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1-Page Summary of The Facebook Effect

Overview

Facebook wasn’t the first social network. However, it’s by far the most popular one in our time.

Facebook began in a Harvard dorm room and has achieved both technological and business success.

Facebook has changed the way we consume media and communicate with each other. We can see how its influence is vast, and this article will show you what it means for you in your daily life.

In this article, you’ll learn how Facebook helped spread the word about police brutality in South Africa. You’ll also learn how President Obama used Facebook to help win his election campaign and why a new form of journalism is being created when people “like” and “share” things.

Big Idea #1: Before social sites Facebook and Friendster, there was the WELL and AOL.

Facebook didn’t invent social networks. Social networking has been around since the 1980s.

Early social networks were like bulletin boards where people could chat with others online about common interests. One of the earliest examples is The Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link, which is still active today.

Communities were first used in the early days of Internet. They became popular as technology developed and people could create profiles, chat, and even make their own communities. America Online (AOL) was one of the first to offer such services.

Classmates.com was a site that helped people find their old classmates and friends from high school or college. This feature is still important to modern social networks.

Social networks have been around since the beginning of the Internet, but they weren’t really social networks until recently. A true social network is one that allows its users to create profiles and connect with others through those profiles. The first true social network was Sixdegrees.com, which allowed you to find friends by searching for people based on their interests and connections. However, this wasn’t as satisfying as it could be because you couldn’t see what your potential friend looked like! It wasn’t until 2002 when Friendster came out with profile photos that a site became an instant success.

The following year, scores of new social networks popped up. They included LinkedIn, Myspace and Spoke. There was also Tribe. Facebook came out the following year and immediately became successful because it had a solid foundation—a great idea that people wanted to use from its inception in a college dorm room.

Big Idea #2: An idea dreamed up in a college dorm room quickly became one of the world’s most popular sites.

Mark Zuckerberg was always tinkering with coding projects. He would often do that while he was at Harvard, and his classmates didn’t pay much attention to him when they saw that he had started another project called Thefacebook in 2004.

Zuckerberg created this social network while he was in college. He noticed that students were using a certain book that contained photos and information about all the people in their class. The name of the book was “the face books.” This is how Zuckerberg chose to name his project, although he suspected that it would be very popular since it could be used by more than just Harvard students.

Mark Zuckerberg created thefacebook.com on February 4, 2004, and by February 7th, 650 people had joined it. Three weeks later, that number had grown to 6,000 members from 34 schools. Soon afterwards the website became popular beyond Harvard University as well.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. He wanted to create a website for Harvard students, but it eventually evolved into something much bigger. Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster, offered $10 million for Facebook in 2005, but Zuckerberg refused and renamed the site “Facebook.”