Marie-Claire
Being a Web Developer brings with it the responsibility of being up to date with the latest trends on the Internet. But I must confess that it was only 2 years ago that I gave into curiosity and signed up with Facebook. So what is the deal with Facebook? Why does it currently have 200 million active users worldwide and have to be banned at many places of work by employers?
For those with a Facebook account, you will know that the first step is to set up your profile and include the very important profile picture. This is made easy for you with a set of categories and predefined questions. Not at all difficult, as everyone is an expert on writing about themselves. And who doesn’t love the idea of knowing that other people will be reading all about them? So we fill in everything we can – including our favourite quote – because it is all critical in other people understanding who we are.
Next we see that we can upload as many photos and albums as we like. So we pull out all the pictures from last nights drunken party (discarding the red eye and fat ones) and put them up so that everyone will know what a social animal we are and how good we looked all through it. We put up our best holiday pictures and include important milestones like engagements, weddings and babies. As an afterthought, we create the album called “random” and upload the rest of the photos that didn’t fit under an album of their own. Perfect.
The next logical step is to round up people to look at the masterpiece we have spun. So we can either use the Friend Finder tool (which cleverly looks at people within our networks, email, or IM contact list) or invite anyone who has not yet hopped on the Facebook bus. Once we have added people as friends, there is normally a nervous wait while the other person decides if you are indeed a friend and worth adding to their profile. You see, in doing this, not only does your profile become a public notice to them, but they expose their profiles in turn to you and you are both open to a bombardment of communication with the help of various tools. You can be messaged or place a quick note on a wall. Comments can be placed on practically any update a person makes (status, photo or posting) or you can rest in the knowledge that just as you are following the daily updates of others, they are all eagerly following and commenting on yours, too.
So you see, in a world where the media is our religion and it’s stars our gods, Facebook allows us to create an environment where we become the star. We have our own stage to perform on and all our friends are there to cheer us on.
It fulfils a sense of community in a society where individualism is valued most. It unites and keeps people together in a world where nomadism has become a way of life. Social Networking is an essential part of our existence in this generation and Facebook has done a great job in providing the necessary tools.
Once you’ve found yourself deep into Facebook, it is not long before you have registered with sites like Linked In and Twitter.
Shaz Manelli
