Facebook is a social network service that was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, and Eduardo Saverin. Originally Facebook was limited only to Harvard students, but has now spread to anyone over the age of 13. Facebook allows users to create a personal profile page where they can choose to upload pictures, add friends, exchange messages, and get notifications every time a friend updates their profile. There are common interest groups defined by school, college, employment, and many other characteristics, that allow anyone with a Facebook account to join.
The majority of students and teachers at Community High School use Facebook as a way to communicate with people they see every day as well as people they have not seen in many years. Nat Powell, the Community High Media Specialist, believes that Facebook is a great tool and accesses his account multiple times a week for about 30-45 minutes. “I use it frequently, and because of Facebook I’ve been able to get in contact with friends who I haven’t talked to in a long time and we were able to reconnect,” he said.
Although Facebook is useful in many ways, it creates controversy, especially in school. Facebook has been banned in schools for years, but with new technological advances such as the Blackberry and the iPhone, some students are able to access the website straight from their cell phones virtually anywhere at anytime.
Sophomore Amber Ung is one of these students. “I used to check it like once a week, but now that I have it on my phone, I just check it whenever I’m bored,” she said. “[I use] Facebook to see what’s up with my friends.”
Sophomore Nathanael Downs uses it as a tool to help with school. “I use Facebook for scheduling, like to keep track of events and find out homework [assignments].”
Even though many students and staff members at Community find Facebook to be effective, there are a number of people who find Facebook to be an unsafe environment and a waste of time. “It’s another way to know other people’s business,” said senior Melissa Hill. Hill refuses to get a Facebook, even though most of her friends have one. “It starts a lot of issues and starts of a lot of fights based on information on Facebook,” she said.
Some Community students even feel that Facebook is downright pointless. “I had [a] Facebook for about six months, then I deleted it because it was so time consuming and stupid,” said sophomore Nathanael Bennett.
Jen Hein, Dean of Community, acknowledges that Facebook can be a good tool if it is used properly, “I personally have a Facebook account… I’ve been in contact with people that lived across the street from me [from] when I was [a teenager] in Nebraska because of Facebook. I just started typing in names and then there’s my old friend from the neighborhood.”
However, Hein believes that when the website is abused, it can lead to serious issues such as cyber bullying. “I don’t understand why people would think it’s okay to use technology to treat other people that way, and they think they won’t get caught,” she said. “I think any social media, like Facebook and MySpace, are so open and immediately viral, that students and teachers forget while they are in the moment that once they type something and hit enter, you can’t take it back.”
Problems like these are causing people to question not only Facebook, but all social networking sites. Still, Facebook continues to grow. As of July 2010, Facebook has expanded to more than 500 million active users. Whether you use it to communicate with friends and family, share videos and photos, or schedule and keep track of events, the chances are you will be satisfied with its capabilities. Despite the problems it can cause, Facebook remains one of the most popular social networking sites to date.
For more fun facts about Facebook, visit http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/facebook-statistics-facts-figures-for-2010/.
![During a CET rehearsal of the number “A Call to Pierre,” various members in the ensemble, including Maggie Williams, hold up titan tubes. Various people in the ensemble held titan tubes during some numbers in the show, and did basic choreography with them, using the lighting for emphasis. “[Having titan tubes] is a super cool addition to the show,” Williams said.](https://chscommunicator.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/67FXGPwwRSi7VlvWUvKuzOOZ2VN2lueTvbEBAWRQ-1200x963.jpg)
