First thing i do in the morning is turn on my phone ,use the wifi and check my updates on facebook.Then half an hour later i check it again and it goes on throughout the day.I'm a college going student and im pretty sure most of my peers do the same too..I See people online 24*7 in facebook..So what is facebook all about?other than a social interactive site?what else do we know about this network which has become a part of our lives now.So lets look at the history of facebook

WHERE DID FACEBOOK COME FROM?

The most significant part of facebook is that it dint even exist untill 2004 and now its the most sought out media not only by youngsters ,but almost all age groups.Three college students created it to keep up with their friends in college,share their updates and so on and now this has caught up with almost everbody on the globe.Impressive right?Facebook was found by Mark Zuckerberg as his hobby project.He was a second year computer science student at harvard that time and he put his computer hacking skills to use..It started as an entertainment project,intially being called as 'hot or not'.What he did was take two student profile pictures and compare it and rate them.One of them 'hot' and other just not hot enough.Mark Zucherberg used his computer hacking knowledge to tap into harvard's social security inorder to pull out all the student details

It was intially called 'FACEMASH' and it was founded in 2003 and shut down a few days later by the harvard executives.Zucherbeg faced expulsion and charges of violating privacy and copyright for stealing the individual photo id's.But all the charges were later dropped

on february 4 2004 ,Mark Zucherberg relaunched 'facebook',but soon after the launch 3 of his harvard seniors accused him to stealing their ideas which was to be used to build another social networking site called 'harvardconnect'.The matter was soon settled in court

In 2004 sean parker became the companie's president and the domain facebook.in was purchase for $200,000 .Mark zucherberg became the youngest billionare.He was joined by Duskin Moskovitz and Chris hughes to take facebook into the next level.Intially it was restricted to harvard students only ,but now it is extended to many colleges and universities

Facebook is the 7th most trafficking site in US.Unlike its rivals myspace ,facebook isnt available to everyone..Currently it involves 300,000 colleges and institutions and you need a valid email id under this insititution.That is why it has less user count compared to myspace

Facebook received an intial funding of $500,000 from paypal and also 13 million from accel partners..Microsoft signed a 3 year deal with facebook to sell their ads in return of the revenue split..Soon after this announcement Myspace announced a similiar deal with google

Recent survey's show that almost 80% of college student have a facebook id and 60% use it to log ind daily..Also facebook has been recognised the most 'In' thing after ipod and beer among youngsters

Now that we know the history of facebook lets see what are the important features are

IMPORTANT FEATURES OF FACEBOOK

so the first step you have to do is to sign in to facebook which is quite simple and a profile is created for you.

1) PROFILE

your profile has a lot of interesting things like you can update your profile picture,connect to your friends ,update your status and so on
.Facbook has recently launched a timeline feature which shows all your activity since you have joined facebook..All the pictures,all the status updates,all the comments and everything

The most important feature is your wall.Its literally everything in your facebook profile..Here the user gets to update your status updates or your friends can post or tag you.Also there are privacy settings for all these which makes your profile only viewable to however you want it to be.If you dont want to use the wall you can always message them,which is a very good feature as only the concerened person will be able to see that

2) PHOTOS

Almost 1.5 million photos are uploaded everyday in facebook..shocking huh?This is the newest craze in facebook because it allows you to 'like' other people's pictures or comment depending upon the privacy settings..You can 'tag' your friends too which is very useful because the photo appears in their timeline too

Facebook allows you the option to create photo album,which is very useful if you need to categorize your pictures.Other than the like feature pictures can be shared too,which makes it visible to other users thus gaining popularity.A lot of social ideas have been brought to attention these days by sharing all these pictures..Its a cumulative effect because as soon as one person shares it ,their friends share and so on..The popularity that can be obtained using these feature is immense

3) GROUPS

Now this is another important feature,where a group of people can come together and discuss ideas.Its very useful for college going students as it allows to discuss their projects,assignments and so on.Also it can be used to convey an important message because everyone is on facebook nowdays.As a result even group sms are going out of dat.You can upload pictures to these group ,so that it will be viewable to only members inside this group.Its a really useful feature

4) EVENTS

Very often you see in the right hand corner invitation to many events.This feature allows you to organise and plan your events.It is extremely useful when you have parties to plan.All the information about the event will be in that page and if there are any questions it can be very well posted in that page..The owner of the event  will be notified and soon he or she will get back to you with the response..It pretty much saves all the hassle of individually calling up everybody to your party isnt it?

