The Facebook Revolution

Social media.  It seems that every time you turn on the television or open up a magazine, people are talking about social media and how it's "taking over the world".  And at the forefront of the revolution: Facebook. 

I confess, it has very much become a big part of my day.  I find that some days I am eager to see what new posts people have written on Facebook.  What are all my "friends" doing? All 587 of them. Even as I write this I feel a bit bemused that I am so interested in the everyday happenings of everyone elses life.

587 - to some, this would only comprise a small fraction of their "friend pie".  Maybe your friend tally is in the thousands.  Me? I can't beleive I know 587 people... Okay, I'll admit, every so often a request comes across and I can't remember how I know the person - maybe I don't...  What's fascinating to me is that of those 587 some are my best friends, some are my family and a very large portion are the acquaintances I have met along life's journey.  High school friends, college friends, some I studied abroad with, some I met while living in New York, and even some I have met at functions here in South Carolina. 

I remember when Facebook was first picking up steam.  I was a Junior in College at UC Santa Barbara.  Back then, it was the battle of Myspace and Facebook.  Facebook was limited on the information you were allowed to share.  There certainly wasn't a Newsfeed like there is now (modeled after Twitter), where people can literally write what they are doing or thinking at any second and share it.  I'm not even sure you could post or share pictures.  But the intention of the social network has always remained the same - to change the way we communicate and share information.

From the day I signed up for Facebook it opened a whole new venue of connectivity.  I could send a message to my friend at college across country even if I didn't have her email or phone number.  As long as other people shared, you could keep up on the break-ups and make-ups, who was taking the same course as you and who was working on the same paper you were.  The flow of information was dramatically changing.  Back when it started, Facebook was only limited to college students.  You had to have a University or College email address to register which kept it as a college network of 18-21 year olds sharing the good times we were all having in school.

Fast forward to 2010... my Mother is on facebook, my grandparents are on Facebook.  Now I am able to see friends that not only graduated college but who are getting engaged, married, even having children.  The amount of information seems to be ever increasing and sometimes overwhelming.  I made a Facebook page for our business and from time to time receive requests to connect with other businesses in the area.  I admit, sometimes I am confused by this... what once started as a purely social portal all limited to one age group has now ballooned to an all-inclusive network. Caution is now warranted, I have to think before writing messages and posts and sharing pictures of friends and family.  Do I want to share this with the world? If not, maybe Facebook isn't the best place to share my information...

I often wonder how social networking will change and adapt even further.  It is ever increasingly becoming a part of business, of marketing and it seems to be a place where people go first for the latest information whether personal or professional.  I'm sure there will always be more avenues provided to share information, whether Facebook or another portal, there will be places to catapult personal information across cyberspace.  Although I'm not the most internet savvy person there is, I'll try to keep up with these adaptations.  But for now, I'll just continue to feel perplexed as to how I know 587 people...