Sarah Al Shaybani - With Friends Like These Summary.

Hodgkinson, T. (2008, January 14). With friends like these [Article History].
Retrieved from The Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/

With friends like these criticizes Facebook by stating mostly the harm that it can cause our societies nowadays. If it is considered beneficial, then the reasons are possibly very trivial or minor. The author speaks of how we have become so attached to the virtual world, rather than being connected to our real world. For example, we wish people happy birthdays and merry Christmases online rather than to try and meet our loved ones for support when it comes to holidays and occasions as such. We are judged by our appearances through pictures and videos, and judged by our popularity if we do or do not have enough friends on Facebook. Moreover, we are somewhat disconnected from  what life can offer us because of our society's attachment to online communities such as Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr, and that leads us back to the point of quantity vs. quality. Societies have preferred the quantity of what online and virtual communities can offer over the quality of what our life can offer.

I have always agreed to how superficial and ridiculous the idea of putting Facebook (or anything that is related to the matter) as one of the priorities in life. It might not be the top of our priorities, and it might not be in our most-important-priorities kind of list. But our Facebook accounts are surely checked by us every day, most of us…if not all. And putting all the disadvantages or the negativity aside, most people, including me, know that the above criticism about Facebook is true and very disappointing, but we still own accounts and we still engage ourselves in whatever this generation is offering, and surely more will be offered from the next.