Facebook has become one of the leading social networking sites on the Internet today. It is used by millions of people around the world; there are high school students, college students, family members and friends using this tool to simply keep in touch with one another, while other people have come to use Facebook for business purposes. It is simply a multi billion-dollar organization that has affected the way people communicate today. It is apparent that Facebook has such an eminent control over its users; nevertheless it is the user who must determine whether this is a good or bad control. The history of Facebook may or may not play a role in one’s opinion of social networking, however we feel that being educated on the subject will allow for an informed final decision.
Several Harvard students and their roommates established Facebook, these students included Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Originally it began as a social network within Harvard that eventually continued to connect other students throughout other Boston colleges and universities.[i] By the end of 2005, Facebook had allowed colleges from around the world to join the network and within a few months high schools were being incorporated into the social network as well. Finally, by September of that year, anyone with an email could join. Facebook was the new worldwide fad. At the beginning of 2007 Facebook announced that it would be allowing free advertising and on October 24th Microsoft purchased 1.6% of the company for $240 million.[ii] Microsoft is an American based international computer technology company that has an annual revenue of $51.12 U.S. billion.[iii] Spending only $240 million for 1.6% of Facebook is essentially their first step before they, or another international technology company buys them out. Google is another example of an American public corporation that was co-founded by Stanford University students and was ultimately