A New Way
Mark Zuckerberg the founder of the very popular social network Facebook, never thought that his exclusive network would be one of the fastest-growing and best-known social media website on the Internet today. Zuckerberg was only a sophomore at Harvard when he and introduced this sumptuous idea to his peer classmates. Originally, this idea was meant to give a brief bio of each of his college classmates to make more personable relationship. However, it only took a couple of months to be a internet sensation known to many throughout the world, and possibly bringing Web 2.0 into the minds of many. “The term "Web 2.0” is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web” (Wikipedia). Web 2.0 includes web applications, blogs, wikis, social networking sites and much more.
Ask anyone on the street if they are familiar with Web 2.0, and chances are most have never heard of it and admit to never using it. Little did they know that Facebook is becoming the mainstream to Web 2.0.
So how did this miraculous Web 2.0 social networking website appear in the hands of many?
In February of 2004, as a place to exclusively interact with other Harvard students. It was simply a place for your name, a picture and a little description of yourself. Quickly this new social media website was heard and requested upon other college students in the United States. By September 2004, Facebook broaden its development to group application and the “Wall”. The group application is a function for users to join their and other schools users, developing a more easy and accessible way for students to directly connect with their peers. It’s purpose continued to engage student interactions and collaborations that had a common inertest, such as sports team and political views. The “Wall” was established for students to leave public comments or messages to other students. For example, students are able to write “happy birthday” to a friend they hadn’t seen, or leave a joke.
The popularity and request for Facebook increased dramatically, pressuring Zuckerberg to endorse his social network into the hands of all college students. At this time, Facebook could only be accessed if students had an email address from a college or university. The idea and purpose of opening up to all college students was to enable friends to stay connected when going to school or back home.
This outreach to all college students endured Facebook, to be ranked as the number one social networking site among all college students. “Social Networking sites have emerged as college students’ number one source of communication” (). In a month of Facebook was allowing access to all, high- school students, adults, and young teens. Rapidly a million users joined Facebook; high school students and work places quickly increased Facebook’s worth to over one million dollars. It now holds more than 200 million active users worldwide and is continuing to grow each day. Zuckerberg stated that “Two hundred million in a world of six billion is tiny,” he says. “It’s a cool milestone. It’s great that we reached that, especially in such a short amount of time. But there is so much more to do.”
There are diverse opinions on how Facebook has affected people lives and the way they communicate. Personally I believe that Facebook has become one of my top ways of communicating not only with friends but family as well. When I first joined Facebook I was immediately able to connect with my classmates. I realized that having other classmates on Facebook was a easy way to ask or give help last minute with homework or on a project with students in my classes. I was also able to post pictures immediately after I had taken them of my friend’s birthday partiy for all my friends to see. Without Facebook, I would have to go to the store and print out copies and pass them around to only the friends I see on a daily basis.
As Facebook grew more popular with people I was finding myself connecting with family members from across the United States and reconnecting with childhood friends. Being able to talk to friends and family members from distance will be a sense of security when I study abroad. Professor Koch at Marist College, said that “Distance is not a crucial thing anymore, because social network sites allow for relationships to feel safe”. Personally, I feel a sense of security knowing that I will be able to talk to my mom and friends, while keeping each other up to date with our lives. Without Facebook I would be incapable of showing pictures and videos of experiences I have abroad.
Facebook has attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. It help strangers connect based on shared interests, political views, or activities as well as people based on common language or shared racial, sexual, religious, or nationality. Facebook is becoming a popular way for people to collaborate information, pictures, videos and much more. The New York Times wrote “Facebook is rapidly becoming the Web 2.0’s dominant social ecosystem and an essential personal and business networking tool in much of the wired world. Facebook promises to change how we communicate even more fundamentally, in part by digitally mapping and linking peripatetic people across space and time, allowing them to publicly share myriad and often very personal elements of their lives.”
Articles Related:
http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/10/21/web-20-facebooks-challenges-in-scaling-to-300-million-users/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68iAshnO_4M
http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/17845/?a=f
FINAL REVIEW
14 years ago