Facebook: How It Affects Our Lives

Facebook, originally known as "The Facebook," is the world's largest social network and is used by millions of people all over the world. First created as a social networking website by Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerman in 2004, its goal was to help students stay in touch within the Harvard community, but then expanded into an international sensation with over five hundred million users within six years (last know statistic according to The New York Times, taken in July 2010). Zuckerman created other sites including, Coursematch and Facemash, both aimed at Harvard Students, but neither took off like Facebook did. Within the first twenty-four hours of its launch, over "1,200 Harvard students signed up, and after one month, over half the undergraduate population" were members (Phillips). It then extended to other schools across the United States, including Yale and Stanford, and eventually became the main social connection at over two thousand colleges nationwide.

When Facebook was first launched, an educational institutions email address was needed to be able to register. In September 2006 it was made accessible to the public allowing, "anyone with a registered email address" to join, drastically expanding its target audience (Phillips). The site design has change much over the years and during this time, many new features were introduced, like being able to give friends gifts, post advertisements and develop custom applications like Scrabble and Graffiti. Facebook messages were also designed, allowing users to communicate "on the Web and on mobile phones regardless of whether they are using e-mail text messages or online chat services" (Wyld). This transformed Facebook into a site that is "tightly integrated into the daily media practices of its users" (Ellison). All of these changes allowed Facebook users to personalize this social network into a site that revolved around them and customized their page and experience for the individual's daily use.

Many benefits have come from the creation of such social-networking sites like this one. Facebook has expanded exponentially over the years, growing into a phenomenon connecting millions of people and giving them the option of staying in touch with friends from different locations, schools and work places. It allows people to use the site of a way to "interact with people they already know offline or to meet new people" (Ellison). Participants can join "virtual groups based on common interest," which allows these new friendships to form (Ellison). It also has the ability for people to stay in touch, who otherwise would not be, serving as a free way to communicate with people overseas. The social aspect of Facebook is what arguably draws many of its users to sign up, but it has many other benefits besides just keeping people connected. Applications have been developed which can add to the entertainment aspect of the site, as well as making people aware of different issues in the world. For example, Facebook currently gives their users the option to donate to particular causes, like the recent earthquake in Japan, which in turn educates more people about world news while at the same time raising money for a good cause. Facebook is also the ultimate address book, providing information such as phone numbers, email addresses, and instant messaging screen names to a multitude of people. Facebook quickly exposes mass amounts of people to important information, which is otherwise not so easily attainable.

Much academic research has been conducted because of Facebook recently, focusing on "identity presentation and privacy concerns" (Ellison). Because of the amount of information available for other users to see, like their full name, birth date, and other personal information, people argue that users are putting themselves at risk for a number of legal disasters such as identity theft. Such applications like Farmville, the virtual game that allows users to create and maintain their own farm, has a history of sharing information that was not intended for everyone to see. This is due to the nature of the game and how anyone can play and see other users information, regardless of the privacy settings that the user set in place when they first created their Facebook. Different policies are being enforced to help "define standards for privacy in the Internet age" (Wyld). The site has developed ways of letting people know what kind of information they were sharing and with whom, by asking the user what they want to be public and just shared between family, friends and networks.

Other studies have been conducted to see how affective Facebook is in maintaining social relations. In a study conducted by Nicole B. Ellison at the University of Michigan, findings showed that there was a "strong linkage between Facebook and high school connections" and how this suggested that social-networks "help maintain relations as people move from one offline community to another" (Ellison). It was also suggested that even though people have a different online and offline community, social networks such as Facebook do not isolate an individual into a specific one. Facebook helps "support relationships and keep people in contact" even though their lives may change what social groups they interact with due to travel, moving, or simply growing up. This study showed that online interactions because of social networks supported this claim.

The popularity of Facebook has been very apparent in recent years, due to the expansion of the company. The movie, "The Social Network", was created to show people how Facebook was created and how it has transformed into what it is today. It shows how the idea was first generated and how Mark Zuckerman's simple idea of keeping people connected turned into a "global social network and a revolution in communication." Statistics also show the expansion of Facebook, by comparing its use to other sites such as MySpace and Friendster. These statistics show that the majority of people prefer to use Facebook and that the use of other social-networking sites have declined because of it. There are more than five hundred million active Facebook users, with over fifty percent logging on in any given day. In a month, users of Facebook spend over seven hundred billion minutes checking their profile, looking at other peoples and using the millions of applications that were created for the site. On a global scale, there are more than seventy translations available and about seventy percent of users are located outside of the United States. Entrepreneurs from over one hundred and ninety countries, either installing new applications, advertising or just figuring out ways to make Facebook better, have built the