Content Analysis Final Draft

           After a hard day of classes, the first thing I do is calm my brain by spending some quality time on Facebook catching up with my friends’ lives.  The Minifeed keeps me updated as to who’s dating whom, how everyone’s days went, and what embarrassing pictures from the weekend have been posted.  My little sister has updated her profile, so I spend a few minutes harmlessly stalking her by going through her wall posts, pictures, and recent actions.  This way, I can keep tabs on her despite being 80 miles away at school.  Facebook, the newest internet start-up, is a social networking site that originally targeted college students, but has now expanded its audience to include anyone with an e-mail address.  Users can belong to different networks based on the college they attended, where they live, or where they work.  Facebook is unique in that its owner, Mark Zuckerberg, has decided to keep the company independent, despite offers from corporations such as Yahoo for as much as $1 billion.  With over 60 million members, Facebook is enormously successful, but has created its fair share of controversy (www.facebook.com).  Twice recently, Facebook users opposing new additions to the site successfully petitioned to have them removed, saying that it was imposing on their privacy.  Colleges and universities, the thriving ground of Facebook, have also begun to wonder whether Facebook causes privacy issues, with threats and other disturbing information appearing on individuals’ profiles. 

            Perhaps the most prominent controversy surrounding Facebook is whether or not it has the tendency to invade its users’ privacy, or be used as a means to invade someone’s privacy.  While some say that people who are willing to post personal information on a website have given up their right to privacy, where is the line?  In Cristian Lupsa’s (2006) article “Facebook: A campus fad becomes a campus fact”, college students voice concern that potential employers might use Facebook as a means of making hiring decisions.  Lupsa (2006) sited a recent study done at the University of Dayton in Ohio which showed that 42% of students believe that employers’ use of Facebook in hiring decisions is an invasion of privacy.  Images of potential staff members drinking underage and participating in other activities, legal or not, often deters employers from hiring what would otherwise be a probable candidate.  Lupsa (2006) points out that a generation gap currently exists between college students and the people deciding whether or not to hire them.  In the same survey, 40% of employers questioned thought it was okay to use Facebook in hiring decisions.  Lupsa (2006) writes that students are not the only ones concerned with whether their privacy is being invaded; college officials are as well.  The article points out that school administrators have grown increasingly aware to the potential problems Facebook creates, and are actively working to provide students with information that will allow them to make appropriate decisions.  Lupsa (2006) lists different approaches, including the one taken at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where a “dummy profile” was created under the name “Lloyd Unemployed”, and “brags about doing nothing and hopes to find a job that pays him to drink beer”.  At other schools, officials have signed themselves up on Facebook and monitor their students online (Lupsa, 2006). 

            Facebook has also recently introduced some programs that have had users in an uproar over the invasion of their privacy.  Most recently, as reported in the New York Times by Louise Story and Brad Stone (2007), Facebook users were appalled by a new advertising program called Beacon.  Story and Stone (2007) explain that other online companies like Google, AOL, and Microsoft use the program to track what sites their users access and then send them ads based on the sites or searches they have done.  Facebook, on the other hand, takes this to another level, sending users’ friends news alerts about good and services viewed or purchased on the internet.  The authors validate the invasion of privacy, offering a story about how one Facebook user found out what she was receiving for Christmas because it was advertised as being purchased by her sister at another site (Stone and Story, 2007).  Stone and Story (2007) also provide Facebook’s defense, quoting owner Mark Zuckerberg as saying the new ads are like a “recommendation from a trusted friend”.  Users disagree, the authors point out, describing many users as being outraged at the program’s use.  People might be willing to post information on Facebook for their friends to see, but they are able to control that content, and do not want others to see other places they visit on the internet.

            Another concern that Facebook creates is the issue of internet stalking.  Social networks like Facebook allow users to post personal information such as phone numbers and addresses on the internet for anyone to access, and many do not consider the possible consequences.  In “This 23-year-old has Google sweating”, Abbey Klaassen and Andrew Hampp (20070 mention that on Facebook, users will only connect to a profile if they know the person, unlike its biggest competitor-MySpace-where phony profiles are the norm.  However, only connecting to people you know personally does not guarantee safety by any means.  For The Christian Science Monitor, Lupsa (2006) talked to college officials that have seen Facebook used in disputes to threaten or stalk students.  He tells the story of the associate dean of students at Purdue University, Pablo Malavenda.  After Malavenda caught a clique of students selling cocaine and removed them from campus, the angry undergraduates started a Facebook group called “We Hate Pablo” to retaliate.  The group contained directions to his home and instructions to hurt him (Lupsa 2006).  While instances like this are rare, it proves the possible dangers that Facebook enhances.  Malavenda also described stories of couples ending relationships because they had read their significant other’s “wall” and realized he or she was seeing someone else (Lupsa 2006).  Facebook profiles allow people to catch up with their friends, but many forget that others, including those they do not know, can catch up with them too.

