The Facebook Phenomenon

So unless you've been hiding under a rock lately, you've likely heard of Facebook, the internet social networking site. Originally started at Harvard for it's students, the creator of Facebook - Mark Zuckerburg - eventually opened Facebook to everyone. The site has been going through a rather lengthy and rapid evolution. To read more about what Facebook was and where it came from, check out Wikipedia.

Facebook has become huge, almost overnight (I first heard about it in December 2006) and is frequently making news headlines here, here and here. Seemingly almost everyone I know is on Facebook and those who aren't are only holding out for personal reasons (these are the same people that didn't get MSN Messenger or ICQ when they were "all the rage" - but Facebook is so much more).

I want to talk about what Facebook is right now and why it can be a useful - if used properly - tool. For starters, my big appeal for Facebook is to keep in touch with friends I don't normally see. I was actually enticed to join it to stay in touch with my fellow classmates while we started our final practicums in January. We even created a group for our graduating year and as of today we have more than two thirds of the grads in the group. As teachers, having a social network like this could be extremely useful.

A second useful thing about Facebook is it's ability to have public or private message boards for groups, and for sharing pictures, planning events.

Some used Facebook for "internet stalking" and for posting pictures of themselves drinking to excess. Let me address both of these one at a time. Stalking isn't that cool, but if you don't want the general public to see pictures of you, then don't make them public. The posting of drunken - or otherwise unflattering - pictures to Facebook is not quite the smartest move. There have been many stories of companies checking out prospective employees on Facebook. I know I have checked potential roommates on there and that some parents of students I have in class are on Facebook. But before this turns you off of Facebook, you can easily change your privacy settings so that your pictures are only viewable to people you confirm as your friends (and the privacy settings can go beyond that - but that will be a future post!).

Lately I have noticed many adults joining Facebook (including one of my mentor teachers - and yes I did add her as a friend) and many people are finding those long lost friends from Highschool (and those people you just didn't want to see again - you gotta deal with the good and bad unfortunately).

Every day things seem to be changing on Facebook. As one of the articles I linked to above mentions, there have been many applications added to Facebook in recent weeks. Some of these are small, but interesting and have helped out several other businesses in the process.

What seems to be happening is that Facebook is playing a big role in making those distances between people much smaller. We can now share our lives with people far away with very little effort. Can this be a bad thing? I suggest those non-Facebook users out there at least give it a look over.

Many issues come up with internet applications like this one and I feel like I ought to explore them in depth in future posts. Please comment on any questions you have about Facebook to help me direct what I'll talk about in the coming weeks.