It's also revolutionized the way we stay in touch with people we barely know. A near-stranger adds you on Facebook and suddenly you're privy to
their personal network of friends. Which, for nosy people, might be kind of a
voyeuristic thrill, but may leave others feeling a little hollow. Especially if they have more "friends" than friends.
Fear not; those "friendships" with near-strangers might actually be good for you. Or at least help you find a new job or apartment.
A report compiled by Hkan Selg, a doctoral candidate at the Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, reveals that having a long list of Facebook friends, even if most of them are people the user doesn't know well, gives the user access to highly useful networks.
More and more, people are turning to Facebook with questions or requests for help. Why not? It's free. Instead of paying to access apartment listing websites, you can just hop on Facebook and change your status update.
And the larger your circle of friends/"friends" is, the better chance you have of finding someone who can help you.
Facebook has also made it so people can establish foundations for their activities or business ideas even if they have little to no money to start. After all, it's free to post a link to your blog or website via your status update.
"A realistic effect of social media is that many costs of running operations will decline in the long run. This will probably enable more people to start their own businesses in the future, thus successively altering working life," says Selg.
Big businesses are benefiting from using Facebook, too. They can establish a list of "fans" to advertise to and get consumer feedback on new projects without having to pay a third party company to do the leg work for them.
One of the more interesting facts to emerge from the study is how social media runs counter a major trend in our information society. Normally, companies and public authorities were first to utilize new forms of technology and communication (like cell phones, e-mail, and Web pages) and individuals followed suit.
With social media, the tables are turned. The individual harnessed the networking power first and companies are scrambling to get in on the action.