            While Facebook is most commonly known as a social networking site, it is attempting to move beyond this title in many ways.  As previously stated, Story and Stone (2007) argue that the invasive Beacon program was supposed to be like making recommendations to friends.  While many sites that provide goods and services have testimonials available, the Facebook “recommendation” is coming from someone you know instead of an anonymous user, making it more personal and supposedly reliable (Story and Stone, 2007).  After all, if your friend is willing to use the site, you would assume that the site was helpful, and perhaps be willing to use it yourself. 

            In a further attempt to move away from the label of “social networking”, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg has opened his site to other corporations.  Vauhini Vara (2007) reports in the Wall Street Journal that Zuckerberg has begun allowing other companies to provide services through Facebook.  Klaassen and Hampp (2007) recount the same information in their article in Advertising Age.  The two inform that developers will now be able to create and even monetize applications on the site.  Vara (2007) verifies, explaining that companies whose application service a user adds will then be able to link into the user’s network of friends.  She claims that this move has the potential to turn Facebook into a web hub such as Yahoo, but one that allows the user to connect to his or her friends as well.  For example, if a company built an application that allowed Facebook users to recommend music to their friends, their friends would not have to go elsewhere to access that information.  While Google and Yahoo can give a user access to the content, those sites do not have the ability to connect users to their friends (Vara, 2007).  Klaassen and Hampp (2007) suggest that because there is already a connection between users there, it would be more intimate to search for content on Facebook than on another site.  A recommendation from a friend is generally more reliable than a recommendation from an unknown source.  By allowing its users the opportunity to access these commendations, Facebook is opening itself up as an information portal as well as a social network. 

            The only way for Facebook to remain a success is to keep its user base of over 60 million people satisfied with the site.  While the site was once directed mainly towards collegiate students, Vara’s (2007) article informs that in the autumn of 2006, Zuckerberg opened the site to anyone with an e-mail address as opposed to just university e-mail addresses like it had previously been.  However, college students are still the majority of the audience that Facebook reaches.  Klaassen and Hampp (2007) offer that a recent college graduate, when asked to name her friends that were not on Facebook, could only come up with one.  It has become obvious that the best way to reach college-aged adults is through Facebook, and Lupsa (2006) reports that politicians have started using it as a means to campaign towards students.  He also writes that at the University of Iowa, campus organizations have started using Facebook to advertise events instead of the conventional flier method (Lupsa 2006).

            Unfortunately for Zuckerberg, when Facebook users are unhappy, they ensure that Facebook’s owner, and many times the media, are informed.  Facebook’s users have a large amount of sway in decisions made by the owner, which can be seen through recent actions taken by the executives in response to what users want.  Most recently, as mentioned by Story and Stone (2007), Zuckerberg had to respond to the outcry over the Beacon program.  In the first ten days after was introduced, over 50,000 Facebook members signed a petition to have the program removed.  Because of such a massive objection, the program became optional, with an opt-out box available in the settings.  However, some of the other participating websites such as Overstock.com had already pulled out of the program, not wanting to deter potential clients.  This was not the first time Facebook faced criticism over implementing a new program that was extremely invasive.  Story and Stone (2007) follow by accounting as to when the Newsfeed on Facebook was first introduced.  Over 700,000 users protested, leading to Zuckerberg publicly apologizing for some aspects of the program.  Facebook’s users obviously play a huge role in decisions made by the company, and are true testament to the phrase “the customer is always right”. 

            In a web-based world like the one we live in today, social networking sites allow us to keep in touch, and Facebook is no exception.  However, several patterns have emerged in the publicity Facebook is getting, and all question users’ privacy.  True, Facebook does allow others to keep closer tabs on one another, but is it too much?  Whether it is an invasion of privacy or not, Facebook users are still logging in, making some question the value of privacy in this day and age.  The constructs of privacy have clearly changed, and the internet has opened an entirely new realm of possibility in terms of what is personal and what is not.  As long as users are still willing to post their confidential information on sites like Facebook, the private sphere of society will continue to shrink.  The media will hopefully carry on providing information as to the possible dangers of Facebook, and increase awareness on how to maintain privacy.

