Why You Are On Facebook

With more than 400 million active users, Facebook is probably the most used social network worldwide. So many people can not be wrong. Something's going on on Facebook that makes people come back on a daily basis. It's the need to socialize. We people couldn't live in isolation. We need our society. I thought that in exchange of all the time and money we spend socializing on Facebook, we must get something more valuable and more valued in return. Here's the list I've come up with.

1. Facebook helps us keep in touch with friends and family.

2. Facebook provides the means to make new friends.

3. On Facebook you have to be spontaneous and funny; or not even your mother would be interested in what you have to say. Many have said before that keeping it short and funny is the key to success. You don't have to write a book to express a great idea or to make yourself understood.

4. On Facebook you have to be creative, to always find means to entertain your friends and keep the friendships alive. These two last points might seem harsh, but the offline world is harsh too. If you are not on the same page as the people around you, if you are boring and do not bringing anything new in a relationship, people will just look in a different direction.

5. You can develop your social skills. Oh, yes! Facebook users can click a button and you are out of their circle. You either are polite and respect others or you are banned to face an empty book. Relationships might grow strong, but you have to work on that. You can not take people for granted because people won't allow to be taken for granted, especially when there are two screens and a lot of empty space between you and them.

6. You can easily grasp the difference between quantity and quality. Quantity is when you get a lot of gift requests and apps on your wall, quality is when you can actually understand what people are posting on your wall.

7. A screen and a wall can make you more aware of the fact that people have feelings and a certain rhythm. That's something you learn about yourself and extrapolate to others. Being too pushy won't get you there faster.

8. When you don't know much about somebody and you can't see that person either it's even worse than a blind date. And that can be so refreshing as you start clean and no prejudice stands in your way. When you don't put people in tiny labeled boxes right from the beginning you actually might get the change to know them. And you might be pleasantly surprised that in spite of different nationalities, skin color, religion, or looks you have a great deal in common.

9. Probably the most important thing one gets to realize when socializing blind folded like this is that you are not alone. You can always find people ready to listen to what you have to say, to give you a piece of advice when needed (or not), to share your interests with, or to keep you company. Whatever stumbles on you, stumbles on others too.

10. Being on Facebook is somehow cool. It is today's fashion. You can exercise your slang. Nobody cares if you have a bad grammar. So down with the inhibitions. You can be yourself.

I guess these apply to most social networking sites, not only to Facebook, but since they are bigger and better than everybody else, they caught my attention. So my opinion is, as said before, that too much of something good can be bad for you, but if you keep it moderated, on a personal level you can actually get something in return.