Friend or Foe?

No one can deny that Facebook is a phenomenal success. I guess the original purpose is finding long lost friends and networking. However, it has evolved so much that sometimes I wonder if it is friend or foe.

A male friend always calls me up to test his privacy settings. He doesn't want certain friends to see pictures or information of him that would "sabotage" his friendship with another group of friends.

I have tempered with the privacy button as well. Not that I have any secrets on facebook, of all places, but I certainly just want "my friends" to see my status and stuff that goes on in my life. So, my privacy setting is always "only friends".

On a particular day, I found 3 girlfriends changing their status from "in a relationship" or "it's complicated" to "single". Then came the bombardment of comments and questions from other friends about their new found status.

On another occasion, a friend has repeatedly stated that she was feeling sad/blue/disappointed in her status. Her boss's boss is so concerned about her, that he has called her boss to see if she is okay.

Well, I think that the last example is a bit like Big Brother watching. Has facebook become our foe?