Facebook

Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites on the planet, having successfully upsurped myspace as the lead networking site on the net. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, the site took off and became emensely popular with teenagers across the country. Initial open to students with school email addresses, it is now open for everyone. Almost everyone has a facebook where they can post pictures of themselves, share stories and let everyone know what they are doing with their "status updates." As a networking tool, it allows people to connect with one another even after one meeting, while allowing users to limit just how much others can see. With the inclusion of photos, applications, and instant messaging, the site has become an addiction for many people, since they spend more time on the site than they do at their jobs. Users post all their information online in order to show people their interests and small tidbits of information such as age, hometown, birthday, occupation and school info. While not entirely intentional, this information is then used to potentially outreach to people with similar interests in your area. Facebook is one of the key reasons the internet has made the world smaller. While people are constantly meeting and parting, facebook allows us to stay in contact and get a better sense about who people are. That doesn't mean that facebook is the perfect tool. It has recieved its fair share of criticism over policies and controversies over its founding. Despite the intentions of the founder, facebook can be used as a stalking method, since it amasses the interests of many people in a dossier. This can then be used by a company or a person in order to learn more about others, whether the user likes that or not. Unfortunately, the addictive nature of the site has made it harder for people to focus and get their work done. As a result, many companies have banned its use on company time. Since so many people use it, and it is such an integral part of the new method of socializing, it is seen as blasphemous that people do not not have a profile. So in that respect Facebook is one of the most interesting "places" in our contemporary lives, and I look forward to doing more research on it for my paper.