The Third-Person Effect: New Hazards and Interpersonal Issues Arising from Facebook Users

           Without even having to ask the question to begin with, I know you have a Facebook. You as a college student reading this are more likely to have one than any other group of individuals whether it is because of Facebook’s networking power or us just being more social at this point in life than any other point in our lives. But this also goes without saying that we are all affected by the negative effects that may arise from Face book too. Beside from all the known problems that can occur like addiction and the issues with its privacy, other problems like becoming less likely “to visit social networking sites recommended by friends” are becoming more and more common every day. These happenings are nothing less than a shocker and mind-blowing. How can a site, an intangible group of related web pages, have such off-putting effects? This site, to some, is how they use to blow steam or at least kill some time before you went out on a Friday night, but now you are telling me that there are more issues that may occur within us interpersonally? According to Dr. Angela Paradise and Meghan Sullivan, this is proven to be true through science.

The Hazards Facebook is Now Proven to Implicate

            From their research study/paper entitled, “(In) Visible Threats? The Third-Person Effect in Perceptions of the Influence of Facebook,” Dr. Paradise and Meghan Sullivan have proven that people have shown to be more indifferent to other’s situations/relationships, have basically caused a negative perception of all our friends (overall), except for those we deem “close friends,” and has created this “immunity” effect with each individual person. This immunity effect is the phenomenon that everyone thinks they are safe from the hazards of Facebook whether it be from how strong they think their privacy settings are or what they think their odds are of being hacked by a “friended” person. All-in-all, a significant amount of the people in the questionnaire said that others are more susceptible than themselves to their hazards. Wow! It almost seems like Facebook users are seemingly developing into worse human beings the more and more we utilize it.

            According to the study, you are more likely to be apathetic and indifferent to seeing a close friend moving from “in a relationship” to “single” on Facebook than ever. To you, seeing another person being hacked on Facebook with some crazy “status update” or lascivious/provocative picture clearly done by a complete stranger or mean friend deserves a reaction of “meh.” And to add, with this being the most ironic of them all, you even becoming more and more distant from those you decided to friend because you lost touch with them in the first place due to the fact that you don’t consider them a “close friend”. Well, of course you don’t consider them a close friend. You are trying to rekindle that old flame that use to be, to get them back to the “close friend” status; but according to this study, it doesn’t matter. That person will have a lesser chance of becoming closer to you on Facebook than ever, and that’s not what Facebook was made to be. All of these negative effects (maybe keeping the “immunity” mindset effect exempted) were suppose to be addressed and lessen through the use of Facebook's "friending" and profile services, but Facebook itself is becoming the evil monster spewing out all these unthinkable problems.

Is the studies credible?

            I think it’s fair to say that the study is far from perfect and under-represents almost all demographics for their individual effects, due to the statistics being based off questionnaires given to Caucasian, college students in a specific region. The study even states the possibility of this phenomenon of “immunity” being credited to the all people having “biased optimism” and needs for “ego enhancement,” or one’s “feeling they are superior to others” and “judging one’s self as more competent than others” respectively; but, the study is still credible for its outcomes in my eyes. Facebook users thinking that they are impervious or not targeted is not an old phenomenon (although the mindset that creates it isn't), so the study proves to be significant in its own right to help gain more knowledge on social website effects. Dr. Paradise and Meghan Sullivan have made strides in proving that Facebook has more issues than what the most successful social network puts on its “Known Issues” page, and it definitely proves to be interesting whether you approve or disapprove their credibility. I just wish I cared more to post this on my page to let everyone else know of the hazards; but then again, it’s effects aren’t going to affect me so why worry right?