The Facebook Effect

                Facebook is a social network enabling its users to connect and share information online, created by a Harvard student named Mark Zuckerburg.

But of course you probably knew that.

Since its creation, Facebook has become the second most visited website on the internet after Google. 41.6% of the United States has a Facebook account (socialmediatoday.com). Obviously the company is doing something right, and has created something people desire and caters to a need. Why should we care? With such a large volume of users there is tremendous potential for marketing and simply sharing information. We must determine how this affects us as individuals and as a society.

Facebook was originally called “TheFacebook”. It was started by a Harvard student named Mark Zuckerberg. He created the project in order to connect Harvard students in a private online network where one can create a profile. What was special about this as supposed to MySpace was that you needed a college email, originally a Harvard.edu email in order to make an account. What this does is that it ensures the identity of the user. On MySpace users can easily create a fake profile, limiting what information you can put up on MySpace without having a threat to your privacy.

“TheFacebook” grew rapidly with many new users and new features.  Zuckerberg decided to allow certain other ivy league colleges into the website and the website exploded with users. Every time a college was allowed onto the website, the students of the college joined the network at a phenomenal rate. Soon many different colleges and eventually everyone was allowed on the site because of threats of competing websites.

 One of the reasons Facebook grew so fast was because Zuckerberg was stern about keeping the site “cool”. For him, cool meant not having extensive ads and having a simple easy-to-use interface. He did not give into investors and companies offering to buy the website. He stuck to his principles and made the website how he wanted it and built his dream.

This powerful network has had effects on people all around the world. In Colombia one single user used facebook to create a group for protest against the guerilla group called FARC. Thousands of people joined the group and together they protested against the FARC, one of the single largest factors of the FARC submitting to the demands of the people. Protestors were given the support of the government, but it was the power of the people and masses that prevailed in the end.

“On Facebook, everyone can be an editor, a content creator, a producer, and a distributor. All the classic old-media hats are being worn by everyone” (9). Facebook allows the common user to create and spread their own media to a much larger crowd with very little effort. This empowers every individual in the fact that they can make their voice and ideas heard with the same effect as a large corporation or news station. Also as seen in Columbia, it gives people the power of organizing themselves to stand for something, or even just for a party. It has created a tool for the population of common people to communicate, organize and share information. As long as it is under control by someone with the values of Mark Zuckerburg it will only grow more powerful as more users begin to use it, allowing widespread communication without being under the mercy of powerful media institutions.