What are the pros and cons Facebook? There are many! Facebook gives us a way to connect with friends and family, near and far. There are many advantages of Facebook.

Like with all good things, there are some disadvantages of Facebook too. It’s difficult to stay off. Sometime we use too much time on it. But the cons of Facebook are really because it’s so great…. We get sucked into it because we enjoy it so much.

Below we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook.

Pros and Cons of Facebook

People use Facebook in many different ways. Some people use it for personal reasons. Others use it for business or because a group they are in uses Facebook as a communication tool.

Pros of Facebook

There are billions of users because of all the advantages of Facebook. Whether you are a casual user or rely on it daily, there are many good things about it.

It’s free

Facebook is free for users. You can use it as much or as little as you want. There are no costs. This means you can connect with people 24/7 if you want to. Businesses can use Facebook for free as well. They can opt to pay for additional features. When you think of all the apps and memberships out there, a big advantage of Facebook that it’s free. You only need to set up an account.

Facebook is convenient

This medium has worked its way into our daily lives and has become a habit for millions of people. It’s powerful and connects us in ways never before possible much less even thought of.

It’s so convenient too. We can access Facebook from our smartphones when we wake up and before going to bed. We can catch up on the latest “news” — real and social — and keep in touch whenever we want to. It’s awesome.

Easy to find and add friends

You can connect with friends from anywhere and anywhere. Thinking of a former neighbor, crush, coworker, or a classmate? It’s easy to type in someone’s name and learn how to send a friend request on Facebook. There are also ways to find Facebook friends from mutual friends you have.

You can have 5,000 friends

Another one of the pros of Facebook is you can connect with just a few Facebook friends, dozens, hundreds, or even thousands. It’s up to you how many Facebook friends you want to interact with. Facebook limits personal accounts to 5,000 friends. That’s a lot of people! Most people have hundreds of Facebook friends, not thousands, so this is rarely an issue. It’s important to note, pages can have more than 5,000 fans.

Interact easily

Facebook an amazing tool that keeps us in touch with friends we see all the time as well as friends we won’t ever see again. You can friend someone and see what they are up to whenever you want to. It’s your choice whether you want to send them a message on Facebook through Messenger. It’s up to you if you want to Like or comment on their post. You can see their posts and do nothing.

It’s your choice to engage with your Facebook friends or not. The more friends on Facebook you have, the harder it is to keep up with everyone. That’s fine; you don’t have to interact with them in order to remain Facebook friends.

Easy to use

Another big advantage of Facebook is that it’s very easy to use. Even when you are a new user, you will find it easy to find friends to add, send friend requests, and to accept friend requests.

You can learn how to make a Facebook post, share pictures, and set your notifications.

You’ll find it easy to interact with Facebook friends by liking or commenting on their posts. Perhaps you will be inclined to join a Facebook group or to set one up yourself. It’s simple to use Facebook features to make it your own.

Even when Facebook updates the user experience, it’s still easy to use. If you use Facebook for business or set up a Facebook page, you can easily learn all the ways to use it. Facebook offers prompts and reminders to post, etc. so you can maximize your exposure to your audience and customers.

Choose your Facebook friends

You get to decide who your Facebook friends are. When you are on Facebook for awhile, there may be people you don’t want to interact with as often. One of the pros of Facebook is that you can tailor your experience so you see Facebook friends you want to see and set it so you don’t see people you don’t want to see.

You may choose to unfriend or unfollow on Facebook in order to keep your newsfeed positive.

Rather than unfollowing, may you decide to unfriend someone on Facebook or to block someone on Facebook.

Maybe you want to find more friends to add. Facebook offers you friend suggestions based on mutual friends you have in common. They also will suggest people with whom you have something in common such as if you went to the same high school or college or worked at the same place.

Set your privacy

You decide how much to share on Facebook. You can be private or put it all out there or a mix of each, depending on the information. Regarding your personal information, you need to create a Facebook name when you set up your account. You also need to set your birth date. It’s your choice whether you make this viewable.

It’s your choice to enter and display where you live, places you’ve lived, where you work, places you’ve worked. You get to decide if you want to enter in where you went to school. Facebook uses this information in order to connect you with other people with this in common as well as with advertising.

Another advantage of Facebook is you can set your account so anyone (“public”) can find you or so that only friends of friends can find you.

In the same vein, you can do this with each post you make. You can set your post so that it’s public or just for your friends to see it. Facebook lets you get even more specific regarding privacy. You can set each post so that only certain people see it — by typing in their names — or so that certain people don’t see it — by typing in their names.

