Facebook-ing

People always say that if you been to China but not the Great Wall (万里长城), you haven't been to China yet. In the Internet these days, if you don't have a Facebook account, you haven't really seen the Internet yet!
Facebook claimed to have over 100Million users worldwide, with numbers increasing by the minutes! Sounds all good yeah?

Well, things could backfired sometimes. Let's look at some of the recent news:

Virgin Atlantic has sacked 13 of its cabin staff after they criticised the airline and some of its passengers on social networking website Facebook. More

More than a hundred gatecrashers wrecked a family home after a teenager's house party was advertised on the Facebook social website. One partygoer said: "It got out of control. "People were having sex in bedrooms, smoking cannabis and wrecking the front garden." More

Kyle Doyle, a 21-year-old resolutions expert for telecommunications firm AAPT, bragged about his day off on the social networking site while telling his employer he was away for "medical reasons". But he was found out when his boss spotted this Facebook profile update on the day in question, August 21: "Kyle Doyle is not going to work, f*** it I'm still trashed. SICKIE WOO!" More

There're many more of these cases where someone has been caught by their employer. So, updating your status in Facebook at the wrong time may result in serious consequences! A lot of companies have started to "ban" Facebook at work citing reasons of distractions, etc.

On the other hand, banning Facebook, Myspace or Hotmail may backfire at the employers in the long run. By cutting communication or social networking in an ever growing IT dependent society may not be the best move. In fact, employers should start looking into ways to incorporate the free service to their advantage! Perhaps increasing communication & improving relationships between staff members, get more "life" into their 9-5 routine, etc. After all, working is about having fun and enjoying what you are doing.

By the way, I know quite a few companies especially in Singapore have used MSN Messenger as a communication tools for their staffs. Cost effective! As long as they can deliver the results, why not? Companies can set guidelines to those networking websites or tools, but banning it without full understanding might do more harm than good in the long run.

Anyway, boys & girls, if you are dating secretly, may be wise not to add your parents or relatives into your Facebook! You might just need to explain your case sooner than expected. He he!