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In this course, we are looking at Facebook and Facebook is a social networking site.
But what exactly is social networking? Well, here is a definition that I think does
a good job of explaining social networking. A social networking service focuses on building
online communities of people who share interests and activities, and who are
interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.
There are some social networking sites, like Facebook and MySpace, whose sole
purpose is for social networking like email, messages, discussions, and
application sharing. There are other websites that have a social
networking component to them. For example, a website about leukemia may
have information for leukemia patients, and also include social networking
aspects like online profiles or discussion boards.
Some of the social networking sites that you may have heard about are MySpace,
Orkut, LinkedIn, Classmates.com, Ning, or Meetup.
Each of these have the social networking components of profiles, messaging, and
connecting individuals. However, Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut are
open to the general public for any type of networking.
LinkedIn specializes in professional networking, such as promoting resumes,
looking for jobs and networking within an industry.
Classmates.com specializes in social networking for former classmates and for
organizing reunions. Some of the things that I think make Facebook
distinct from the other social networking sites is the News Feed feature
that displays the most recent activity of your friends as a news stream.
Facebook also includes status messages, so you can instantly update your profile
with the latest news about your life. Facebook does limit the way profiles look
as far as colors, fonts, music, and background images.
I think this actually makes for a more usable experience.
You can always personalize your profile with the photos you add, the text you
add, and the applications you use. Facebook also has a robust set of privacy
and security controls, so you can specify exactly who can see what type of information
about you. So at this point, you're probably wondering
why you should join a social networking site.
Well, there are several reasons that I think will become apparent to you as we
move throughout this course. But here are some.
You can join a social networking site to reconnect with old friends and
classmates, to share photos and updates with family members, or to create and join
social and community groups. So, now that we have talked about the concept
of social networking, let's dive into Facebook and start looking around.