FIRST let us take a quick look at the statistics of Facebook – it was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo 
Saverin on February 4, 2004 in their Harvard dorm room initially to cater for their own in-house college students social networking purposes.
In September of 2006 it had first gone public and open for membership for anyone with a valid email address aged 13 and above. By June 2018, Facebook has 2.23 billion active users; exactly 30 per cent of the entire world’s population of 7.442 billion today! This means that every one in three of us has an active Facebook account!
This is the reason why a posting, any posting on a Facebook timeline or newsfeed, belonging either to a person, a page or a group; has the power to spread, disperse and make viral an item of news, event, emotion, opinion or threat. This is the new meaning of the power of the multiplying effect, and why there is now such a word as “viral”. It means exactly what the dictionary says – “goes viral” is an image, video, or link that spreads rapidly through a population by being frequently shared with a number of individuals.
Many of you may remember the People Power Revolution in 1986 in the Philippines which brought the then opposition figure Corazon Aquino into power as the President of the Philippine Islands. That was before the days of Facebook, but what was instrumental in getting her to overthrow the then government of the 21-year reign of Marcos was the “viral power of the cell phone” which was used in spreading the news of street rallies to call upon citizens to join in the march to hasten the fall of Marcos.
In the Arab Spring of 2011 which happened in Egpyt, the power of the viral social media sharing on smart phones had greatly dispersed the news and gathered the supporters of the common cause together at their designated venues.
Wikipedia states – “The first Bersih rally in Malaysia on 10 November 2007 was estimated to have drawn between 30,000 and 50,000 people. It was broken up by police using tear gas and chemical-laced water cannons. The rally was said to play a major role in helping the opposition parties make big gains in the 2008 general election.” That was the beginning of the end of the Barisan Nasional government which had ruled Malaysia since 1957. That first rally had not relied much on Facebook but subsequent rallies did benefit from its increased usage and the many ways that the social media leviathan had by then permeated into many citizens’ lives and daily routine.
As to be expected of any social media platform Facebook has its good points as well as its dark side.
Let me first dwell on the good that Facebook has been praised for and the many ways it has brought many new experiences to our lives.
Facebook has been responsible for bringing people together – especially long lost friends, family members, former colleagues and this list goes on. It has been responsible for finding people who had gone lost or missing; rescued pets and recovered vehicles or stolen properties; and continues to connect people in search for lost items and articles.
Speaking for myself I have a number of Facebook accounts, firstly one which is a personal account for friends and family; secondly one for my extended Sarawak Ong Clan family; thirdly one for my old alma mater school Thomian 1967; fourthly one for my former work colleagues Borneo-Sebor Alumni; and finally, the one which has kept me most busy since January 2015, a public account called Sarawak Public Feedback (https://www.facebook.com/groups/951272558218338/about/)
I started the public account three and a half years ago when Kuching had undergone one of its worst flooding phenomenon in recent years, it was called simply Kuching Flood Feedback. At that time no local authority had taken upon itself to do anything similar. My efforts did its small role in dispensing and sharing news, photos and alerts on where and when and how bad the flooding was throughout the affected areas. It brought much relief to those affected by it.
When the flood was over I announced that I was closing down the Public Group page; but the response from those few hundred members then was that I should continue to maintain the Group but widen the scope to encompass other natural disasters and allow members to post public feedback, opinions and complaints.
So I changed the name to Sarawak Public Feedback.
The newly revamped Group must be doing something right as within 3 years the membership increased to what it is today, 47,889 – an average growth of 1,450 new members every single month for the past 33 months. The interesting stats tell me that 40 pct are women and 60 pct men, with the highest age group at 56 pct of those aged 25-44. There are 127,000+ postings and comments on an average period of 28 days. Very active I must say!
What can be improved upon it? Plenty – but I would really love to see more posts on non-political issues and more on social, economic and meaningful discussions of what we as Sarawakians face on a day to day basis. Other subject matters like the sharing of a favourite hobby, book, movie, cooking recipe; a new place of interest you’ve discovered as a tourist spot, a new eatery or event or place of entertainment and so forth. Too much politics can be rather dull and monotonous – although that seems to be the reason why the discussion traffic there is so active!
Now on to the dark side of Facebook.
Just the other day some youthful chap was arrested for “threatening the life of the Chief Minister” on Facebook. Such occurrences are still quite a rarity, as they should be; and our law enforcement was swift to act and did make an arrest within a short time.
I did a quick Google search for similar bad news on Facebook and found many instances and record of FB postings and the guilty being arrested and charged and some imprisoned for making posts like death-threats; cases of unlawful relationships (sex with minors etc);photos taken at crime scenes; seeking assistance for paid assassins; cyberstalking; revenge porn; photos and videos of violence, assault and bullying; and so on.
But at the end of a debate of this nature, we all end up asking ourselves – do the benefits of the platform outweigh the bad effects as a totality? In the case of Facebook I can safely say – YES – Facebook can be a good tool for communicating and for sharing – but stay safe, be self disciplined and do not abuse the overwhelming and overpowering possibilities of Facebook’s truly awesome reach.