It’s easy to customize your Facebook privacy settings. This is a big advantage for using Facebook. You can use it to connect with people but keep many things private if you choose to. On a related note, you can also learn How to Change Facebook Page Name if necessary.

Post if and when you want to

You can post multiple times a day on Facebook or not at all… it’s up to you. With Facebook, you decide.

There are users who rarely post about themselves but who use Facebook to keep in touch by interacting with their Facebook friends’ posts. Alternatively, there are some users who post everyday or every week. Whatever you choose to do is fine.

Set up a poll

Interacting with your family, friends, and customers is a cool Facebook feature. Everyone loves sharing their opinions! Starting a Facebook poll is an easy way to engage with your followers and find out more about them. Learn How to Create a Poll on Facebook.

Celebrate your birthday

Most people include their birthday on Facebook in order for their Facebook friends to wish them a Happy Birthday on Facebook. Getting well wishes from friends on Facebook is a great way to be acknowledged on your birthday.

You can choose to have your birth month and birth day on Facebook and not the year. It’s up to you what your Facebook friends can see.

Control the settings and notifications

You decide what you see and when you see it. You can set Facebook so you can see what you want to see from your Facebook friends. With business pages, there are a lot of filters to let you customize what you share and what people can write to your pages.

In addition, another advantage of Facebook is you decide if you want notifications on your phone, email, or just within Facebook. Or you can turn them all off. Facebook lets you customize what you are notified about.

If you have friends or pages you want to follow, you can set them so you see them first in your newsfeed. Likewise, you can turn off notifications for people and pages so you they won’t pop up. You will always have the ability to look them up when you want to.

Intuitive

Facebook algorithms puts things in your feed that it thinks you will be interested in. For Facebook friends you interact with frequently, it puts those people’s posts higher in your Newsfeed. It also customizes ads based on what you like.

If you like a business page or are a member of a group, Facebook will also make other suggestions based on that. Also, it suggests friends you may know for you to add as a Facebook friend.

Use for Business

There are many advantages of Facebook for business. Whether you have an online business such as a blog, website or store or you have an actual in person business, you can advertise on Facebook.

You can post and create an audience following and direct them to your business. You can do all of this for free. Facebook makes it easy to create posts and to schedule posts in advance so you can be sure to engage with and grow your customer base.

Create or Join Groups

One of the big pros of Facebook is the ability to set up groups. You can set up a Facebook group in conjunction with your business page or you can do one personally.

In addition to setting up a Facebook group, a big advantage of Facebook is that you can join a Facebook group based on your interests and to get information and support from others.

Perhaps your child has an allergy to something. There is likely a Facebook group for that allergy. Maybe you are gluten free or vegan, or you like gardening. There’s a group for you. Facebook groups are online communities of people who come together virtually to post and share experiences and ideas.

What you all have in common is the interest in the topic. People can post freely about that topic.

You can set up a group for your book club or bunco group. Facebook groups are excellent tools for non-profits and volunteers. You can easily communicate within your group with greater ease oftentimes than with email. Also, everything is saved within the Facebook group to easily reference later. This is a big advantage of Facebook.

Saves time keeping us connected

Using Facebook is so much easier than picking up the phone to call someone. You can easily interact with them in a no-pressure situation. It’s fast and easy. Facebook is a fast and simple way to know what’s going on with your friends.

Keeps you informed

Many of us get our news and happenings from what people post on Facebook. You can learn what’s going on in your community. Many schools use it to update families on what’s happening from a global as well as local perspective.

There’s new news whenever you log on Facebook. You just never know what you will see when you log on, which is part of the allure. I liken it to shopping at a garage sale. It’s never the same twice, and you will never know what you will find (out).

Real news, not Facebook friend news

What’s so great about Facebook is learning actual news, not Facebook friend news. I’ve learned more about current events, international news, weather stories, and trending events than I do from actually watching the news on television.

However, I’m now aware of notable breakups and hookups, illnesses, charity work, accidents, deaths, and interesting baby names. And I didn’t have to buy a magazine to catch up!

Facebook gives us something to talk about

Facebook has come to my rescue so many times. Do you find you have some Facebook friends you see in real life — real, actual, reach-out-and-touch-you life, not social media life — and you can talk about a thousand different things with them?

Then there are others that when you see them that you can’t really think of anything to say? It’s Facebook to the rescue!

Immediately I can call to mind something I scrolled past about their child or their vacation or their pregnancy or their birthday or something.

Countless times, Facebook has helped alleviate some otherwise awkward encounters. It has given us a starting point.

Facebook links us to a community

What does Facebook do for us? Facebook gives us a chance to seek opinions, to ask for support, to gain attention, to show off, to keep in touch, to share our news.

