Man is by nature a social animal. There used to be chaupals in villages where people would sit in the evening and gossip while smoking Hookah turn by turn. The city life brought in existence clubs where people would not only play games but also socialize, chat and drink. There are different clubs and association for journalists, poets etc. There is a well known coffee house in Delhi where the intellectuals, poets, and political thinkers would meet.

The invent of computer based internet revolutionized the way people socialize. Not only email but chatting is facilitated. There are several social websites that facilitate interaction between people. Orkut and Facebook are two important sites, There is also twitter that is popular among high dignitaries.

Facebook has gained more popularity owing to some user friendly features. There is privacy option. One may write all details about his likes and dislikes and join a group of like minded person on facebook. The site is also as facilitator for promoting cause. The recent anna led anti corruption movement organised by India against corruption owes a lot to facbook interaction. It will not be wrong to say that credit for anna movement success goes largely to electronic media, twitter and facebook. This also explains why this movement was so much urban based.

Children will ignore their studies if they get addicted to facebook. The minimum age for joining facebook should be fifteen and tthis should need approval by children's parents' guardians.

I hope that the GD is upto 5th September and not 5th august, that has already passed.

The popularity for facebook amongst youth is very simple, it allows them to connect to their friends/colleagues etc. in a simple and real manner.

Before facebook, everyone use to flock to yahoo chat rooms and honestly most of the members in the chat rooms operated with fake ids and wrong intentions.

Then emerged facebook with allowed users to share everything in real time and get comments/feedback on it real time. It instantly became popular with the youth 'coz in todays competitive scenario they hardly had time to meet their friends/relatives personally but facebook changed all that.

Now youths can share status, give updates about their whereabouts, post pictures, tag their friends etc etc.

Businesses also have flocked facebook and they run events and offer discounts to youths. If anyone is active on Fb, they will know there is a huge campaign going on for free facebook tshirts and faceboom pendrive. Fb users will be getting them for free.

Also companies and colleges have created facebook pages and they share the latest news there. So youth regularly keeps a tab on that too and it retroactively increases their facebook usage time.

These are some of the many endless reason why facebook is getting more popular among the youth.

And as far as the age limit goes, it is already there. The age limit is 13 years and you can flag and report any profile which contains material which are not suitable for viewing for a 13 year old.

When creating a log on in facebook, already the set limit to join in 13 yrs. Facebook automatically blocks the person with the message saying that "you are not entitled to join"

I agree with Gulsan ji's opinions-the limit for joining facebook must be extended to 15 yrs of age.

This is so because facebook has got all potentials for prospective businesses and jobs; but the youths misuse them and use for only personal reasons

Due to the straightforwardness attitude in Facebook, there are many 'hate' pages and groups that can change or alter the psychology of the youths which might mislead them into doing something they might regret.

For example, if there is a page called "I hate Studies" ; then students will join the page and get inclined towards it so much so that they will not study and not be prosperous in their studies career. There is no alternate solutions given in them, but only the anger towards the 'hate' is discussed.

This will create a barrier in the minds of the youth and their opinions will be biased.

Man is by nature a social animal. There used to be chaupals in villages where people would sit in the evening and gossip while smoking Hookah turn by turn. The city life brought in existence clubs where people would not only play games but also socialize, chat and drink. There are different clubs and association for journalists, poets etc. There is a well known coffee house in Delhi where the intellectuals, poets, and political thinkers would meet.

The invent of computer based internet revolutionized the way people socialize. Not only email but chatting is facilitated. There are several social websites that facilitate interaction between people. Orkut and Facebook are two important sites, There is also twitter that is popular among high dignitaries.

Facebook has gained more popularity owing to some user friendly features. There is privacy option. One may write all details about his likes and dislikes and join a group of like minded person on facebook. The site is also as facilitator for promoting cause. The recent anna led anti corruption movement organised by India against corruption owes a lot to facbook interaction. It will not be wrong to say that credit for anna movement success goes largely to electronic media, twitter and facebook. This also explains why this movement was so much urban based.

Children will ignore their studies if they get addicted to facebook. The minimum age for joining facebook should be fifteen and tthis should need approval by children's parents' guardians.

Gulshanji, I agree with your views in general, but I would beg to differ from some of the generalizations put forth by you.

Firstly I think we should not compare offline meets to online networking. Online networking can never beat real world meetings.