5) NOTES

This is the newest feature and its called facebook notes.It allows you to create your own blogs.So talented writers can very well gain their deserving fame because the blogs will be visible in your profile and your friends can access it or you yourself can promote it.This might be quite a breakthrough because it is quite a difficult task to attaract the required attention to your work

6) GAMES

This is the most addictive feature of facebook.It provides a large number of games like farmville,mafia wars and so on.Recent surveys show that most of the people log in to facebook jus to play these games..The fun part is you can play with your friends,like set up tournaments and so on which can be quite addictive. who doesnt like to win even if its a facebook game?

so now that we have covered its important features,lets look at its pro's and con's.A social media like facebook which connects the whole world can leave a huge impact in a positive or negative way

ADVANTAGES

1) Facebook helps you connect with anybody because everyone around the globe uses facebook..It helps you look up your old friends connect with them and catch up with their lives

2) Facebook is free ,you just need an email id to sign in.Also if you want to register in some oder sites,you can log on with your facebook id .because many sites provide these options

3) Express your moods,activities and share them with your friends..There's nobody else you would rather share your good fortune with than your friends and with facebook all your friends are just a click away

4) Celebrities uses facebook to keep in touch with their fanbase and promote their films..Most of the films and shows are judged by how popular it is in facebook

5) Facebook events,groups all are becoming popular day by day

6) Pictures are worth a thousand words ,so imagine a picture with the right message being viewed by millions of people?imagine the impact it can make on the youth.share option in facebook helps to share pictures with all your friends

7) Facebook has privacy settings allowing your profile and pictures viewable only to a limited audience

8) Facebook games are becoming highly popular,many people log in to just play games with their friends

9)facebook groups are highly beneficial to students as it helps them share their ideas and project

10) Marketing is one of the key attaraction to facebook now.Many people are choosing to set up their careers using facebook especially if they are in the designing field.With the right audience facebook can help you make quite a lot of money

11) Facebook helps in acquiring valuable information from your friends updates,fan pages,groups etc

12) Spamming is quite low in facebook as you can permanently block the spammer or report them

DISADVANTAGES

1) Facebook can be addictive,too much addictive..Many people spend their entire time on facebook,lookin up other people's status updates and browsing through pictures and so on.Its quite distracting especially for students as it wastes their valuable time..spending time on facebook is not bad ,but spending too much time can be bad.Its banned in most of the offices and colleges for the same reason ,as people spend a lot of time logging in and procrastinate their work

A lot of fan pages and events are created to abuse public celebrities using profanities .Facebook should take strict actions against this.

2) Fake profile:Another problem is a large number of fake profiles,as facebook is free to sign up.A lot of incidents have occured with these fake profiles and it haas proved to be fatal.People create this fake profiles for the sense of harrasment usually targeted at girls.Recently a girl committed suicide because of the harrasment she faced on similiar accounts.So be careful with people you add and your privacy settings

3) A lot of problem have been reported regardign the privacy settings of facebook.Pictures have been misused and it becoms easier to track your activites when you are a member of facebook.you might end up in a lot of trouble because of this.Recently a girl was arrested because she voiced her opinion following the demise of shri bal thackeray and another girl was arrested for liking the status.There have been news about a mother killing a child because it was crying in hunger while she was browsing facebook and a husband attacking his wife because she changed her relationship status

4) Report system:You can report a persons profile if you find the comments explicit or anything like that..But many a time people loose their id's because of false reports..This is increasing at an alarming rate

5)Facebook chat doesnt work properly most of the time

All in all privacy settings of facebook can prove fatal,if not used properly.so take care of the settings,choose carefully the people u add