Facebook is not merely a social networking website or a broadly popular online destination—it is a teenage cultural phenomenon! The New York Times calls it the second largest and one of the fastest growing sites on the web. What do our Teens feel about this media winner and their favorite website? In this issue we bring Teen views on the site that keeps them socially connected 24/7. Vinitra, Rachel and Ines tell us what they think about Facebook…read on…

The Upside of Facebook

“You’re on Facebook? Again?” My mother’s voice rings through the house. “I thought you just checked Facebook two seconds ago!” “You don’t understand, Mom!” I shout back. “Someone just wrote on my wall! I need to reply to them!” As expected, she doesn’t commiserate. My parents have trouble understanding why exactly teenagers check Facebook so much—all the time, in fact.

They mostly ask the usual questions: Why can’t you just call someone and speak to them for a minute instead of having a prolonged conversation on each others’ walls that lasts a day or more? Why do you put up everything on Facebook, including your pictures and notes on what you’re doing? Why do you need to update your status every few minutes? Why do you need to check the walls of each of your groups every day? Why do you friend people that you’ve only seen one time? Why is having a huge number of friends such a status symbol? Why do you have to join a group for your every interest?

Because, well…Facebook is just generally awesome! If it has the resources, why not use it? We talk, we laugh, we share pictures and videos, and somewhere in the middle of it all, we connect with each other. Groups let us share our interests: for example, when I join a group like “Hugh Laurie for James Bond” or “If I Get Sick I Want to be Cured by Gregory House,” I immediately join a legion of House, M.D. fans. Joining Facebook was one of the best things that happened to me. Facebook offers unparalleled connectivity with the rest of my social circle 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And no telephone call can match that!

Vinitra Rangan

24/7 Connection

Despite the many fears among parents of teens that Facebook is merely a breeding ground for stalkers, the social networking tool actually provides teens with a variety of practical, modern ways to keep in touch with their friends, plan events, show their support for causes through joining groups, and sharing their pictures. One of the most important aspects of Facebook to me has been the fact that I can keep in touch with my friends and family from my home countries, England and Ireland. Facebook allows me to talk to my friends in London, who I haven’t seen since I was 9 years old, find out their plans for university, and arrange to meet up with them this summer. If I had to rely on phoning them to keep in touch, it probably would have taken forever for me to track down their numbers, and all of the long distance calls would have left me with a colossal phone bill. Facebook is free, extremely straight-forward to use, and makes it really easy to find old friends. It is particularly useful for sons and daughters of World Bank staff, because most of us have lived in many different countries, and Facebook for us is like a means of communicating freely with the friends we’ve made in those different places. I know that when I travel to Dublin this summer for university, I will still use Facebook to see how my American friends are doing at college. I’m sure that even after the World Bank Teen Summer program is over on July 17th, that many of us will use the I. T. I. W. group we’ve created to keep in touch in the future.

Rachael Moss

Events on Facebook

Thanks to the Facebook application “Events”, now you don’t have to worry about making invites and printing papers. It’s a lot easier than that, all you have to do is follow simple steps and write all the information needed for people to know about the event you are creating. It saves you paper, money, and time! You can use it to promote marketing events, sponsored parties, or even product launches. Your event page can include pictures, videos, discussion walls, and links to other websites, and the greatest thing of all, you they won’t even have to call you to RSVP, there’s a space in the page where they can let you know if they will attend your event or not.

Ines Nin