Facebook: The Evolution of Social Networking Activity

Last week, if you tuned in to The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was aired by a local television station, which I am sure none of you watched, which I find presumably inspiring, there was an interesting discussion which I could use as a topic for the first posting of 2010. Well firstly, allow me to wish the readers a blessed and joyful New Year! Wish you all the best on your endeavors. Right then, back to the issue. Now, in case if you so daft that you have no idea at all about who Oprah Winfrey is, do worry no more because that doesn’t matter, at least for the time being. Instead, what I want to discuss in this posting is about the content of the show I had watched. It basically featured world’s most “worshipped” social networking website of all time: Facebook. Of course, like almost all Oprah Winfrey Show, there are always guests featured in the show and the episode this time featured the man behind Facebook who was also a Harvard student and is the CEO of Facebook today, Mark Zuckerberg. During the interview, he basically talked about the history or early days of Facebook where it was initially built limited just for internal Harvard students, it then spread to the entire region and neighboring states before reached the entire world. But the main point is, Zuckerberg did not realize that Facebook could gain users so fast and more importantly, be used by people around the globe. Now that is actually from the founder’s point of view, so the remaining question might come from the users: how much does Facebook have contributed to our live?

The man behind Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.

Firstly, I had to be very careful when I referred Facebook as “world’s most worshipped social networking website of all time” because the reader definitely looks forward for a credible piece of reading material. So, despite the fact that I occasionally don’t believe in statistics and neither should you, I googled some (seemingly) reliable statistic related to Facebook just to give an overview of what I am on about. Frankly, every figure I had read suggested an astounding impression, so impressive that I nearly banged my head against the wall to wake myself from reading something which appeared almost unbelievable. Mind you, Facebook was originally found in 2004 by Zuckerberg and his roommates in his dorm room; five years later Facebook claimed that it has a total of 350 million active users and that figure is actually more than the number of American population which tops number three in the world; this month Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network by monthly active users in the world; Facebook is available with 70 languages which makes it the most translated social networking website today; more than 2.5 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook by the users every month; In 2008 with an estimated wealth of $1.5 billion, Forbes Magazine listed Zuckerberg in #158 out of other 400 wealthiest prominent in the country and was entitled as America’s youngest Billionaire; The founding and history of Facebook became the main inspiration behind the movie “The Social Network” which is scheduled to be launched on October this year.

"Why should I sign up an account in a website where people wrote useless stuffs such as: “It’s raining.” Or “I am hungry.” Or maybe “My dog ate my shoes.”"

At first, I was quite reluctant to use Facebook service for several reasons. Firstly, at that time I already had another social networking website which so far I could recall, I rarely updated or even checked it, so rare that I only checked it when Halley comet appeared. The other reason especially related to Facebook, why should I sign up an account in a website where people wrote useless stuffs such as: “It’s raining.” Or “I am hungry.” Or maybe “My dog ate my shoes.” The thing is though; I do find that there are several positive sides of using Facebook, such as we could be reconnected with our friends whom we have never seen for centuries long. The other good point is, the users could share photos and be able to limit people who have access to them. And the best of all, the users are completely in control with whom they want to befriend with and how much detailed information they want to include in their profile page. Harshly speaking, I could reject a friend request if I want to. Unfortunately, Facebook also has several downsides. The problem is and I believe most of you will agree, Facebook is very addicting and somehow very intoxicating. People could spend hours with their eyes glued to the monitor while checking on their friends’ latest status update, or simply looking at the photos and videos. Moreover, there are thousands of games, quizzes and applications which are very helpful if you are trying to find something to kill the time. It was so addictive that some companies are actually blocked this website to prevent the employees from sneaking around from work just to update their status or check others’.

Frankly and regardless the mind-blowing statistic above, I have to say that Facebook has brought the global communities into a whole new dimension of the way how people are connected to each other. Even such an anti-social individual like me have to conceive that Facebook has really been a part of the modern urban culture these days, especially after my ten-year-old niece asked me to approve her friendship request, if you know what I am on about. And that is the uniqueness of Facebook users, they range of children until the elderly people. Furthermore, the Facebook webpage can be seen almost everywhere, in the house, in the bus stations using mobile devices, in the office, well maybe using a bypass website or I don’t know how those geeks crack it. All in all, despite the controversies, banning actions and lawsuits filed against this very company, I do find that Facebook is positive as long as the users to stay in control and aware about things they posted, especially those materials which related to personal privacy and some sensitive themes, such as politics and religion. Until the next posting, enjoy!