause. Links and help lines are provide for those who are struggling with or not someone who is struggling with the serious problem.
Facebook groups seem to have an equal amount of benefits as downfalls. There are groups that could potentially save lives and others that provide the information to destroy them. The Internet is a vital source of information. Information is the key to education and education is the key to peace. Will the world finally see peace when Internet access everywhere?
I agree that Facebook groups are can be a blessing and a curse, but I also think a lot of times people over look how helpful they are. Although they can be fun, like "I don't care how cold it is I will wear flip flops all year long", they can also be used to keep groups of people together.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, I use them to keep in touch with a troop of soldiers in Iraq. It allows us to post messages to each other on "the wall" and connect the guys there to my sorority too. I've never actually met any of them but I feel like we all know one another from our conversations in the group.
The days of waiting for letters to reach them are gone and have been replaced by a facebook group!