Online networking gained popularity as people felt that they were getting aloof from their family and friends due to time constraints. So first came email, it was quickly popular and it still is but it was faceless, not much emotions conveyed.

Then came messengers, they gave users capability of real time chatting, voice call and video chat, but soon it was misused and it was filled with fake profiles and spam bots.

Then came orkut and it's scrapbooking, while immensely popular in brazil and India, it lost its charm in US and is losing it's charm in India as well due to the top of the class features provided by facebook. Infact most of the features orkut introduced where a kneejerk reaction to facebook features. Infact when Google Plus goes live, Google may even scrap orkut just like it did with wave.


And coming specifically to the topic which is why Facebook is popular among youths, the reason is facebook does not makes you feel alone. I mean suppose you have a certain view and your friends and family don't support that view you would feel isolated but on facebook, you will find many like minded people and that encourages the youth to participate more. Let's elaborate on the example you gave.

The Anna hazare movement got popular on Facebook and was one of the prime factor of it's success. Why? Well if you would have expressed your support in the real world to real people, most people would have rubbished off your views saying "YE POLITICIANS KA KUCH NAHI HO SAKTA, KUCH FAYDA NAHI HE FAST KARKE, DNT WASTE YOUR TIME". But on facebook you can support an event and see how many people support an event, so things goes viral on facebook. I mean the same people who said to you "ke kuch nahi ho sakta", would see that 1 lakh people are already supporting the movement, so they will support too.

So this expressing of views and finding like minded people have led youths to use facebook more.

Kalyani, correct me if I am wrong...The second part of the GD says, should there be an age limit for joining facebook which as I said in my earlier posts already exists.

DO we even have to argue on the point that it should be increased?

I mean it won't go well with the first part which specifically says youth and by youth one automatically knows that we talking of 16 years and above. So the second part wont make much of a sense. Next time we can have a topic like "Are Students Getting Addicted to Facebook and should the minimum age to use facebook be increased"

Anyways, I am ready to discuss the second part if it means discussing whether the age limit should increase or not, just thought would clear with you before post my views.

The topic is nice but something more could be added as the same answer will come from all members. :)
However, this is my first impression on Facebook, it is money earning site, which most of the people do not know. There are many money earning program in facebook. But most of the time we end up using it as a social networking site sharing some videos, music and photos etc. Some companies are also hiring people through this site as it is cheapest way to find a employee and hire them.

I have also heard that in Western countries people search for doctors and any other service and use Facebook as a web directory. Sometimes even a lost friend whom you havent met for year can also be found. I have found such friends of mine many time. :P :) So Facebook can be stated a complete package.

Regarding the age limit it is as stated by other members, is already there which is 13 years. However most of the Internet site generally give 18 years as limit which is not the case of FAcebook as it is of US origin.
In US they feel that after 13 years children are quiet matured. However, the misuse is always there in Web. Even after restriction given which is 13 years who knows whether the owner of the account has crossed 13 years. If fake ids can be created, why not fake information? :huh: The restriction of the age is checked by a software, not a human and it only allow depending on information provided by individual, which may not be completely right. :)

Arun jain- I gave some narration of chaupals and coffee house chats only to give a background. The real life interaction is more intimate. Social chatting is a human tendency and internet has facilitated this beyond imagination. additionally, everyone can interact at own time unlike real life interaction when both should be available at the same time. Thus you may write some thing at midnight and I may response next morning.

@Rajani K

Thanks for adding a new dimension to this GD. I was really wishing it to go this way. I would like to elaborate on your points with my personal experiences:

Firstly, you are so right that facebook is a money making site. I mean if done carefully we can make money and build long lasting business contacts. As of writing this post I have made 137 dollars from facebook directly but most of it was by creating facebook pages for small businesses and rest by doing microworks and taking surveys on fb.

And I have found many of my childhood friends and lost school friends on facebook. It is such a pleasant feeling.

And I wanted to elaborate on the age limit too, but wanted to clear with Kalyani first. Anyways since you have already initiated it, I would put forth my views.

As Rajani pointed out correctly Facebook is primarily a US company and follows US laws and culture. And there age 13 is considered to be a age where a child is considered mature and by age 16 a child moves out of his parents home. Thats their culture and I know it can be misused and it is being misused. But every business has it's pros and cons. And if anyone looks at the privacy policy, they have one of the best policies and their privacy policy has been awarded by Truste, one of the reputed company dealing in such things.