Social communication has always been a vital need to humanity. At its core, social communication did not change. People still exchange thoughts, feelings and news; however, the ways they socially communicate have radically changed. Online social networking is a recent form of social communication conducted over the internet. It witnessed a huge growth since 1997 with the first social networking website SixDegrees.com (“Boyd”). Social networking websites provide a great socializing capability for their members. Primarily, they aim at connecting people with their acquaintances from all places, at all times. Such websites attract more than 1 billion users around the globe (“List of social networking websites”). Beside for personal use, social networking websites are used for e-marketing and legal investigations.
One of the most rapidly growing social networking sites is Facebook.com, with more than 80 million users and a 270% growth rate from 2006 to 2007 (“To facebook or not to facebook”). It was founded by an American Harvard Student, Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. Huge acquisitions offers were proposed for Facebook reaching as high as $1 billion. This big success may be attributed to Facebook’s ease of use and unique socializing features.
Facebook allows users to connect to others by sharing pictures, blogs, videos, interests and more and has taken over American teens and even adults. There have been sites long before Facebook was created but this fairly new site has become the most popular today by far.
Many people believe that Facebook is dangerous for users because of the amount of information that can be added on to one’s account. Also, those who oppose the use of the site feel that time should not be spent online because it takes time away from family and puts more emphasis on virtual rather than physical relationships. Others feel that this site allows for socialization and is just a way to have fun and keep in touch with