Most use this to share information and 'fun times' with their friends.
However, they are warned not to over-expose themselves and their follies because potential employers can sometimes 'check the credentials' of applicants by logging onto their Facebook page, to see if they can glean a more detailed view of their character.
Sometimes, if they see references to illegal behaviour (such as drug-taking) or comments about 'chucking a sickie' after a hard night out, they will use this as a black mark against the applicant. Some firms in the US even ask the applicant to log on to their Facebook page during the interview, so that such things can be discussed.
On the other hand, depending on the type of job, some evidence that the candidate has a circle of socially acceptable friends, or attends parties and/or other social gatherings – or even political meetings – may be seen as a positive aspect of their character, giving them extra 'points' when being assessed for a job.
www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/beware-getting-off-your-facebook-20110101-19cj7.html
Sometimes, however, it is not the 'truth' that the employer might see, but purposefully malicious gossip.
www.ntnews.com.au/article/2011/01/19/207491_ntnews.html
The Christchurch New Zealand earthquake disaster has shown how the internet and Facebook has become so important to communications.
www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/web-acts-as-virtual-crisis-centre-for-christchurch-quake-victims-20110223-1b4iq.html
This is a fascinating insight into modern communication. It doesn't take a 'genius' to suggest that everyone should be a little more aware of what they put on such social media, and that many young people are often more engrossed with their developing opinions on a host of issues rather than thinking 10-15 years ahead.
Yet, Well-Being Australia Chairman Mark Tronson thinks that Facebook shows how we are made to communicate with one another. It is part of the way in which we, as human beings, have been created. It also points us in the direction that we are created to communicate with God.
The highest purpose on earth is to communicate with our creator, and in a real sense Facebook illustrates the private nature of such communication – it is initially done in privacy. Prayer is like this, our heart communicating in private with the Lord. The Bible is His communication with us in how through the Holy Spirit, Scriptures speak to our minds and hearts.
It is this enjoyment of Bible reading in communicating with the Living God that so many over the centuries have spoken of and why people have been willing to make huge personal sacrifices.
Moreover it is available to everyone due to the innovation of printing, but it wasn't always thus. In the Middle Ages, people had to rely on the clergy reading the few hand-made copies aloud – in a language such as Latin that was not familiar to them.
The technological breakthrough of the mass printing press, in its day, was as controversial as Facebook is today – and as far-reaching in its consequences.
Mark Tronson muses that, like printing, Facebook, has been beneficial for missionaries as a convenient way to communicate with their network of prayer and mission supporters. He himself uses Facebook for some personal communications, but uses the electronic convenience of a weekly Blog site to communicate with his supporters via summaries and photographs of his various activities.
He feels he has more control of the long-term editing process this way, and thus avoiding some of the pitfalls of people in the future reading or viewing items out of context.
However the younger generation decides to communicate, they are complying with messages within The Scripture, which implore people to communicate the message of Jesus' Salvation such as Matthew 27's Great Commission.
Mark Tronson's Mission Blog is: regularupdatesonournews.blogspot.com