Facebook: What it is and how it works
Facebook: What it is and how it works.
Ever wondered how people get through that post-lunch stupor at work and college? Or how your sister knows who’s broken up with whom and where Katie went on holiday last week? In one word, Facebook.
The brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, is a free social networking website, which allows users to join networks organised by city, school, university, workplace and region.
The name derives from the paper facebooks that some US colleges and schools give to new arrivals as a way of getting to know other people, as they contain photos and information on members of a campus.
Users create profiles with photos and lists of personal interests and details such as D.O.B, hometown and where they study or work, exchange private or public messages, and join groups that reflect their interests. Facebookers can add friends by searching for an individual and sending them a ‘friend request’.
Concerns have been voiced over the privacy protection of Facebook, however, users have the freedom to delete friends at their own discretion or reject ‘friend requests’ if they don’t know the individual or feel comfortable with them viewing their profile. It is also possible for users to restrict their profile, so that only a few details can be viewed by others.
Facebook has a number of features in which users can interact including private messaging, status updates—telling your friends what you’re doing or how you’re feeling, Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual “poke” to each other, Photos, where users can upload albums and photos, Walls—a space on every profile that allows friends to post messages for the user to see. All members of your network can view your wall posts, depending on your privacy settings.
The Photos feature is probably one of the most popular, enabling users to create different albums and upload limitless amounts of pictures. Privacy settings can also be placed on albums, restricting the viewers to just friends or allowing all Facebook users to gaze at your summer snaps.
For those who are really keen to publicise the ins and outs of their lives, Facebook allows users to update their relationship status, with several choices ranging from ‘single’ to ‘it’s complicated.’
Users can also join and create groups surrounding their interests or activities, such as a group to invite friends to your birthday party or a charity event. Photos can be added and comments posted on these groups, almost making them a profile within themselves.
The recent competition posed by the popularity of Twitter has led Facebook to enable their users to communicate in real-time, similar to tweets.
With all these features and many more to be explored, Facebook is currently the most favoured social networking site in the world, allowing users across the globe to kill their daily bouts of boredom and indulge in a little Facebook stalking.