Facebook: Needed or Not?

[Resilient]

I've noticed that people today are becoming increasingly reliant to Facebook. I, personally do not have a Facebook account, but my classmates are constantly pressuring me to make one because I'm the only one who doesn't have one. They say that having Facebook can help me in my studies because they get to remind you about homework and things to bring. They also say that it's a way to connect with people, but I already connect with lots of people at school. Personally, I don't think it's needed, but it's so hard to take that when my classmates say that we have to bring something on Facebook and I didn't know that we needed to bring it, they blame me for not having Facebook. Honestly, I am not ready for Facebook, and what I mean by that is that I have so much problems in my life that I don't want people to find out, so being out in the open in Facebook will not help those problems. So to all the people out there, can you give me your opinion, do you think Facebook is needed in modern life, or not? Because people are starting to discriminate me for not having one.

[Zephyr]

People shouldn't discriminate or force you to have facebook, especially your friends. I only signed up not that long ago because I felt I was missing out, not because of peer pressure or anything. I hardly post anything on facebook. The only time I would go on facebook was when I was EXTREMELY bored.

I'm not sure if it's needed or not, but people definitely rely on it way too much. The statuses some people create are really annoying and pathetic too. I have a friend who, unfortunately, seeks attention through facebook. She has gained a lot of guy friends that way, and she regularly creates statuses obviously begging for their specific attention.
Facebook is also a pretty popular place for fights to spark. I've logged in plenty of times to see friends of mine cuss about someone they hate, and that someone seeing that and reacting similarly.

I think facebook is silly with silly users, and it's not an absolute necessity in life to have an account.

[Resilient]

I completely see and agree with you but do you think that in the future, Facebook will be a necessity?

[ShenziSixaxis]

Okay, the way you stated the question isn't all that great. The way I see, "needed" means you need it to get by in day to day life, to which the answer is obviously no. Do you need deodorant? A computer? Glasses? Etc.

Now, can Facebook be USEFUL? Yes, very much so. "Pathetic and annoying" statuses? Zephyr, maybe you should tell your... friends, that you find their statuses so unpleasing. Facebook is made good or bad by who consists of your friends list, what you do, what they do, and so forth.
Also, "silly with silly users" extends to EVERYONE who uses FB, including MS users. That's, uh, a very nice thing to say.

Glop, if you don't want your friends or classmates to find out what's going on about your life via Facebook, then don't post it. No person or thing makes you post this or that on it. And why even say if you do or don't have Facebook? That's no one's business but yours. Instead of "yes" or "no" being the answer to "Do you have FB?", you can very much so also simply answer something such as "that's none of your business".

Besides connecting with friends through statuses and so forth, there are also nice little Flash based web browser games to play on FB. Most are free, with the option of buying items in the game, or paying IRL money to get a second currency in the game.

Are there any questions you have?


EDIT: In the future, I highly doubt it will be a necessity to have an FB, but only perhaps a great help/negative in life. It may be helpful if you have a "business" profile for employers and co-employees to look at and be friends with. However, you can and should have your FB privacy settings to high so that no one but friends (or in some cases, friends of friends if you so choose) can see your statuses and so forth.

[Cassowary]

I don't see it ever becoming a necessity, and nothing (besides basic things required for life) are necessary persay - heck, even Google isn't a necessity. It does, however, make some things more convenient. I find it's a good way of keeping tabs of people I've lost track of in the past - old school friends, etc. It's also a good way of getting news and such, provided you keep your feed vetted for clutter.

I think it's really all a matter of how you use the site.

[Soleil]

I don't see it ever becoming a necessity, and nothing (besides basic things required for life) are necessary persay - heck, even Google isn't a necessity. It does, however, make some things more convenient. I find it's a good way of keeping tabs of people I've lost track of in the past - old school friends, etc. It's also a good way of getting news and such, provided you keep your feed vetted for clutter.

I think it's really all a matter of how you use the site.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Do I NEED my facebook? Absolutely not. I could do without it if I had to, however that is the sole means of contact I have with my international friends. We can't text/call nor do they have things such as Skype.

Facebook is more about convenience than anything else. No one needs it, but it is very useful and convenient.

[Byakugan01]

Quite frankly, I don't think so. Why? Well, like anything, FB can be good or bad. Bad if you're addicted to it, and I've noticed many people seemed to be obsessed with FB, constantly checking their pages even in the middle of class. I myself do not have one, simply because I do not see the need and do not wish to put in the effort-my circle of IRL friends is very limited, and I have their numbers and in some cases IM addresses. If we want to socialize we can, and I generally meet up with my best friend about once a week to unwind. Do we need Facebook for this? not really. Would it help us in some way? Not as far as I can tell. Now, it could be good if networking through it led to someone landing a job opportunity or something else of concrete value, but from my perspective it seems to be a huge drain on people's time. Of course, I have only seen a limited subset of people using it (I.E., college students), so of course their use of it may not reflect how it is treated by the rest of the public. Keep in mind, though, that as far as I am aware MySpace was a huge thing for a while, but it eventually petered out. The same thing could happen with FB.

[GrowlingCupcake]

I don't see it ever becoming a necessity, and nothing (besides basic things required for life) are necessary persay - heck, even Google isn't a necessity. It does, however, make some things more convenient. I find it's a good way of keeping tabs of people I've lost track of in the past - old school friends, etc. It's also a good way of getting news and such, provided you keep your feed vetted for clutter.

I think it's really all a matter of how you use the site.

Definitely agree.

Facebook is not a necessity but it can be extremely useful. Several of my friends have their own businesses and facebook is a highly convenient way for them to get more clients, etc. For me, I keep in touch with friends, with family via it. I get to see their photos, I get to be involved in their lives even though they're scattered all over the world and some I haven't seen in years. Not all of them are big IM users. For instance, my cousins aren't and they live in a different country from me so I can't easily meet them or call them cheaply. Facebook allows us to talk and keep in touch.

I think it can also depend on who is in your friends list. Some people have annoying statuses. Some don't.

[Cent]

Frankly, I, myself, do not have a facebook account, and so my opinion may be slightly flawed, but.

I believe that Facebook is not, and never will be, an everyday neccessity. It may be important if you need to get in touch with someone, or if you're bored, but it won't ever be a necessity. Different people may think it's different, but I don't think it's like that.

[Resilient]

Thanks for your opinions. I guess it's ironic though that I used 'needed' a little to strongly because almost everyday in school people keep saying to me "You need to have a Facebook account, because it will help you in studies and...blah blah blah" and they constantly pressure me to make a Facebook account to the point that they start discriminating me (even the teachers are starting to question me!). I guess what I meant about those 'problems' was this:

IF I DON'T HAVE FACEBOOK: People will discriminate me (even my friends are starting to). To tell you the truth, I'm not the most respected student in our batch (if you know what I mean) and having people discriminate me will just add to the burden of bullying and teasing, it's actually starting to get to me.

IF I HAVE FACEBOOK: Cyber-bullying will occur. If it wasn't obvious, my parents don't know about the bullying. So having Facebook just gives my classmates another way to tease me and I don't think my parents will be happy if they find out. That plus the family problems we have now won't help.

So as you can see, I'm sort of stuck between a rock in a hard place. So I guess the better question is "Do you think people rely too much on Facebook?" or "Do you think having no Facebook account will lead to future discrimination?"