You can interact and exchange content with loved ones online using Facebook, a social networking service. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg when he was a student at Harvard University and was first designed for college students.
Anyone over 13 with a working email address could sign up for Facebook by 2006. With more than 1 billion users now, Facebook is the largest social network in the world.
What is Facebook?
The American business Meta Platforms is the owner of the social networking and social media website Facebook.
The name of the social networking site, which was established in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard College students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, it is derived from the Facebook directories that are frequently distributed to students at American universities.
Prior to 2006, membership was restricted to Harvard students, but since then, it has been open to students at other North American colleges and everyone over the age of 13.
Facebook claimed to have 2.93 billion users worldwide as of July 2022, and as of that month, it was the third-most visited website globally. The 2010s’ most popular mobile app was that one.
Devices having Internet connectivity, like laptops, tablets, and smartphones, can access Facebook.
Users can establish a profile after registering that contains information about them. They may exchange text, pictures, and other types of material with other users who have accepted to be their “friends” or, depending on the privacy settings, with the whole public.
Additionally, users have access to Facebook Messenger for direct communication with one another, community groups, and updates on the activity of their Friends on facebook and the pages they prefer.
Facebook, the focus of numerous scandals, has frequently been targeted for problems with mass surveillance, political meddling, and user privacy. Currently, some of the most highly shared political information on Facebook comes from posts published on the Facebook page of Breitbart News, a news outlet formerly connected to Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook has also been under criticism for psychological consequences including addiction and low self-esteem, as well as for a number of content-related issues such false news, conspiracy theories, violating copyrights, and hate speech.
Facebook has been charged with intentionally enabling the spread of such information as well as inflating its user base in order to attract advertisers, according to commentators.
Facebook: Why use it?
Have you ever considered the appeal of Facebook to users? After all, there are other means of internet communication, like email, text messaging, and others. Facebook’s capacity to share the information with the person you care about at the same moment sets it apart from other social media platforms.
Similar to having your own email address, having a Facebook account is now widely seen as a necessary component of being online. Additionally, other websites have sought to incorporate Facebook because of how widely used it is.
This implies that you may log in to several Web services with a single Facebook account.
What is the Facebook sharing process?
Facebook makes it possible for you to communicate with friends and family by sending messages and updating your status.
You may also distribute various forms of material, including pictures and links. However, distributing content on Facebook differs slightly from other forms of online communication. The information you post on Facebook is more public than it is on email or instant messaging, which means that more people will typically see it.
It’s crucial to realize that Facebook is meant to be far more open and sociable than conventional communication technologies, even while it has privacy options to assist you restrict who may view the items you share.
Standard Facebook vocabulary
Friends? Likes? A status report? There are several words and phrases that, if you’re new to Facebook, could at first appear a little strange.
You’ll have a better knowledge of how Facebook functions and what to anticipate once you start using it if you go over some of the most often used words.
Creating a Facebook account
You must register for a Facebook account before using the service. It costs nothing to open a Facebook account. A valid email address and a few minutes of your time are all you need to get started.
Making a Facebook account involves:
- Enter www.facebook.com into your browser to access Facebook.
- Enter your contact information and preferred password under “Sign Up,” then click “Sign Up.”
- Then you may follow the on-screen instructions to locate contacts, add a profile photo, understand security settings, and more.
Your email address must be verified before you can use all of Facebook’s services. Log into your email account, open the Facebook confirmation message, and click Confirm Your Account to complete this.
Exploring Facebook
After setting up an account, you should spend some time getting acquainted with Facebook’s many features, such as the homepage and Timeline.
The homepage
When you log into Facebook, the homepage is shown. Your News Feed, which features updates from your friends on Facebook, is visible on the homepage. You can access other areas of Facebook, like your Timeline, from the homepage.
Timeline
To see and update your Timeline, click your name.
Facebook Elements
Technical Aspects
Because Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind, the website’s primary color is blue. This was discovered following a test conducted in roughly 2007.
In order to build HipHop for PHP, a “source code transformer” created by Facebook programmers to convert PHP to C++, Facebook was constructed in PHP. According to reports, the use of HipHop lowered Facebook servers’ typical CPU usage by 50%.
Content Delivery Network(CDN)
For providing static material, Facebook operates its own content distribution network, often known as an “edge network,” using the name fbcdn.net. Up until the middle of the 2010s, Facebook also utilized CDN services from Akamai.
Hack Programming Language
Facebook unveiled Hack, a new open-source computer language, on March 20, 2014. A sizable chunk of Facebook was operational and “combat tested” using the modern language prior to its general deployment.
