Technology today is at its fastest pace: robots, nanotechnology, supercomputers and many more. Internet activities such as online blogging, role-playing games and social networking sites are amongst the most popular technologies these days. Social networking sites are growing nowadays. From Friendster, Myspace to Facebook, Facebook is the social networking site that is most popular and used globally. I, myself, have a facebook account. In this paper, facebook and its impact to the youth today will be studied through a personal critical examination and reflection of my own facebook account.

Facebook is a social networking site that became popular because of its interactive applications such as games, etc. It is just like any other social networking site that allows the expression of your feelings. You have your wall, where you can post your ideas, thoughts and emotions. Also, your friends can post something in your wall. These are very interesting and catchy features of facebook that makes it irresistible to young generations today. However, there are existing issues such as invasion of privacy concerning the use of social networking sites. According to Alex Koppelman, teenagers who used Myspace illegally were arrested. These teenagers complained about the invasion of their privacies. But how really are public social networking sites promoting the invasion of privacy?

My facebook profile is a personal account that only my friends and family shared. However, I also take into consideration the fact that facebook is a public domain. That is why I do not provide every bit of personal information that I possess. For example, my birthdate is limited to only the month and the day; I do not put the year. This is to protect someone from copying my profile and birthdates are important parts of a profile. Another point is that I do not believe that it is an invasion of privacy because in the first place, it is a public domain. It is a site opened for everyone; it is free. A person should be responsible enough to protect his own privacy, meaning spilling the amount of private information in public is under a person's consent. Facebook is an outlet for me to say what I feel or think to people that is close to me, family and friends. It is a venue for talking to old friends, friends that are very distant in terms of geographical locations.

For me, facebook has changed me in the way I think about communication. It is the simplest way I can describe my relationship with facebook. I am not a fan of facebook. I believe that it is just a simple, fun and effective way of communicating with your friends and family. Facebook changed the way I think about sending messages. In the past, people used to send "snail" mails just to deliver news or a greeting to a distant friend or family member. Today, you just need to have an internet connection and a computer to be able to talk to you friends and family. It is a very convenient method of communication. This attests to the point that Sherry Turkle explicitly defined. Sherry Turkle said that we are computer people now; we should choose and be critical about working on computers. Do not let it run your life. You should be the one to assess if a computer or a social networking site is ruining the way that your life should function. Be people that are inquire, that assess, that think. Do not lose the thinking method because of these technological innovations. Use them. Don't let yourself be the one used.