What is this "Facebook?"
Facebook began in 2004. As a Harvard sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg launched the social networking site ("New York Times"). Facebook allows users to create a profile with a picture, information on political views, relationship status, favorite books, movies, television shows, and quotations. Users connect with friends – creating two new verbs in the average young person’s lexicon: “to friend” means to acknowledge a familiar (or desired) relationship with another Facebook user. This action allows users to access each other’s profiles, photographs, and “walls” with postings from other users, links, and status updates. The second verb, often carried out in the petty, post-breakup phase of a relationship, is "to defriend" which disallows access to one's profile.
In its original conception, Facebook was limited to certain college campuses (Harvard, Yale, the University among them). The social networking site grew to accommodate the majority of the United States’ colleges and universities. Now anyone with an e-mail address can create a Facebook account. Users can now play games such as Mafia Wars, Greek Life, and Farmville (all as self-explanatory as they sound) in addition to sharing and viewing the information described above. Users can post on each other’s walls, write notes about topics of interest and "tag" other users, and share photographs which can also be "tagged."
In its original conception, Facebook was limited to certain college campuses (Harvard, Yale, the University among them). The social networking site grew to accommodate the majority of the United States’ colleges and universities. Now anyone with an e-mail address can create a Facebook account. Users can now play games such as Mafia Wars, Greek Life, and Farmville (all as self-explanatory as they sound) in addition to sharing and viewing the information described above. Users can post on each other’s walls, write notes about topics of interest and "tag" other users, and share photographs which can also be "tagged."
Here’s a recent post from my own wall:
Caitlin Carter: Nothing incriminating unless you count the Lisa Frank stationary . . . Haha I think my favorite part was the "PS: I'm still your best friend."
A viewer wouldn’t know it, but Caitlin Carter, back when she was Catie Weather, was my best friend in second grade when we lived in Jacksonville. But a viewer would know there was some incident involving Lisa Frank stationery. There exists on Facebook a strange intersection of the intimate and the unknown.
Users can also post their current “status” in addition to sharing links, articles, videos, and blogs they find interesting. My status currently implores a friend to help fix my DVD player. A quick look at the “newsfeed” section shows others' status updates:
Ryan McElveen Congrats to Creigh (includes a link to the recent Washington Post endorsement of Virginia state Senator Deeds).
Lauren Gilchrist is sick.
While Tara Smith has scored 7/15 in the quiz “How Virginian Are You?"
Facebook has a 1000 character limit on wall and status posts. This limit may allow for a greater range of expression than our next social media site: Twitter.
Caitlin Carter: Nothing incriminating unless you count the Lisa Frank stationary . . . Haha I think my favorite part was the "PS: I'm still your best friend."
A viewer wouldn’t know it, but Caitlin Carter, back when she was Catie Weather, was my best friend in second grade when we lived in Jacksonville. But a viewer would know there was some incident involving Lisa Frank stationery. There exists on Facebook a strange intersection of the intimate and the unknown.
Users can also post their current “status” in addition to sharing links, articles, videos, and blogs they find interesting. My status currently implores a friend to help fix my DVD player. A quick look at the “newsfeed” section shows others' status updates:
Ryan McElveen Congrats to Creigh (includes a link to the recent Washington Post endorsement of Virginia state Senator Deeds).
Lauren Gilchrist is sick.
While Tara Smith has scored 7/15 in the quiz “How Virginian Are You?"
Facebook has a 1000 character limit on wall and status posts. This limit may allow for a greater range of expression than our next social media site: Twitter.
