With the invasion of the Internet into our life, people started using it as the main source of information. Everywhere we go we hear about the Internet. It is on television, in magazines, newspapers, and in schools. One might think that this network of millions of computers around the globe is as fast and captivating as television, but with more and more users logging on everyday and staying on longer and longer, this “Information Superhighway” could be perhaps more correctly referred to as an expressway of big city center at rush hour. It is estimated that thirty five to forty millions users currently are on the Internet and their number is growing annually. According to a recent statistics, an average Internet call last five times as longer as the average regular telephone call.
The Internet has surpassed all other communications in its popularity and remains the most widespread medium, which attaches people all over the world. In its turn, Facebook is a website that becomes the most popular one within the Internet. It was founded in 2004 and at first was created only for the students of Harvard College. This good idea came to Mark Zuckerberg, who is the author of the website. The popularity of the site spread very quickly and in two years, in 2006, Facebook became accessible to all people all over the world. Today Facebook is in the top ten of the most visited sites and is rumored to have the income of $1,5 million per a week. The name “Facebook” comes from the facebooks that are distributed in some colleges in America for newcomers to get acquainted with other people in the campus. As it has already been mentioned, Facebook offers a great number of possibilities to express oneself.

Attracting millions of people and gradually replacing certain realities of our life, Facebook becomes the only means of communication for a large number of Internet users. It offers numerous facilities that allow people literally to live in the Internet. Thus, we can claim that Facebook favors the alienation of people from the real world and from their environment. Seeming to unite people all over the world, Facebook separates them and makes impersonal Internet pages their favorite place and people that they have never seen their best friends.
Due to such popularity of Facebook among people it has become not only a cause of alienation of people but also a means of fraud. If to take a broad view of the matter, Facebook is an immense database with the personal information of millions of people. The access to this information might lead to different pernicious effects. Identity theft is one of them. Using your name and personal data a criminal might do almost anything he or she wants – to obtain a credit or goods and services. Committing of crimes under somebody else’s name is widespread today. Many people do not even suspect that their personal information might be used without their knowledge and their web pages might be accessible to other people. Gathering information about others it is possible to manipulate other people, to blackmail them and to use them for private profit.
Another problem caused by Facebook is a strong possibility to infect a computer with a virus. In Facebook it is very easy to catch a virus as any link sent to you by a friend can be a virus. In fact, Facebook is a very convenient place for spreading viruses as sending different links is a common way of sharing of information. It is enough to access somebody’s page and it is possible to play the master on the website. One of the ways to get the personal information is phishing. It is used to cheat people into giving their passwords, usernames, other personal information, which is used in order for identity theft. Thus, we see that the defects of Facebook security form an exclusive circle.
The authorities of the site claim that the security is provided by the company TRUSTe and all the information is protected. However, it is obvious that gradually Facebook becomes a threat to our private life. If nothing is done sooner or later Facebook will lose many users because of problems with security. No wonder if bad security will become Facebook Achilles’ heel and will ruin the website. It only seems that these problems are vague until they happen to you.
Certainly it is impossible to deny the advantages of Facebook. It unites people, helps them find their friends and keep in touch with them, it contributes much to the exchange of information. However, it is necessary to see Facebook as a mere way of communication and not to be plunged into it, confusing imagined world with reality. I believe this topic is especially important in the context of modern globalization and craze for social sites. Today nearly every young person is a user of a social network site, among which Facebook occupies a primary place. Therefore, it is high time to draw people’s attention to this problem. Facebook involves, captures and does not let people off. Despite all its advantages, it works as a drug and makes people addicted. People lose the feeling of self-defense, they percept the virtual world as the real one, forgetting that they might be cheated.
To make a conclusion, nowadays society needs such social networking sites as Facebooks. Unfortunately few people regard Facebook as a website just for the exchange of information. For the majority of people it plays a much more important role. The need to express oneself, to assert oneself and to gain some status makes people search for new friends via the Internet and to maintain virtual relations, sometimes not even knowing whether the person is real. Thus, Facebook creates a false sense of belonging and favors alienation of people. However, together with psychological problems Facebook often becomes a source of problems with law. The security of the website has its defects. Identity theft, data mining, viruses and phishing are widespread on the site. It is possible that security might become the weak point of the website and lea to its decline.

References
Rosen, C. (2007). What Are Facebook Friends for? Retrieved January 12, 2008. from http://www.alternet.org/stories/66615/
Cellan-Jones R. (2008). Who polices Facebook? Retrieved January 12, 2008 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/11/who_polices_facebook.html
More Controversy around Facebook. (2008). Retrieved January 12, 2008 from http://techradar1.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/more-controversy-around-facebook/

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