Facebook 101: For the “Other Generation”

Recently, our Social Media Mom introduced us to her advertures on the social media platform.  She talked about the broad range of ways to communicate with family and cebrities.  Today we look at the largest social media network, Facebook.

Updating statuses, friend request, likes, find us on Facebook, these are all words we've heard before, but might not quite understand. So I will try and explain to you the 101 of Facebook.

Once upon a time, at a college far far away, a young man, Mark Zuckerberg, started a program at his college called "Facemash." Facemash was a fun way for students to rate other students photos. It was also a way for them to connect with each other. Only college students with college emails could join this site.

In 2004, Zuckerberg realized how popular this was becoming and changed the name to "Facebook" and allowed everyone to join. Now everyone could be connected with their family and friends..and this site was growing big time!

In August of 2008, Facebook had 100 million users and by April of 2012 it grew to 900 million users. On May 17 2012, Facebook held a initial public offering for stocks, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company. Facebook is big business and a lot of companies advertise on Facebook hoping to bring in new customers.

Facebook is a site to connect to friends and family, post picutres, "like" a status, find products and just about anything else you could want. There are also a seemingly endless array of games you can play, the most popular is Farmville. This is a game where you can run your own farm and compete against your friends. There are word games, puzzle games and many others to keep you busy.

I recently asked some people I know "why do you go on Facebook?" The three answers I got where, one, to talk to my family and friends; two, to play the games; and three, to find new products and sites I might like.

So, the next time you hear "updating my status" or "find us on Facebook"...to go Facebook and sign up for a profile and start enjoying the many things it offers.

Next time I'll enlight you on the joys of Twitter!

Our Social Media Mom lives in Westmoreland and tweets @raidersfan615