You. Me. And three billion other people.
In all, there are eight billion of us on the planet. That means roughly 38% of us use Facebook.
Oh. Love it, hate it. And call it what you will. It is just like all the other forms of social media out there. Born to snoop, really. We all signed up for whatever reasons we say we did. But once we are there, we are driven to scroll and scroll, seeing Fanny’s kids at the ice rink or Joe with his wife at the bar. — again. We might look at political statements from our friend, Kristen. Or stare, gaping, at something Denise said. “Can you believe it?”
It rolls in all walks of life, and we watch.
Was that Mark Zuckerberg’s intention when he was just 20 years old as he sat in his dorm room at Harvard? For it was on this date, February 3, 2004, that Zuckerberg created Facebook from that very spot.
With a few measly users to start out, Facebook has now grown to have 2.85 billion active users worldwide.
When he originally launched his software, he called it Facemash. The website was set up as a type of “Hot or Not” game. Visitors could log on and could compare two female students’ pictures side by side. And then, the user could decide who was more attractive. The Harvard administration didn’t much care for the idea. So they called him to the principal’s office, sat him in the corner, and shut his little project down.
He revamped his scheme, making it a social network for Harvard students where they could search for other Harvard students. They could check each other’s class schedules or what clubs they belonged to. Within 24 hours, 1,200 Harvard students had signed up. It took just one month for the word to spread; by then, over half of the undergraduates had registered on the website. It has been spreading since.
Zuckerberg had his troubles to start out with at Harvard. Fellow students Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss, and Tyler Winklevoss claimed that it was their idea and that Zuckerberg stole it. They sued him, and that fight went on for four long years. In the end, Zuckerberg paid Divya Narendra and the Winklevoss brothers $65 million. I should add here that when I typed these words, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth was 43.8 billion. So. He did alright with the deal.
Today? Facebook is the third most popular site in the world. First Google. Then YouTube. Then Facebook. Around here, 71% of Americans use Facebook, reportedly. More women than men.
Here’s some more juicy juice on FB.
We upload 350 million photos to FB every day.
Only half of FB users speak English.
The average time per session that people spend on Facebook is 58 minutes. But we are whipping through those feeds. In fact, the average user will only spend 1.7 seconds on a single piece of content.
The difference between conservative and liberal FB users is 1%.
So. Happy searching, exploring, investigating, snooping, and eavesdropping.
It’s a big world out there. And every day, it is right at your fingertips.
=====
I tried being awesome today, but I was just so tired from being awesome yesterday.
— Facebook quote
=====
May your life someday be as good as you make it out to be on Facebook.
— Facebook quote
=====
Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
— Facebook quote
=====
FaceMash and now look at us. Here we are.
