Will this trendy model impact our behavior?

Social media trends are rapidly changing every moment. Recently we have seen Facebook (a social networking site) winning millions’ heart to get connected with friends. Facebook being one of the major social networking sites has influenced to break the boundaries of culture. It has some amazing feature that allows you to do crowd watching of people right on your computer screen. FB is getting so prominent in our daily lives to an extent that were people say, “I will catch up on Facebook.”

Interestingly, I came across this section on Facebook. As seen in the picture, it says ‘Help a friend’. My first thoughts where - What happened to her? Is she okay? Etc. The mental model on ‘Help’ is that people ask for help only when they need it. It seems that my friend is new to Facebook. She might not be aware of FB, asking help on her behalf, then why it ask me to suggest friends or why it asks to suggest pictures for her. Why? Is it trying to change my behavior by using such word “help”? I feel that context of the word help is wrong in this case. She is in no danger, for her to receive any help. As the matter, is about her adding her profile picture or adding some friends to her friend’s list. Moreover, it’s her responsibility to choose her profile picture and to whom she needs to add.

I believe, there could be a greater risk in changing or twisting people’s behavior as we are connected to each other through our Avatars’ (profiles’) on Facebook. This can impact the society as people have started to feel an “ambient intimacy¹” with Facebook and are getting addicted.   

Reference: [1] http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html