Facebook Critique

Facebook has taken the online social networking world by storm. Founded by a Harvard graduate, Mark Zuckerberg, membership was originally restricted to Harvard college students where there was already a strong sense of community. Within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered. Gradually they opened membership up to more American Universities, then High schools until September 26, 2006 when it opened to anyone of ages 13 and older with a valid email address.

In its infancy, Facebook didn't actually offer anything new over its competitors. In fact in a lot of ways Myspace offered more, allowing the user to personalise their page and add applications such as music players etc. In my opinion Facebook's success is down to the way it was launched: targeting a whole university's students where there is already a strong sense of community.

Facebook is also a lot simpler to use. I was a member of Myspace for a little while but I wasn't that keen on the idea of personalising my page. Although this allows the user to create their own little 'space' and gives their friends a better understanding of their personality; I felt there was a sense of competition, who had the better layout design, music etc. Facebook doesn't have this focus, the design is much more conservative allowing the soul focus to be on interacting with eachother. Its quite conservative design helps to appeal to a very large audience, blue being a safe colour and use of very pale colours makes the content (posts etc) appear more important.

May 24, 2007 brought about the launched of Facebook Platform, providing a framework for software developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features. To date Facebook has many applications you can add to your page including: games, drawing tools and collectibles. By constantly adding new applications such as Facebook Chat, it keeps users interested

Facebook creates a platform that allows you to keep in touch with people you wouldn't otherwise. For me the main reason for using Facebook is because my friends use it and its quite intruiging to see what they've been up to through viewing conversations, photos. It is also quite interesting know who knows who through the Mutual Friends section.

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