By Niemah Davids
The Facebook phenomenon has taken the country by storm, not just among teenagers but adults too, prompting a number of companies to bar access to the Internet site in the workplace.
At the beginning of this year most South Africans had not even heard of Facebook. It took off in June when 90 000 South Africans registered on the site, described as a "social utility that connects people".
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| 'excessive use of any website that has nothing to do with work has got to be barred' |
In less than two months the number doubled to 180 000, according to media IT specialist Arthur Goldstuck.
Worldwide, there are about 40 million Facebook subscribers.
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Facebook was launched on February 4, 2004.
Initially membership was restricted to students at Harvard University.
It was a trend aimed at young people, attracting mainly teenagers and students to catch up and communicate, but adults have been getting hooked on the social site too.
"At first sight it seemed to be a youth phenomenon, teenagers seemed to dominate with exuberance.
"But behind the scenes, the adult working masses were coming on board just as fast," Goldstuck said in the latest issue of The Media publication.
Goldstuck told the Cape Argus the reason for the attraction among adults was that it "energised those on line".
"Everyone has the need to communicate. And the need to be in contact with each other is the reason they're always going back. It's a very powerful site," he said.
Goldstuck said the social site has given the corporate world "a fright".
"Their immediate reaction by banning the site was purely due to a lack of knowledge," he said.
Old Mutual told the Cape Argus the company had blocked access to Facebook for all its employees.
According to an official at the company, there is a policy which monitors websites used for non-work related issues.
"The excessive use of any website that has nothing to do with work has got to be barred," he said.
Frans van Rensburg, head of Sanlam group communications, said Facebook and other similar social sites were not blocked individually by the company.
But he added that through Sanlam's standard firewall policy, which blocks various other sites, Facebook has automatically been included.
"Social sites such as Facebook are not work-related, and our first priority at Sanlam is of course work.
"Therefore we decided to block this kind of site," Van Rensburg said.
Megan Morris, spokesperson for UCT, said that although the university had not yet put any plans in place for the banning of social sites such as Facebook, the university was planning to look at the possibility of doing so.
"No decisions have been made yet, we do plan to look into the Facebook matter," said Morris.
Morris added that the university, just like Sanlam, banned certain sites for "various reasons" and they could not be accessed by students or staff.
Overall, the number of South Africans engaging on the internet is said to have increased dramatically, with an average of 3.79 million people logging on to various online sites every day.
Goldstuck added: "No company really needs Facebook, but it's no threat either."
- This article was originally published on page 5 of Cape Argus on September 18, 2007
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