In so very many ways, Facebook is great. I learned so much about things… Elf on the Shelf; two great pumpkin patches to take my kids to; cool recipes (not that I tried any but they look good); holiday crafty things; and restaurants to try. I get Netflix and book recommendations from moms who I believe enjoy what I enjoy.

It’s exciting to see where friends’ kids are going to college. I join in the conversations about some of my favorite television shows and favorite sports teams. It’s great being able to connect in this way.

Facebook helps us to know people better

I can see my talented friends and their bakery-worthy cookies, cakes and desserts.

Now I know I have four friends who make amazing cakes and themed cookies, and how Alison, who works full time and has three kids at three different schools, has the desire and talent to craft incredible themed birthday cakes for her children.

I press Like and go about my day, feeling a bit jealous and wondering what the heck I do with all of my time. But it’s all good.

I learn what people are eating for dinner – either cooking it themselves or maybe their significant other made it (Like, Like). Maybe they are out a cool restaurant that I may now consider going to. It’s all easy-going, lighthearted fun.

Press Like if you want to, and go on your merry way raiding your refrigerator thinking about all that great food. It really doesn’t matter either way.

Logging onto Facebook, I see that Sarah is on vacation in Belize, and it makes me motivated to start thinking about where my next trip will be. I am not jealous. I am not competitive. It makes me happy to see people healthy and employed enough to be going on vacation.

Who doesn’t love to see Santa photos, births, vacations, first day of school pictures, and witty comments?

I learned my one friend wrote a series of books, and that the first one was being released. (Yes, I bought it.) I learned another was having her third child and then fourth and then fifth. (How she has time for Facebook, I have no idea.)

There’s another who always makes a great to-do about her family’s holiday card. I love staying tuned to see what the theme is and what her family dresses as each year.

Even more fun, I get to learn a little bit more about my kids’ teachers.

Gives us the attaboys we crave

Feeling down, bored, or even happy? You can get instant attaboys and attention from posting something on your Facebook wall. Whether you have hundred of Facebook friends or just a few, chances are you will get a good percentage of Likes and Comments to any post you make. It’s a great way to get some attention.

Hear from blasts from the past

Facebook takes us back to a time and place when we had different responsibilities. It allows us to go back and reflect. It’s an escape. When people from our past send us a friend request, it transports us back to a time when that person was in our lives.

pros and cons of Facebook — Advantages of Facebook

Advantages of Facebook

The big picture is that Facebook enables us to keep in touch with anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Facebook lets us connect with people from our past. It offers us a chance to keep in touch with people we would like to know better. It keeps us connected with our friends, neighbors, and family. Facebook enables us to learn about people – read: spy on people — we aren’t Facebook friends with.

It gives us a glimpse into our friends’ and families’ lives we never had before. It makes us feel connected wherever we are, regardless of what we are doing.

Facebook allows us to truly never have to say “goodbye” to anyone living ever again. If someone is on Facebook, we have a means to access them 24/7.

Facebook is free, innocent, harmless fun

The opportunities for entertainment are endless. Someone is always posting something you haven’t seen.

Feeling bored? Log on Facebook.

Procrastinating? Log on Facebook.

Waking up and too tired to get out of bed and face the day? Log on Facebook.

Have seven minutes waiting in the car pickup line at school? Log on Facebook.

Sitting at your child’s dance or karate practice? Log on Facebook.

It’s fun to see what everyone is doing that day or what they are getting ready to do or where they’ve been. It becomes an escape from our everyday lives.

Exhausted moms love to veg out on Facebook. Facebook asks nothing of us and gives us plenty in return.

Cons of Facebook

Because it’s such a powerful communication tool, there are some disadvantages of Facebook as well.

Spending more time on Facebook than in real life

Sometimes we get so sucked into our virtual world, we don’t take a minute to look around us to live in the present moment. Many people spend a lot of time on Facebook.

We’re all guilty of it. We have a few minutes of free time, and the next thing we know, we’ve spent an hour on Facebook. It’s easy to get lost in the Facebook vortex. So what’s an advantage is also a disadvantage of Facebook. We use it too much.

Going down the rabbit hole

What’s also interesting is that being on Facebook really plays into people’s multitasking tendencies. Many times, people log onto Facebook to do something specific and then become sidetracked by something else. Minutes or hours later they realize they never looked up what they logged on to do.

Drama

Many times people are more bold on Facebook and on social media than they would be in real life. This leads some people to make statements online that might be offensive. Also, when people write something that’s controversial, there often isn’t the context to support the statement.

Occasionally you will see cliffhanger posts or the occasional family argument. If you are in a Facebook group, you might also see disagreements or drama there as well.

