Facebook

Facebook is has over five-hundred million different users worldwide. Each profile is personalized by the users choice and there are few limitations as to what you can use your profile (and friend's profiles) to do. I surveyed a random sample of seven of my Facebook friends asking them three questions; When did they first use Facebook? Why did they start? and What do they spend the majority of their time doing? I then examined there profiles to see what each one said about themselves through pictures, albums, "likes", etc.

Originally, even after Facebook left Harvard, it was intended to be for college students only. However, this is not the case. Now high school students, college students, and adults all use Facebook for various reasons. For that purpose, I broke up the participants into three groups: A)16-19 years old B)20-24 years old and C)24 years and older. This is to help to see if there is any homogeneity with-in groups or between.

Group A: 16-19 years old
Participant 1: One started using her Facebook account when she was in eighth grade (2008). Her reason for joining was because of friend's having one and telling her about it. She uses Facebook for primarily "creeping". Analysis of her profile shows that she has 502 friends, 68 likes, five albums, and 348 pictures in which she is tagged. Personal information she discloses include her email address and phone number.
Participant 2: Two started using her Facebook account in the tenth grade (2008). Her reason was the combination of friends having an account and Myspace becoming incompetent. She enjoys the aspect of "creeping" on her friends, and also staying in touch with them. Analysis of her profile shows that she has 638 friends, 30 likes, 21 photo albums, and 546 tagged photos. The only personal information she discloses is her email address.

Group A: It is quite interesting that both One and Two voiced that "creeping" is their most frequent activity online. "Creeping" has such a negative connotation, but yet they openly chose that word. It shows that it is an acceptable hobby in the social community of Facebook. A little bit of fear arises in who else might be "creeping", primarily for One as she discloses her phone number. Both of them have quite a high number of "friends", leading me to believe that they probably do not keep up with all of them. Yet it was the influence of friends, that led to their starting their use. And while they claim that "creeping" is their favorite past time, they both use the "likes" to express their own feelings and opinions, painting a picture of themselves in the community.


Group B: 20-24 years old
Participant 3: Three started using Facebook when she turned 18 (2007). She wanted to put up the photos from her eighteenth birthday (being from England, the 18th birthday is the equivalent to a 21st birthday celebration here). Her main activities are looking at photos, browsing the newsfeed, and keeping up with friends. Analysis of her profile shows that she has 462 friends, 11 likes, 80 photo albums, and 1268 tagged photos. The only personal information she discloses is her email addresses.

Participant 4: Four started using Facebook in 2007, the reason being that Myspace was bad. She uses it to "talk with friends" and for pictures. Analysis of her profile shows that she has 471 friends, 1607 likes, 43 albums, and 2178 tagged photos.  The only personal information she discloses is her email address.

Participant 5: Five started using Facebook as a high school senior (2007). His reasoning was that my space was sub-par. The activity he partakes in the most is "creeping" on profiles. His profile shows that he has 543 friends, 207 likes, 9 albums, and 247 tagged photos. His email address, phone number and address are all disclosed.

Participant 6: Six started using Facebook last year (2009). His reasoning was that it was better than Myspace. He enjoys "laughing at status updates". His profile shows that he has 225 friends, 16 likes, seven albums, and 24 tagged photos. No private information.

Group B: This group is more so a cohort that grew up with the onslaught of online communities as evident by their reasoning of joining Facebook was the fact it seemed like an update from Myspace. With the exception of one, no body uses the word "creeping" and rather likes to talk/keep up with friends. Also, the amount of friends, all seem to be relatively more believable than in Group A, especially since this group contains two Europeans who have lived in multiple countries and therefore have multiple friend groups. Two of them also voiced an interest in photos online which was made evident by the amount of photo albums and tagged photos. In addition, participant Four and Five seem to express themselves with their likes, especially Four. It seems that she really enjoys expressing herself online. Overall, privacy concerns only come up for one participant.

Group C: 24-30
Participant 7: Seven started using Facebook in 2007 at the urging of her younger siblings. She uses it to keep up with friends and family, while also using it to "elicit feedback on cooking and research thoughts". Her profile lists 325 friends, 2 likes, 3 albums and 117 tagged photos. She lists her email address and academic website.

Group C: As I was only able to obtain one participant for this group, it is hard to base any conclusions. However, a couple interesting things still stand out to me. For one, Seven was told to join by younger siblings to join. This shows that even though she is in her late twenties, social networking was not something she grew up with. To this effect, she uses this online community in a way that no one else mentioned; she tries to "elicit feedback". She uses this as an actual network to communicate on things beyond friendships and social lives, but into the realm of academia.

With over half a billion people signed in to the social community of Facebook, it is evident in this sampling of seven individuals that everyone uses it in a different way. It is what you make out of it.