Facebook: A Growing Epidemic

Do you have a Facebook? Chances are, you probably have one, considering there are hundreds of millions of Facebook users, and that rate keeps rising. The main purpose of Facebook is for making connections with people, or social networking. It's a great way to find and stay in touch with friends you may not see often. You can post statuses about how you're feeling and what's going on in your life. That may sound like Twitter, yet Facebook is so much more. It has a place to post pictures, videos and other content you want to share such as your hometown, religious views, music, movies, books, and more. This is also a great idea to see what your friends are into; they may be topics that don't come up in your daily conversations. There are so many things other to do on Facebook as well, such as little personality quizzes and some games, all of which you can post the results on Facebook. Whatever you post, or publish, will appear on the news feed of all your friends. Although it may sound as if it only has a purpose for entertainment, it doesn’t. Often, colleges will look at the profiles of applicants while considering them, and the same idea applies to companies hiring a new member. Besides a resume, they can now find out more about the applicant that can either hurt or help their cause. Although you can set strict privacy settings, it’s important that all users watch what they post. Mark Zuckerberg, 26, is the cofounder. He has commented on the success of Facebook in an interview. “It’s a place where people can move quickly.” Zuckerberg, Harvard drop-out, has also said that “having an emphasis on bold decisions and the bold product,” is another reason why Facebook has become so successful. While many people find Facebook fun and often times useful, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has a quite different opinion. Gates had a profile for a little while, before concluding that “It was just way too much trouble so I gave up today.” Evidently, the incoming mass amounts of friend requests were too much for him. Gates stated this about a year ago but has since rejoined Facebook as well as Twitter.