User Profile/Personal Timeline
Every Facebook user who has signed up has a personal account that displays their material and posts.
In September 2011, the design of individual user pages was updated, and “Timeline”—a chronological stream of a person’s stories, including Facebook updates, images, interactions with applications, and events—became the standard. The layout lets users add a “cover photo”.
Users were given more privacy settings. Facebook introduced Facebook Pages in 2007 to allow corporations and celebrities to communicate with their fan networks.
Facebook launched its “Usernames” feature in June 2009, allowing users to select a distinctive nickname that would be included in the URL for their individual profile for simpler sharing.
News Feed
Every user’s homepage features a section called News Feed that displays recent profile changes, forthcoming events, and birthdays of friends. This gave spammers and other users the ability to abuse these functionalities by fabricating events or publishing fictitious birthdays in order to draw attention to their account or cause.
The News Feed first infuriated Facebook users; some claimed it was overloaded and overflowing with unwanted material, while others expressed worry that it made it too simple for outsiders to keep tabs on personal actions. Zuckerberg issued an apology for the website’s lack of suitable privacy protections.
As a result, users acquired control over the information that is automatically shared with others. The ability to hide information about specific sorts of activity, such as profile changes, Wall postings, and newly joined friends, has been introduced by users.
Like button
Users may quickly engage with facebook updates, comments, images, videos, links posted by friends, and adverts thanks to the “like” button, stylised as a “thumbs up” icon, which was originally made available on February 9, 2009.
The specified material is more likely to show up in friends’ News Feeds after being clicked by the user. The button counts how many other people have expressed interest in the content. In June 2010, the like button was added to comments.
Facebook added “Reactions” in February 2016, allowing users to select from five pre-defined reactions, including “Love,” “Haha,” “Wow,” “Sad,” and “Angry.” During the COVID-19 pandemic in late April 2020, a new “Care” response was added.
Instant messaging
Instant chat service and software are both available through Facebook Messenger. It started off as Facebook Chat in 2008, through a redesign in 2010, and then, in August 2011, it became an independent mobile app while still being a component of the user profile on browsers.
Users may make individual and group audio and video calls with Messenger in addition to ordinary discussions. SMS and “Chat Heads,” which are circular profile photo icons that appear on the screen regardless of what app is active, are incorporated into its Android version.
Both applications also offer numerous accounts, discussions with optional end-to-end encryption, and “Instant Games.” Giving funds and requesting transportation are two functions that are only available within the United States.
Privacy policy
The data policy of Facebook describes its guidelines for gathering, keeping, and disclosing user data. Through Facebook’s privacy settings, users may limit who can view certain posts and their profile. The user’s name and profile image (if any) are both seen by everyone.
Targeted advertising, which entails examining user data to determine which adverts to present to each user, is the main source of income for Facebook. To enhance its own user data, Facebook purchases data from third parties that is obtained from both online and offline sources. Facebook asserts that it does not provide the marketers with the data used for targeted marketing.
The Timeline
The Timeline, also known as your profile page, is where you post personal information. Every update you publish shows up on your Timeline. On your Timeline, your friends may also share articles.
Along with the things that your contacts have placed on your Timeline, the Timeline also contains your postings and other activities.
A Profile Photo
You are represented by your profile picture on Facebook. This is the image that your Facebook friends will view when you share and comment.
About
You can see and change your profile data from here. You can disclose information about your past employment, connections, interests, and more here.
Photos
You may view the images you’ve shared and those in which you have been tagged from this point.
Cover Picture
A huge image that is only seen on your Timeline is your cover photo. You don’t necessarily have to be in the cover image. Choose something that better represents your personality or hobbies as an alternative.
Create Post
Posting a status update, images, links, and other content on the Timeline is simple. Your shared content will appear both here and on your followers’ news feed.
Intro
This page will display the fundamental details you’ve provided about yourself. What you want to add may be tailored.
Facebook for mobile devices
Facebook makes mobile connection simple. In reality, the majority of Facebook users primarily utilize a mobile device to visit the website. On a range of mobile phones and tablets, like iOS and Android, Facebook provides an official mobile app.
Almost all of the features available on the computer version of Facebook are available on the mobile app, including the ability to publish status updates and photos, read news and updates, and communicate with friends.
We want to quickly introduce you to the two most often used Facebook apps: Facebook for Android and iPhone. You’ll see that each programme offers you accessibility to the same fundamental capabilities, despite the fact that their user interfaces differ significantly.