Content Analysis Draft

          After a hard day of classes, the first thing I do is calm my brain by spending some quality time on Facebook catching up with my friends’ lives.  The minified keeps me updated as to who’s dating who, how everyone’s days went, and what embarrassing pictures from the weekend have been posted.  My little sister has updated her profile, so I spend a few minutes harmlessly stalking her by going through her wall posts, pictures, and recent actions.  This way, I can keep tabs on her despite being 80 miles away at school.  Facebook, the newest internet start-up, is a social networking site that originally targeted college students, but has now expanded its audience to include anyone with an e-mail address.  Users can belong to different networks based on the college they attended, where they live, or where they work.  Facebook is unique in that its owner, Mark Zuckerberg, has decided to keep the company independent, despite offers from corporations such as Yahoo for as much as $1 billion.  With over 50 million members, Facebook is enormously successful, but has created its fair share of controversy.  Twice recently, Facebook users opposing new additions to the site successfully petitioned to have them removed, saying that it was imposing on their privacy.  Colleges and universities, the thriving ground of Facebook, have also begun to wonder whether Facebook causes privacy issues, with threats and other disturbing information appearing on the different profiles. 

            Perhaps the most prominent controversy surrounding Facebook is whether or not it has the tendency to invade its users privacy, or be used as a means to invade someone’s privacy.  While some say that people who are willing to post personal information on a website have given up their rights to privacy, where is the line?  In Cristian Lupsa’s article “Facebook: A campus fad becomes a campus fact”, a large concern that college students have is whether potential employers use Facebook as a means of making hiring decisions.  Lupsa sited a recent study done at the University of Dayton in Ohio which showed that 42% of students believe that employers use of Facebook in hiring decisions is an invasion of privacy.  Images of potential staff members drinking underage and participating in other activities, legal or not, often deters potential employers from hiring what would otherwise be a probable candidate.  Lupsa points out that a generation gap currently exists between college students and the people deciding whether or not to hire them.  In the same survey, 40% of employers questioned thought it was okay to use Facebook in hiring decisions.  Lupsa writes that students are not the only ones concerned with whether their privacy is being invaded; college officials are as well.  The article points out that school administrators have grown increasingly aware to the potential problems Facebook creates, and are actively working to provide students with information that will allow them to make appropriate decisions.  Some have signed themselves up and monitor their students online.  Lupsa lists different approaches, including the one taken at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where a “dummy profile” was created under the name “Lloyd Unemployed”, and “brags about doing nothing and hopes to find a job that pays him to drink beer”. 

            Facebook has also recently introduced some programs that have had users in an uproar over the invasion of their privacy.  Most recently, as reported in the New York Times by Louise Story and Brad Stone, Facebook users were appalled by a new advertising program called Beacon.  Story and Stone explain that other online companies like Google, AOL, and Microsoft use the program to track what sites their users access and then sent them ads based on the sites or searches they have done.  Facebook, on the other hand, takes this to another level, sending users’ friends news alerts about good and services viewed or purchased on the internet.  The authors validate the invasion of privacy, offering a story about how one Facebook user found out what she was receiving for Christmas because it was advertised as being purchased by her sister at another site.  Stone and Story also provide Facebook’s defense, quoting owner Mark Zuckerberg as saying the new ads are like a “recommendation from a trusted friend”.  Users disagree, the authors point out, describing many users as being outraged at the program’s use. 

            Another concern that Facebook creates is the issue of internet stalking.  Social networks like Facebook allow users to post personal information such as phone numbers and addresses on the internet for anyone to access, and many do not consider the possible consequences.  In “This 23-year-old has Google sweating”, Abbey Klaassen and Andrew Hampp mention that on Facebook, users will only connect to a profile if they know the person, unlike its biggest competitor, MySpace, where phony profiles are the norm.  This does not provide safety, though.  Lupsa talked to college officials that have seen Facebook used in disputes to threaten or stalk students.  He tells the story of the associate dean of students at Purdue University, Pablo Malavenda.  After catching a group of students selling cocaine and removing them from campus, the angry students started a Facebook group called “We Hate Pablo” to retaliate.  The group contained directions to his home and instructions to hurt him.  While instances like this are rare, it proves the possible danger that Facebook enhances.  Malavenda also described stories of couples ending relationships because they had read their significant other’s “wall” and realized he or she was seeing someone else. 

