Facebook dominates social networking in today’s world. It is the number one networking website in the world by far, having just reached its 300 million user mark. It is in the number one spot as far as most popular social networking sites according to compete.com, commanding almost 400 million more monthly visits than the number two spot currently held by MySpace.com. Facebook has it all, as far as social networking. You can upload photos, alone or in designated “albums”, you can post messages to friends and family either publically or privately, you can change your “status” and update your personal information for others to see. But other networking sites, like MySpace, also tend to have these features. So what about Facebook makes it so captivating? Why do so many millions of people choose to take a minute (or, in many high schooler’s cases, including my own, far longer than a minute) out of their day to check for notifications?
The thing about Facebook is it actually does go above and beyond the call of duty. Facebook goes to great lengths to be #1, and, according to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, one day hopes to “be used by everyone in the world to share information seamlessly”. And Facebook developers really do have the entire world in mind- the site has over 70 translations available for use, and over 70% of all Facebook users are outside the United States. To further their goal of world unity, Facebook has added features that set Facebook apart from the competition.
For one, Facebook users were the first to have the ability to upload unlimited photos, where MySpace, for instance, had a maximum photo limit for a good bit of it’s existence until it changed to allow more so as to compete with Facebook. For many people, Facebook’s straightforward and limitless photo uploading layout translates into a social activity- however obnoxious an activity it may be. Stats show that more than two billion photos are uploaded to Facebook each month. Because the photo capabilities are endless- with the exception of photos that go against Facebook’s “terms of service” (i.e. nudity, narcotics, etc.)- many people, teenage girls especially in my experience, have orchestrated entire photo shoots in public or private areas for the sole purpose of uploading the multitudes of photos onto Facebook. They then proceed to go through every photo and root out the “bad” ones, which are then deleted. All in all, these not-so-uncommon flurries of photographic activity end in extended time on Facebook. More time on Facebook is required afterword, however, for the takers of the pictures to examine the comments left by other users on their newly uploaded photos. In effect, the ability of unlimited photo uploads on an easy-to-use interface alone probably has accounted for an enormous percentage of total Facebook usage in its history.
Another recently added feature might well be a large contributor to Facebook’s recent growing popularity. Facebook developers have revamped the layout of Facebook to include Facebook Chat- a built into the site (and still somewhat buggy) replacement of AOL and other instant-message services. People, myself included, have been seeing this new chat as a primary means of communication between friends, leading individuals to spend far increased amounts of time online. This is probably another reason so many people have joined the site as of recent, considering the large chance that many of their contacts on AIM or Skype or any other IM program have given up their relative program for Facebook Chat, so that they can have more people available (all of their Facebook friends) and also be able to easily juggle instant messaging with Facebook browsing.
The number of total Facebook users throughout the years of its existence has been growing much faster as of recently. Facebook was founded in 2004. In august of 2008, it reached its 100 millionth user. Less than nine months later, in early April of 2009, Facebook reached the big 200 million marker. Five months after that, in mid September, Facebook achieved 300 million users. My hypothesis about this increasingly-increasing number is that people join because people are joining. In other words, people who don’t have Facebook accounts see how immensely popular the site is becoming, and they hop on board to either see what they are missing, or because they have been pressured by a friend. Either way, if this is true, Facebook will continue to grow at even faster rates until Mr. Zuckerberg achieves his goal of social networking world domination.
Because this may be the case, it appears that Facebook will not be dying out and becoming something that was cool for a while. No, Facebook is here to stay, it isn’t just a fad. When talking about how he plans on making it so that everyone in the world uses Facebook as a seamless mode of communication, Zuckerberg says that “Two hundred million in a world of six billion is tiny… 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.” Zuckerberg and his team of dedicated computer whizzes fully intend to make Facebook as widely accepted as, say, the cell phone, and to me it looks like they will succeed.
Facebook’s full integration into society can also be seen in the demographics. The site started as a means for college interaction. It was then released as a way for high schoolers to stay in touch, as well. Then, it went mainstream. For a while, teenagers were the primary demographic, as is to be expected because social networking sites have historically been a high school thing. But recently, according to istrategylabs.com, the demographics of joining users have drastically changed. From June 18, 2008 to January 4, 2009, the amount of users aged 0-17 increased by about 30%, and the amount of users aged 18-24 increased by about 21%. But a quick look at the users aged 35-54, and we see a HUGE boom in activity, the amount of users having increased a massive 276.4%. Another still massive stat is the 55+ demographic, which increased by 194.3% in the same time span. This clearly shows Facebook’s not-so-slow integration into modern society, as even parents (and in some cases, parents of parents) of Facebook users are joining the ever-growing network.
Facebook is a fantastic website, with an incredible amount of possibilities that only continue to grow daily. Soon, Facebook will be one of the major modes of communication in the world. How long will it be before job applications ask for your Facebook username? Only time will tell, but if the site’s growth rate continues to explode, my guess is not so long.
Bibliography-
Facebook.com
Facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics (separate stats page)
this was so interesting learning about all the things that facebook does and respresents in the modern world of technocolgy. thanks for fresh perspective!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this piece. Your talking about facebook as a media platform and its solidity in terms of permanence in media and expanding demographics show the readers the real media behemoth that Facebook is becoming. Your discussion of developers, trends, and where facebook wants to go were all very insightful and, while i have previously read things about it in similar manners, your way of writing it and your flow were great and, aside from a few grammatical errors i had no qualms at all with it.
ReplyDelete-Sam
Obviously, like most teenagers, I have a Facebook and years ago had a MySpace. To me Facebook is just a mode of instant communication but your piece revealed that there's more going on than just writing on others' walls. I liked that you talked about where Facebook is going in the future - it was really interesting! Great piece.
ReplyDelete- Jennifer
I remember when Facebook users were only college folk; it was a digital, advance from of the paper "face books" that would have pictures of every person in the freshman class.
ReplyDeleteIt was a long while before I finally logged on. I didn't want to get caught up and addicted to it. How did I get on? Peer pressure. That's right. Adult peer pressure. Friends I trusted were on it and there were so many people I know back when that had spread out all over the world; now I could have them gathered all in one place. My friend said, "I'm just sayin', it's pretty cool..." I'm a part of that 276.4% most likely.
So your hypothesis rings true for me, people use FB because people are using FB.
You use statistics well to help us understand the viral spread of FB. It's also interesting to see the differences between teenager and adult usage. I do wonder, though, if a new competitor will best FB the way FB bested MySpace.