History of Facebook, Jackie Martin

For my part of the project, I focused on the History of Facebook. Facebook is a social networking website that was launched in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg who was studying psychology at Harvard University. Zuckerberg had developed other social-networking websites including Coursematch, which allowed users to view other students taking their major or Facemash where you could rate other students attractiveness. Facebook's membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, and Stanford University. Facebook opened up to other universities and eventually to highschool students. Now, Facebook is open to anyone. The Facebook homepage states Sign Up: "It's free and always will be." Shockingly, as of September 2012, Facebook has over one billion active users and more than half of those users use Facebook on a cellphone. Upon creating a Facebook users may create a personal profile which includes adding a profile picture and adding other users as friends or liking pages of interest. Entertainment Weekly included Facebook on its Best-of list saying "Before Facebook how on Earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers birthdays, bug our friends and play a rousing game of Scrabulous?"How did we? We didn't...Facebook allows us to essentially "stalk" other users through looking at their pictures or newsfeed activities. Another website called Facebook Detox states that Facebook is a complete waste of time. Another negative side to Facebook is that it limits direct communication. Instead, users communicate through a computer screen or mobile device. Although there are many negative sides to Facebook, it is beneficial in some ways. For example, Facebook allows its users to constantly stay in touch with friends and family all over the world. Facebook is famous for reuniting lost family members. Overall, Facebook is a bridge to connect people all over the world.