Difference between revisions of "Facebook"
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'''Facebook''' is a social website originally started for the benefit of college students, but then commercialized for all with advertising and promotions. Users can waste their time on it in a variety of ways: by uploading pictures (typically of themselves), by gossiping about others, and by interfering with marriages and personal relationships. | '''Facebook''' is a social website originally started for the benefit of college students, but then commercialized for all with advertising and promotions. Users can waste their time on it in a variety of ways: by uploading pictures (typically of themselves), by gossiping about others, and by interfering with marriages and personal relationships. | ||
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| + | Surveys show that Facebook feeds narcissistic tendencies.<ref>http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-30/tech/facebook.narcissism.mashable_1_facebook-social-networking-status-updates?_s=PM:TECH</ref> | ||
Studies show that the use of Facebook is associated with poorer performance in school. Facebook use is also associated with a substantial percentage of marital problems. The site is heavily promoted by [[liberal]]s, presumably because it is so unproductive or even counterproductive. | Studies show that the use of Facebook is associated with poorer performance in school. Facebook use is also associated with a substantial percentage of marital problems. The site is heavily promoted by [[liberal]]s, presumably because it is so unproductive or even counterproductive. | ||
Revision as of 00:56, March 25, 2011
Facebook is a social website originally started for the benefit of college students, but then commercialized for all with advertising and promotions. Users can waste their time on it in a variety of ways: by uploading pictures (typically of themselves), by gossiping about others, and by interfering with marriages and personal relationships.
Surveys show that Facebook feeds narcissistic tendencies.[1]
Studies show that the use of Facebook is associated with poorer performance in school. Facebook use is also associated with a substantial percentage of marital problems. The site is heavily promoted by liberals, presumably because it is so unproductive or even counterproductive.
Anybody with an account can create an unlimited amount of unproductive pages, which can then be "like"d by other users.
Facebook is based in Palo Alto, California. The name of the site is based on the paper facebooks that many colleges give to incoming students, faculty, and staff depicting members of the campus community.[2]
Monetary Value
It is rumored that Facebook generates around $1 million per week in revenue. [3] In September 2006, Yahoo began talks to acquire Facebook for as high as $1 billion. In October, Google allegedly offered $2.3 billion.[4] All outside offers have been rejected. 2009 estimates put a net value of $6.5 billion. [5] 2010 estimates of the privately held company put the value at $14 billion dollars. [6]
In 2011, Goldman Sachs invested $500 million in Facebook. It is speculated that Goldman Sachs may be put in charge of an initial public offering of Facebook stock in 2012. Valuations are speculated at between $10 and $50 billion. [7]
Origins
Facebook was founded in February 2004 by Harvard sophomores Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin, with help from Andrew McCollum. By December of 2004, after expanding the site to other universities, the number of registered users exceeded one million. In August 2005 Facebook obtained the domain name facebook.com and dropped the "the" from the site's name.
2010
A movie was made about the origins of Facebook, called The Social Network. The film was number one in America for several weeks. Mark Zuckerberg was not involved in the creation of film and says that it was more Hollywood storyteling than reality.
It has been known among Silicon Valley technology companies that Facebook has been luring away Google employees to the extent that Google is now offering bonuses not to leave the company. On October 15, Facebook announced the release of a new email client. Internally referred to as Titan and the media has dubbed it Gmail Killer. Zuckerberg insists it is not a head-to-head competitor of Google's Gmail service and will be more of a instant messaging service. [8]
Liberal Policies
The world's largest online social network added civil unions and domestic partnerships to the list of relationships that its users can pick from to best describe their romantic status. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation had lobbied for the policy adoption and is only available to Facebook users in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France and Australia. [9]
Privacy Issues
Compared to MySpace, Facebook gives the user many more options for privacy controls. Under the default private settings, only Facebook users in the same network, or friends of the user, can access another user's profile. There are also separate privacy controls for each type of information (blogs, messages, address and telephone numbers, photos). A user in a completely different network will apparently have no access to another user's profile unless they are added as a friend.[10] Despite these controls, the same problems exist as with any other networking website:
- Many users post their full address, e-mail address, birthday, and telephone number, and these can be available to their entire network (and, in reality, anyone). This information in the wrong hands can be used for purposes of phishing, stalking, or even identity theft.
- Some universities have begun to use students' pages to investigate underage drinking and other violations of university policy. This is very possible, since university faculty and staff can sign up for the same network as their students through their campus e-mail account.[11]
- The so-called "news feed" has aroused some discomfort among Facebook users, as it collects all changes among one's friends and posts whenever a user logs in.
- The "wall" feature allows a user to send a message to another user which remains on their profile page. This posting is viewable to everyone who can view the page, and shows up on the news feed for all friends of both the sender and the recipient.
- As with Google ads, Facebook collects profile information, and places ads on the page that reflect the user's personal information.
- The privacy settings on Facebook give users a false sense of security and encourage people to post things they shouldn't. As with other social networks, Facebook refuses to admit that its privacy settings that apparently allow only "friends" to see certain information are completely bogus and can easily be cracked by people with little to no hacking experience. Instead, Facebook actually encourages young users to only allow "friends" to see certain information, rather than just warning them that what they post can be seen by the world and to not post what they wouldn't want people to see.
References
- ↑ http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-30/tech/facebook.narcissism.mashable_1_facebook-social-networking-status-updates?_s=PM:TECH
- ↑ "Facebook goes beyond college and high school markets"
- ↑ "First Youtube, Now Facebook: Rumors Circulate"
- ↑ Facebook stock trading open; valuation $6.5 billion CNET News, July 13, 2009
- ↑ Facebook Valued At $14 Billion On SecondMarket, TechCrunch.com, January 20, 2010
- ↑ Is Facebook Worth $50B?, Fox Business, January 3, 2011
- ↑ E-MAIL WAR: Facebook Launches 'Gmail Killer' -- AOL Jumps In, Too, FOX News, November 15, 2010
- ↑ [http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/18/facebook-adds-support-sex-civil-unions Facebook Adds Support for Same-Sex Civil Unions, Fox News, February 18, 2011
- ↑ Facebook on allexperts.com
- ↑ Facebook on allexperts.com
