Conversation Hour 7/25 Franklin Center, Sfax

The Facebook effects

1. Introduction:

Thefacebook.com, as it was originally called, was created in early 2004

According to "The Facebook Effect," Facebook is the second-most-visited Web site on earth (after Google). The average member spends almost an hour there each day. It has more than 400 million active users - more than 20 percent of everyone on the Internet - and is growing by 5 percent a month.

Facebook became a catch for big tech companies - Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Viacom.

2. Facebook's potential a- Stats o Facebook was launched in February 2004 and had 1 million active users by December 2004 o Facebook has more than 500 million active users o Facebook had 50 million active users on October 2007 o Facebook had 100 million active users on August 2008 o 50 percent of facebook active users log on in any given day o An average facebook user has 130 friends o An average facebook user spends 700 minutes per month on Facebook o More than 30 billion pieces of content are shared on facebook each month o An average facebook user creates 90 pieces of content each month o Each day, 50% of active facebook users log in o Each day, facebook Pages have created 5.3 billion fans o Each day, 55 million status updates are made on Facebook o Each day, 35 million people update their status on Facebook o Over 300,000 facebook users helped translate the site to 70 available translations o About 70% of facebook users are outside the United States o More than 150 million active users currently access facebook through their mobile device o There are more than 550,000 applications currently on facebook platform b- Facebooks reputation for encouraging freedom

Conversation Hour 7/25 Franklin Center, Sfax

Facebook is becoming an essential part of social life connecting hundreds of millions of teenagers and adults worldwide.

It is said to be bringing the world together. It creates the surprising effect even instrumental in political protests and it certainly had a determining impact on the Tunisian Revolution Besides, The Facebook Effect books prologue brings the example of anti-FARC movement in Colombia sparkled on Facebook. People are now speaking about Facebook Activism somehow changing the face of politics

3. Should we be scared of Facebook

Despite internets reputation for encouraging freedom, Facebook has information monopoly that could be damaging to our society Such networks have a natural tendency to grow and that growth leads to dominance The network (Facebook) effect is a double-edged sword We should be vigilant when networks like Facebook try to control too much of our information

When a site becomes this big, this powerful, there are ramifications - personal, cultural, economic and political. - First, the privacy issue. Facebook's purpose is to display personal information about you, so giving you control over it is essential. - Another possible Facebook effect: In an age in which one click establishes a new "friend," young people may be losing the skills to build real friendships and negotiate real social encounters. - Not long from now, Facebook will be a frighteningly centralized database containing the information of about a half-billion people. Its advertisers already use this data but apart from that, nobody can predict what the company will do with our information. It started to attract governments attention Creating a directory of humanity and a simulation of social life, do the people governing this huge company know WHERE/WHEN/HOW to stop?

Conversation Hour 7/25 Franklin Center, Sfax

References The Facebook Effect , David Kirkpatrick http://blog.kissmetrics.com/facebook-statistics/ Pogue, By David. "How Facebook evolved and what it means now." International Herald Tribune 6 July 2010. Global Issues In Context. Web. 25 July 2012.