Blog Entry #1

Facebook has made one of the most important impact on the social life of teenagers. Sheryl Turkle said,  "The tools that we use to think change the ways we think." In this case, the computers with websites such as, Facebook are the representation of the tools we use. The "new" media we use today, including Facebook has changed the way teenagers think. For example, teenagers such as ourselves believe Facebook creates opportuinties for us to communicate to friends and families in an acceptable way because it gives another outlet in a social aspect to communicate. Although, in the past we were able to communicate the same way, without using a computer. In my opinion, Facebook didn't make communication betwen people any better because in a sense it sort of gave us a distant relationship between our loved ones. I say this because this website has taught our minds that it is okay to communicate on the computer rather than face-to-face. The communcation was stronger before Facebook or the computer itself came around because it was more intimate and real compared to virtual and words on a screen. I know teenagers today think that it easier to communicate on Facebook by writing on their wall, but the only way they think that way because the generation of today were never exposed to living without advanced technology, or social networking websites like Facebook. This is how Turkle makes a point about computers changing the way we think.

The good thing about Facebook is that they give the user the right to privacy. For example, we are able to choose what we want to show on our Facebook profiles and who we want to show it to. We have funny applications that tell you whose been "stalking" you on Facebook. In a sense, Facebook does give the users privacy, but some teenagers today still don't have the maturity to understand the boundaries of privacy. On Facebook, some teenagers could see it as an opportunity to make a lot of friends for their popularity and social status. Therefore, they decide to open their profiles to people in the same network or they don't even set up their privacy settings.

In conclusion, Facebook is just part of the category of what new media is. You see how websites like Facebook distribution value is and what it offers to teenagers. Manovich mentions in her reading that the Internet creates software "agents" such as Facebook that has created this new society. It is important for the way people see Facebook to be a vital social aspect of our lives, but simutaneously see the limitations and understanding the purpose of the website in the first place.