But even while one of the cons of Facebook is drama, you still have the option to unfollow these people so can remain friends but not see their posts in your newsfeed. It’s a great feature because they become essentially free from your life. You can check their wall when you want to.

Politics on Facebook

One of the disadvantages of Facebook is the politics. Not only are people taking different sides, oftentimes, they are very vocal and rude. When people log onto Facebook, the majority want it to be a fun, positive, lighthearted experience. We don’t want to see heated discussions and debates. We don’t want to think negatively about some strong-willed and outspoken people who overshare their views.

Too much information

With Facebook, you have an entire virtual world at your fingertips. Sometimes people overshare too much information about themselves, their kids, and their lives.

Other times, we become with too much information in general. Logging onto Facebook can add to the anxiety of so much news and people’s personal information.

Not being invited

Other cons of Facebook are being left out. Oftentimes, we log onto Facebook in a good mood and see we aren’t invited to something.

Or maybe we aren’t tagged in a post, or we aren’t being included on Facebook in some way.

We might log onto Facebook and see a parent posting and bragging about their kids parties on Facebook that your child wasn’t invited to.

Facebook can be hurtful in this way. Sometimes people post to purposely exclude others. Sometimes people post as a genuine way to share their lives. Either way, it can be hurtful as there are people who aren’t included and invited.

Comparing our lives to others

Sometimes we log onto Facebook and get in a bad mood. This might be because of something we see or because it seems like everyone has a better life than we do.

It’s natural to compare ourselves to others on Facebook and social media. This is because people often post the good things rather than all of the bad. This overall keeps Facebook positive; however, it’s hard not to compare ourselves to others and their seemingly perfect lives. It’s important to remember: Things not what they seem on Facebook and in life.

People bragging

People on Facebook use it in different ways. Some people brag or humblebrag on Facebook. That gets annoying, especially when it’s people who do this often.

Cyber sleuthing

Looking people up is one of the pros and cons of Facebook. If someone doesn’t have their privacy settings set high, you can look people up without them knowing. You can see their pictures and what they post.

Unless they blocked you, you can cyber sleuth on Facebook to get information about people even if you aren’t Facebook friends with them.

In addition to being a disadvantage of Facebook, it’s also an advantage. While people might be looking you up, you can use it to spy on people or just look up stuff to learn more about them as well. It’s a great tool to see who knows who (Mutual Friends), where people grew up and went to school, if they have kids, etc.

People you want to stay in your past

The fact that people from your past can find you on Facebook can be an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the person. Facebook has a feature where you can block people from finding you.

But you may hear from a former coworker, forgotten relative, friend from college, crush from high school… sometimes the past is best left in the past.

At the same time, this is really amazing that you can find almost anyone!

Then there’s the dicey-er stuff. There are the former boyfriends (and girlfriends). Who doesn’t love that chance to see someone from our past? Is he married and to whom?

Where does he live and what does he do for a living? It will make you glad you aren’t with that person or perhaps might make you wish you were. At the very least, you might take a few minutes to think how your life may have turned out very differently.

Not wanting to be Facebook friends with someone

Sometimes you may receive a friend request from someone but not want to accept it. This can be awkward and is a downside to Facebook.

Someone doesn’t accept your friend request

It’s awkward when someone doesn’t accept your friend request. If it’s someone you might see in real life, this is a negative of Facebook. It’s also upsetting in general. You may be left to wonder why they aren’t accepting it.

Power plays, mind games

Certain people use Facebook to friend and unfriend, to withhold likes on Facebook, and to not acknowledge people’s posts as a power play.

Not getting Likes to posts

Another con of Facebook is not getting Likes and comments on our posts. When we post on Facebook, we are putting ourselves out there. It’s embarrassing when we post to our wall and don’t have anyone interacting with our post. It can make us feel that people don’t care about what we have to say. Or it can make us feel like our post isn’t good enough to warrant attention.

Disadvantages of Facebook

Most of the disadvantages of Facebook come from what people are posting. Facebook itself is a neutral tool. The cons are that our Facebook friends can post things that upset us.

Sometimes people get upset about the ads and the algorithms they use. But it’s important to remember, Facebook is free, so they need to make money so they don’t start charging.

Advantages and disadvantages of Facebook

Facebook has easy social rules to follow. Your role as a Facebook user is to be a good citizen. You are in a community, after all. But after that, there’s no obligation.

Sure, there are some simple etiquette rules. Basically, be respectful of others, and treat others the way you would like to be treated. These are things we all should have learned long ago and so things usually go along fine. After that, you have the choice to Like or Comment or not. Usually, no one knows or cares.