Fall 08 - T04 - G1

Group Name
MSJ Cubed

Group Members
Mike, Shane, Justin, Jason, and Jenn

Technology
Facebook website, an online social network, and all of its applications.

Initial Problem Statement
Is Facebook taking over the world? In other words, is Facebook growing so much that people are becoming addicted to it and replacing reality with the computer...?



What is Social Networking?
Social Networking is the grouping of individuals from all around the world communicating through a central location, usually on the internet. Central locations are generally in the form of websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Yahoo! 360, LavaLife etc. Through these websites people are able to communicate with whomever they want. They can build friendships, business relationships or even intimate relationships. In general, people who communicate over social networks have common interests, these interests can be school, religion, or sports orientated, but regardless the case, the social network is there to bring them together. However, not all social networks have to have a common “tie” between their members. The “traditional” social networks allow you to willingly become a member and control whom you want to be a part of your “community”. Facebook is in essence this, but because you only add people you want it usually becomes a network that is tied together by people with common interests. Social networks can introduce you to people and cultures you would never have experienced on your own, and they can also introduce you to some of the dangers of the internet. These are the pros and cons that will be discussed throughout the content below with respect to one of the most well-known social networks on the web, Facebook.

History of Facebook
In 2004, what began as a hobby for 23 year-old Mark Zuckerberg soon became the world phenomenon known as Facebook. Zuckerberg was a psychology student at Harvard University when he developed the site. Prior to creating Facebook Zuckerberg had developed a few other social networking sites, such as Coursematch. Coursematch was designed so that Harvard students could find people in the same program as themselves. In February 2004, Facebook was officially launched under the name “thefacebook” and within 24 hours 1,200 Harvard students had joined the network. From here, the site’s following expanded rapidly reaching all American Universities and even some International schools. By November 2004, there were over a million registered users. Zuckerberg dropped out of school and with the financial help of Eduardo Saverin, he embarked on creating a dominating worldwide corporation. On August 23rd 2005, at a cost of $200, 000, “thefacebook” became Facebook.com allowing any US high school student to sign-up. In September 2006, anyone with a registered e-mail address could sign-up. Mr. Zuckerberg has been offered many buyouts for Facebook from various companies such as Google and Yahoo, but has so far refused. However, not everything flew smoothly during Facebook’s expansion process. In 2004, Zuckerberg was accused of copying the ideas and coding from the social-networking site ConnectU. The founders of ConnectU, Divya Narendra and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, were fellow Harvard students of Zuckerberg’s. The case was dismissed without a ruling in March 2007 due to a technicality and Facebook has been expanding since.

Pros of Facebook
There are many benefits to a Social Networking Website such as Facebook. The first and most obvious is that it is a great place to keep in touch with friends from all around the world. It is a place where friends, regardless of geographical location, can meet up and chat about anything they want from where they are meeting tonight to what has happened since elementary school. Thanks to cell phones and the internet our generation has become addicted to constantly being in the loop and connected to everyone at all times. This is just another tool that we use to know “what is going on” around the clock. The reason Facebook has become so big is because unlike cell phones, there is no monthly charge or activation fee and unlike myspace.com or Nexopia you are limited to whose profile you can see. This makes Facebook an obvious choice for people who are not necessarily comfortable with just anyone looking at pictures of them or learning details about their lives. Another benefit to Facebook is that it can make organizing an event as easy as clicking a couple of buttons and writing a paragraph. In a few short minutes you can make a surprise party that the recipient cannot view and that invitees cannot tell. The final benefit of Facebook is that it is a place where you can safely show people who you really are. Facebook allows you to add pictures or write things that you would like for other people to see, and if you don’t want a certain person to see all your pictures or read something that you wrote you can put them on a limited profile. This is especially useful for family members, future coworkers etc. In conclusion Facebook is one of the most secure and private social networks around. You can keep in touch with people that you never thought you would see again or you can fire off a quick message to someone that you haven’t seen in a couple of hours. You can meet new people or get to know people a little better. Facebook is a tool that helps connect massive groupings of people.



Cons of Facebook
Although Facebook may seem flawless, there are still many problems that come along with creating a Facebook account. With every social network there are always those few people that ruin it for everyone. Online predators are a big disadvantage of Facebook. Even though your account can be private you can still receive messages from random people. Online predators can be in the form of sexual predators that use social networks, such as Facebook, to “troll for innocent young boys and girls, posing as their peers and suggesting the concept of LMIRL, or ‘let's meet in real life.’” Facebook allows anybody to make an account which administrators don’t have control over, causing online predators to be a problem. Another big problem with Facebook is online bullying. Online bullying is a major problem because bullies now have a place where they can tease and torment other kids. In addition, everyone who is friends with that person can see what is going on. An example of online bullying is when kids setup Facebook groups picking on a certain person and invite all their friends to join and humiliate that person. Another example is the Facebook application called “Honesty box.” Honesty box is where people can post comments about that person anonymously allowing cyber bullying to occur. Facebook has attracted millions of teenagers. People use Facebook for everything. It’s a way for people to keep in touch with friends and family. Although this communication is good, Facebook seems to have taken over many people’s lives. Some teenagers come home and go straight on the computer to check if they have any new notifications or friends requests. Facebook appears to have taken over many kids’ lives, causing them to become less social and to rely on Facebook to find out everything. There are many other problems associated with Facebook, but one major problem is that people can post pictures of you that you do not want to be posted. When people put pictures up there is no notification to the person that is in the picture asking if it is alright to post the picture. I believe that if Facebook added this to the site there would be less people feeling like they have been violated or put out there for everyone to see. Overall, there are many advantages to Facebook but things like online predators and cyber bullying pose a big threat to the security people should feel online.

Facebook vs. Other Social Networks
Facebook is the second largest online social network next to MySpace. Other than MySpace, Facebook has two other main competitors: Bebo and Friendster. Each social network is very similar to one another. They are based on creating profiles, friend lists and comment sections. Being such a large competitor to Facebook, MySpace differs from the others as it targets musicians. Offering a special profile for musicians in which they are able to upload up to six of their MP3 songs onto their profile page. MySpace has also recently released a new beta called MySpace TV, which is similar to video sharing by Youtube. However, Facebook is growing in popularity very quickly so it should surpass MySpace in the near future. List of well known social networks: •	Friendster •	hi5 •	MySpace •	Facebook •	Orkut •	Skyrock •	Windows Live Spaces •	Bebo •	Nexopia •	Lavalife •	Yahoo 360



Conclusion
The short answer; Yes! The long answer; Facebook is a very popular and growing social network. Currently around 120 million people all share lives with each other over this site. Some references say it is the largest social network while others say it is second, but either way it is growing faster than any other site and if it isn’t already the largest it will be soon. More and more people are becoming religious Facebook users every day; they are compulsively checking accounts and updating statuses. It was recently approximated that 140 new applications are being added to Facebook every day, with 52,000 already in existence. Oh good, more reason for already socially stunted kids to never leave the house. In the end, Facebook is an already massive grouping of people that is only getting bigger. You can already creep old friends, play Super Mario Bros, upload pictures from the night before and make people think you are way cooler than you really are. What is next? Nobody knows but MSJ cubed can assume that generations in the future will be socially stunted nerdy kids who are only cool if you have seen their profile. So yes, Facebook is taking over the world.