            While Facebook is most commonly known as a social networking site, it is attempting to move beyond this title in many ways.  As previously stated, Story and Stone argue that the invasive Beacon program was supposed to be like making recommendations to friends.  While many sites that provide goods and services have recommendations available, the Facebook “recommendation” is coming from a friend instead of an anonymous user, making it more personal and reliable.  After all, if your friend is using the site, it must be okay. 

            In a further attempt to move away from the label of “social networking”, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg has opened his site to other corporations.  Vauhini Vara reports in the Wall Street Journal that Zuckerberg has begun allowing other companies to provide services through Facebook.  Klaassen and Hampp recount the same information in their article in Advertising Age.  The two inform that developers will now be able to create and monetize applications on the site.  Vara verifies, explaining that companies whose application service a user adds will then be able to link into the user’s network of friends.  She then claims that this move has the potential to turn Facebook into a web hub such as Yahoo, but one that also allows the user to connect to his or her friends.  For example, if a company built an application that allowed Facebook users to recommend music to their friends, their friends would not have to go anywhere else to access that information.  While Google and Yahoo can give a user access to the content, those sites do not have the ability to connect users to their friends.  Klaassen and Hampp suggest that because there is already a connection between users there, it would be more personal to search for content on Facebook than on another site. 

            The only way for Facebook to remain a success is to keep its user base of over 60 million people satisfied with the site.  While the site was once directed mainly towards collegiate students, Vara informs that in the fall of 2006, Zuckerberg opened the site to anyone with an e-mail address as opposed to just university e-mail addresses like it had previously been.  However, college students are still the major audience that Facebook reaches.  Klaassen and Hampp offer that a recent college graduate, when asked to think of her friends that were not on Facebook, could only come up with one name.  It has become obvious that the best way to reach college-aged adults is through Facebook, and Lupsa reports that politicians have started using it as a means to campaign towards students.  He also writes that at the University of Iowa, campus organizations have started using Facebook to advertise events instead of the conventional flier method.

            Unfortunately for Zuckerberg, when Facebook users are unhappy, they are not quiet about it.  Facebook’s users have an extreme about of sway in decisions made by the owner, which can be seen through recent actions taken by the executives in reaction to users want.  Most recently, as mentioned by Story and Stone, Zuckerberg had to respond to the outcry over the Beacon program.  In the first ten days after the program was introduced, over 50,000 Facebook members signed a petition to have it removed.  Because of such a massive objection, the program became optional, with an opt-out box available in the settings.  However, some of the other participating websites such as Overstock.com had already pulled out of the program, not wanting to deter potential clients.  This was the second time Facebook had faced criticism over implementing a new program that was extremely invasive.  Story and Stone follow by accounting as to when the Newsfeed on Facebook was first introduced, over 700,000 users protested, leading to Zuckerberg publicly apologizing for some aspects of the program.  Facebook’s users obviously play a huge role in decisions made by the company, and are true testament to the phrase “the customer is always right”. 

            In a web-based world like the one we live in today, social networking sites allow us to keep in touch, and Facebook is well on its way to becoming king.  However, several patterns have emerged in the publicity Facebook is getting, and all question users’ privacy.  True, Facebook does allow others to keep closer tabs on one another, but is it too much?  Whether it is an invasion of privacy or not, Facebook users are still logging in, making some question the value of privacy in this day and age.  As long as users are content, Facebook will remain engraved in society as an essential part of college life. 

Content Analysis Body Paragraph Draft

        The most prominent controversy surrounding Facebook is whether or not it has the tendency to invade its users’ privacy, or it is used as a means to invade one’s privacy.  While some say that people who are willing to post personal information on a website have given up their rights to privacy, where is the line?  For example, a New York Times article discussed how after a huge user uprising, Facebook agreed to cut back the invasiveness of its new program, Beacon.  Beacon is a program commonly used by other sites such as Google or AOL to track where its users are going online, and send ads based on visited sites.  Facebook took it to another level, sending user’s friends information based on sites they’ve used.  In one case, a gift was ruined because Facebook advertised that a user had bought a game, and the person the game was intended for saw the announcement.  Until users protested, there was no box on Facebook to option out of the service.  Another case where user protest caused Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg to tone down aspects of his site was the Newsfeed, introduced in 2006, which made announcements as to what one was doing on Facebook to all of the user’s friends.  As time passed, people grew more accustomed to the application, but at first many were outraged at how it invaded their privacy by reporting their actions.  The way Facebook is used has also been a concern for users.  In a recent survey, 42% of students believed that it was a violation of privacy for potential employers to use Facebook to check on people actions and screen them before hiring.  Most college students post pictures on the site, and many pictures show underage drinking and other various activities, both legal and illegal.  Is it possible to say that information that one willingly posts on the internet should not be considered in a hiring decision?  Either way, Facebook has made it more difficult to keep one’s personal life just that; personal.

