Student S Last Name 5

Student’s last name 1 Student’s Name

Teacher’s Name

Speech/Debate- Blk. ?

20 September 2015

Social Networking: It’s Here to Stay

Did you know that “74% of Americans online use social networking sites such as

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, as of Jan. 2014”? That’s an increase of

26% in the past 5 or 6 years. Why? Because it’s what’s trending. It’s what people do when they need to research something. It’s what people do when they want to communicate with others. It’s what people do who wish to just waste time. What I do know though; Social Media is here to stay. Whether it is god or bad; it’s not going anywhere. Which social networking site is the

“king” of them all? How many users exist in this global company, and can it be dangerous as well as beneficial to its users? Well, before we get into those areas, let’s go back to the

beginning to a social media site called Friendster.

In 2002, a social networking site was founded by Jonathan Abrams. Ever heard of it?

Well, it was the first, but not the last, as it was followed by MySpace in 2003, as well as

Linkedin, and a host of other social websites like Multiply, Orkutt, and Diggs. One of the most popular social networking stories though, is that of Facebook. Over 10 years ago, a Harvard student came up with the idea of Facebook. On October 28, 2003, Mark Zuckerberg was sitting in his room blogging about a girl who had just dumped him. Being drunk and bored, he suddenly wanted to create a website that compared pictures of ugly people and farm animals to see who looked better. He first called this website Facemash. Zuckerberg hacked into Harvard’s files to look for pictures from photo IDs. Harvard nearly expelled him for violating copyright and privacy, but later dropped the charges. Zuckerberg was inspired by his Facemash idea and Student’s last name 2 decided to make a new website. On February 4, 2004, Facebook was started. It was originally called The Facebook and was located at thefacebook.com. Word began to spread through

Zuckerburg’s friends, and after advertising the website on an online mailing list, 1215 people registered within twenty-four hours. Membership on The Facebook was limited to Harvard students only. Within one month, half of Harvard’s undergraduates had registered. Four friends of Zuckerberg joined him in expanding the website to other colleges like Stanford, Columbia, and Yale. The Facebook eventually reached most universities in the United States and Canada, and The Facebook became a company in 2004, and moved their headquarters to Palo Alto,

California. The company went from being “The Facebook” to just Facebook in 2005.

In September 2005, high school students were allowed to join Facebook, and by

September 2006, Facebook was open to users 13 or older. Today, Facebook has 1.11 billion monthly active users! “CNN wrote about the trend back in 2010, estimating that there were "at least a few thousand profile pages for dogs and cats along with less common pets such as birds, hamsters, ferrets, turtles, fish and rabbits." As you can see, Facebook has swept the nation, but it’s not limited to the USA.

Existing in so many countries, Facebook had a big potential for wealth. Its international headquarters opened in Dublin, Ireland in October 2008. Big companies wanted to buy

Facebook from Zuckerberg, but he refused to sell the company, wanting to keep it independent.

He reportedly turned down an offer of $750 million. Other companies also expressed interest in investing with Facebook. Microsoft and Google were interested, and Yahoo! even offered $1 billion to own the website. Microsoft ended up buying 1.6% of Facebook for $240 million, allowing them to have international advertisements on Facebook. However, even though the website is international, not all countries can access Facebook.

Some people criticize Facebook for being too open. China has banned Facebook, claiming that people used the website to plan riots. Syria banned Facebook out of fear that the Student’s last name 3 Israelis would use the website to infiltrate other Syrian sites, and anyone who criticized the

Syrian government online would be arrested. There are also issues concerning privacy. “Seven million households that use Facebook reported problems in 2012, ranging from someone using a log-in without permission to being threatened online or in person, a 30% increase from 2011.

Phishing, the act of attempting to acquire personal information for identity theft, increased 240% on social networking sites from 2008 to 2009.” Also, social networking endangers how many face to face, personal interactions are made on a daily basis in today’s culture. Cyber-bullying and crimes against young people are always a possibility. Social networking can be a time waster and suck our lives away without us realizing that the time just spent posting, or chatting, or searching, is GONE! Some businesses can use social networking sites to ensure that who they are hiring are credible people with integrity. Some people say that is an invasion of privacy.

Others say, if you have nothing to hide, then who cares who goes on to your websites. But despite the negative aspects of social networking and Facebook, millions of users continue

to use Facebook because of the benefits it offers.

Facebook allows people to communicate with one another, whether they are friends, family, co-workers, or even complete strangers. Some features include Facebook Chat, where people can instant message any of their friends who are online. Users can control what they want others to see on their profile by changing their settings. The Wall is where friends can post messages for the user to read. The most popular feature on Facebook is the Photos application.

Approximately 14 million photos are uploaded each day on the website. In July 2008, Facebook introduced a free version of the Facebook iPhone and Facebook iTouch applications and millions of people use that feature today. It allows people to access Facebook on their phones and even lets them respond to notifications or friend requests. With all these new features, Facebook has come a long way from since it began. Student’s last name 4 As Facebook has grown, so has the number of users. Facebook has over 1.4 billion monthly active users today, and features over 70 languages. It all started with an unknown

Harvard student and has since then expanded internationally. The Facebook Company itself is worth at least 200 billion dollars. There will always be people who complain about Facebook and its security and privacy issues, but its useful features and method of communication outweigh the criticisms. Facebook is the “king” of social networking sites. Thanks to Facebook, people can connect with others via technology, but don’t forget…it’s not as personal as connecting with someone in person!

Works Cited

Beal, Vangie. "Social Networking Sites." Webopedia. 31 Aug. 2015. WEB. 18 September 2015. Student’s last name 5 ProCon.org. "Are Social Networking Sites Good For Our Society." Social

NetworkingProCon.org. 3 March 2015. WEB. 21 September 2015.

Rothberg, Steven. “Social Networking Sites Such as MySpace and Facebook Are Amongst the

Most Popular Sites On-line”. HR.Com. 2015. WEB. 19 September 2015.