FACEBOOK

A Peephole into the Lives of Many

The Features of FACEBOOK

The Wall: The Wall is a space on each user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see while displaying the time and date the message was written.

Photos: Users can upload albums of photos, tag friends, and comment on photos.

Events: Facebook events are a way for members to let friends know about upcoming events in their community and to organize social gatherings.

Networks and Groups: Facebook allows different networks and groups to which many users can join. Groups are used for discussions and events etc.

Video: Users can add their videos by uploading video, adding video through Facebook Mobile, and using a webcam recording feature.

Status: The "status" feature allows users to inform their friends and the Facebook community of their current whereabouts and actions.

These are just a few of the main features FACEBOOK has to offer

Example of a FACEBOOK Profile

Privacy Issues Concerning FACEBOOK

Facebook has met with some controversy over the past few years. Privacy issues has been part of that controversy for many years.

1. Several concerns have emerged regarding the use of Facebook as a means of surveillance and data mining.

2. When Facebook changed on September 5 to make it easier for users to keep track of their online friends, the company received a wave of protest. Facebook added a “news feed” and “mini-feed” feature that automatically alerted users when their friends made changes to their online profiles. Many users called the new feature an invasion of privacy, saying it promoted stalking and more than 500,000 signed an online petition against it.

3. Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg has issued an open letter of apology, along with an update to the company's controversial "News Feed" and "Mini-Feed" features, that will allow users greater controls on personal privacy issues.

FACEBOOK’S Popularity Amongst Other Networking Sites

Facebook

MySpace

Friendster

LiveJournal

Hate Groups on FACEBOOK

Over the months, Facebook has been slammed for encouraging online hate groups. Throughout Facebook users can find different hate groups of any sort. For example, many students make groups where they specifically discuss how much they hate one of their teachers etc. Here are a few examples of some of the hate groups that can be found on Facebook

FACEBOOK, More Than Just a Website

The Ages of FACEBOOK Users

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Percent of Total

Facebook Users

13-17 18-24 25-34 35+

Interesting Facts about FACEBOOK

1. The average Facebook user spends about 21 minutes plus per day at the online social network.

2. The average Facebook user visits 4 times per day. 3. Facebook is adding about three hundred and fifty

thousand new users every day.4. In the beginning, the membership was restricted

to students of Harvard University. 5. The name of the site refers to the paper facebooks

depicting members of the campus community that US colleges give to incoming students, faculty, and staff.

6. Facebook has over 500 employees.7. It currently hosts over 1.7 Billion photos. 8. In April 2006, revenue was rumoured to be over

$1.5 million per week.9. The company already rejected a $975 million

offer for the site.10. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and Chief

Executive Officer was 24 years old when he founded Facebook. Together with 3 of his roommates, he created the site while he was in Harvard University.

The Comedy of Facebook

References

1. http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd062307s.gif2. http://businessgolf.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/doonsebury-facebook.g

if3. http://xkcd.com/300/4. http://viaspire.blogs.com/weblog/images/2007/10/31/facebookbergeront

ourangeau.jpg5. http://www.newstrend.com/2006/09/facebook-privacy.html6. http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/facebook-facts-that-will-

blow-your-marketing-mind/7. http://mybroadband.co.za/blogs/2007/08/07/interesting-facebook-facts/8. http://citizenmediawatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/

facebookstats.png9. http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=146310. http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2006/09/facebook.html