Matrix Staff Writer

Issue 2, Opinion

Every month, about 500 million  people spend 700 billion minutes on Facebook. The time spent on this impersonal, somewhat creepy social network is a waste.

This is a list of reasons for you to delete your Facebook account. That will probably never happen as Facebook makes it nearly impossible to actually terminate an account, which is perhaps a reason in itself to delete it.

Facebook is a social network, which connects millions of people worldwide. All different types of people—students, teachers, parents—can create an account in a matter of minutes.

Of these millions of people, you can become “friends” with anyone, so long as they accept the request. Becoming someone’s “friend” gives you access to photos, statuses, wall-posts and any other information on their profile.

Becoming someone’s friend does not imply that an actual friendship exists between the two of you. Facebook makes becoming someone’s friend less personal, because you usually end up with at least 100 friends.  In reality, most people have probably not talked to some of their “friends” in years.

Privacy settings allow you to block any of your “friends” or decide how much or how little of your information your friends can view.

However, many are still concerned that Facebook’s privacy settings are not strict enough to prevent cyber-predators from attacking.

My concern is not only about Facebook users who are potentially dangerous, but also that the time spent and activities that take place on Facebook are unhealthy.

16 percent of Athens High School students randomly polled admitted to “cyber-following” (also known as “Facebook stalking”) their peers.

In the past couple of years, cyber-bullying has become a problem throughout the nation.  In some cases, cyber-following and cyber-bullying go hand-in-hand. Many instances have led to suicide.

Although not all cases of cyber-following lead to cyber-bullying, it is still a serious issue.  It is unhealthy for both the person who is cyber-following, and the person who is being cyber-followed. The information from the person being cyber-followed is voluntarily displayed, but is it acceptable to know that much about someone’s life, especially if it was learned over the Internet?

The strange part of cyber-following is that sometimes you do not realize the consequences.  It is easy to look through pictures without realizing that it is actually creepy.

Keeping in touch with old friends or chatting with friends or family are healthy ways to use Facebook, but when it is used for following, it becomes unhealthy.

Many students complain that there are not enough hours in the day.  With school, sports, clubs, homework and sometimes work, they bearly have enough time to breathe.

However, according to an recent poll, students at AHS are spending up to three hours per day on Facebook.  Perhaps if this time were reduced, students would be able to sleep more, resulting in better performances during the days.

“I’ll admit, I spend way too much time on Facebook,” said Junior Cydney Crew. “I’ll get on just to check and see if I have any notifications, and an hour later I’ll realize that I need to start my homework.  I don’t mean to spend so much time on it—it’s just addicting.”