Content Analysis Introduction

        After a hard day of classes, the first thing I do is clam my brain by spending some quality time on Facebook catching up with my friends’ lives.  The minified keeps me updated as to who’s dating who, how everyone’s days went, and what embarrassing pictures from the weekend have been posted.  My little sister has updated her profile, so I spend a few minutes harmlessly stalking her by going through her wall posts, pictures, and recent actions.  This way, I can keep tabs on her despite being 80 miles away at school.  Facebook, the newest internet start-up, is a social networking site that originally targeted college students, but has now expanded its audience to include anyone with an e-mail address.  Users can belong to different networks based on the college they attended, where they live, or where they work.  Facebook is unique in that its owner, Mark Zuckerberg, has decided to keep the company independent, despite offers from corporations such as Yahoo for as much as $1 billion.  With over 50 million members, Facebook is enormously successful, but has created its fair share of controversy.  Twice recently, Facebook users opposing new additions to the site successfully petitioned to have them removed, saying that it was imposing on their privacy.  Colleges and universities, the thriving ground of Facebook, have also begun to wonder whether Facebook causes privacy issues, with threats and other disturbing information appearing on the different profiles. 

Annotated Bibliography

References 

Facebook (2008).  http://www.facebook.com.  Retrieved January 31, 2008.

 

Facebook recently opened a new option called “applications” which allows users to personalize the look of their page.  This page has several applications, including “Bumper Stickers” which are little stickers that display pictures or sarcastic messages that you can send to your friends, and “Superpoke”, which takes the original “poke” application from Facebook and takes it to an extreme, allowing anyone to “do” a multitude of things to their friends.  

  Klassen, A., & Hampp, A. (2007, July 9).  This 23-year-old has Google sweating.  Advertising

Age, 78(27).  Retrieved January 25, 2008, from ProQuest database.

 

Klassen and Hampp argue that the new internet sensation, Facebook, could potentially turn users away from search engines such as Google because it allows people to search the web and connect to each other at the same time.  While Facebook has the same essential purpose as its main competitor, MySpace, its audience is growing much faster than MySpace’s did, although MySpace still has more users at 69 million.  Facebook’s newest addition, “applications”, allow other developers to advertise through the site, and allow users to share information that they might otherwise go elsewhere to get.

  

Lupsa, C. (2006, December 13).  Facebook: A campus fad becomes a campus fact; The social

networking website isn’t growing like it once did, but only because almost every US student is already on it.  Christian Science Monitor.  Retrieved January 25, 2008, from ProQuest database.

 

Lupsa argues that Facebook is a fad that campus administrators and faculty members are desperately trying to catch up with because of its influential effects.  Staff members are making profiles, and campus organizations use it to advertise for events.  However, with the good comes the bad; Facebook makes it easier to harass, stalk, and threaten people, with or without their knowledge.  This has caused some colleges to take action, attempting to ban the website.

  Story, L. & Stone, B. (2007, November 30).  Facebook retreats on online tracking.  New York

Times.  Retrieved January 28, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com.

 

The authors report that Facebook has recently had to reign in its new advertising program, called Beacon, due to the outcry from users.  The program tracks what users purchase from other websites and broadcasts it to their friends through a Facebook advertisement.  Users wanted to be able to opt out of the program through the settings on their Facebook profiles, which is now an option, although it wasn’t before.  Facebook executives stick by their decision to use the program, saying that users will eventually grow used to it.

  Vauhini, V. (2007, May 21).  Facebook opens its pages as a way to fuel growth.  Wall Street

Journal.  Retrieved January 25, 2008, from ProQuest database. 

 

Vauhini writes that Facebook’s owners have made a strategic decision to open its pages to other companies to offer their services through the website, potentially creating a web hub similar to Yahoo.  While other start-up sites like MySpace and YouTube have sold out to larger corporations, Facebook has remained independent.  At the time the article was written, Facebook’s user base had doubled in the previous six months, and was adding another 100,000 users per day.  It had also increased its user potential by opening the site to everyone with an e-mail address, not just a university e-mail address as it had previously been.