Didn't Think It'd Be This Much... (Draft)

     So, I realized with my last post, and the beginning of this one, that my posts haven't really been an... Accurate depiction of my character, and seeing as how this is going to be about my identity and relationship with social media sites, I figured it was time to start acting right. Now, on to the actual post

     Ah... Facebook. Truly a wonder among the internet, and that's not sarcasm either, nor is it a biased opinion. You may think, "Well what about Myspace, or this site or that site," and I would have to agree that they're similar yes, but, Facebook has definitely reached a much higher status than many sites could ever dream to achieve. Mark Zuckerberg launched the site, originally called "thefacebook.com," February 4th, 2004 as a Harvard sophomore. A week later, he was accused of stealing the idea from 3 other students, which soon escalated into a full lawsuit between a company that the 3 students had created and Zuckerberg (1). It was eventually dismissed on a technicality in March 2007 but without a ruling (2).

     

     Anyhow, Facebook has had great success, even to the point that Yahoo and Google both expressed interest in a buyout. Facebook has made an extremely large amount of revenue for a social networking site, generating $4.27 Billion in 2011 (3). Facebook is a true success, starting from a dorm room in Harvard, and reaching where it is now in only 8 years, crazy stuff.

     

     Now then, to the good stuff. First off, I'd like to say that I personally love Facebook. It's an amazing way to keep in touch with my friends. How anyone could not enjoy being able to have such easy access to what your friends want to tell you is beyond me. It's essentially like a commons area in a building that all your friends live in. And although it may not be the only social media site I use on a regular basis, the way that the site is, giving me the ability to share things from other sites, it becomes this sort of, central hub of my browsing.

     My personal history with Facebook is a simple one. Most of the people I knew used Myspace as the go-to site to keep in touch, and so I did too. At one point, my girlfriend at the time said that I should make a Facebook profile because she has one, and I thought, "Why the hell not?" Eventually, everyone else started bleeding over from Myspace, leaving it a ghost town, and so I figured that Facebook was obviously the better choice to frequent now. Back then, I never posted much, or talked much on Facebook as I didn't have easy access to the internet. I had a profile just because you could say. Once I did get the ability to use Facebook on a normal basis, I started to actually post things sometimes, I talked to people quite often, but generally my profile wasn't very active.

     I didn't really become an active forgoer of the internet until high school. As I like to word it, I frequently lurk the interwebs. I also believe that there's no better way to see my relationship with social media than to look at my facebook profile page. Which you can do right now.  

  

     

     Yes, I know that you can't get more than one or two depictions of my interests from this picture, but you can see how I use Facebook to portray myself. It's truly why I love Facebook so much. While not as customizable as a Myspace profile, they give enough that you can still show people how you are with a few pictures. And of course you can always fill out the "About me" section for anyone who cares to look deeper into your mind.

     I believe Facebook has also helped shape my social identity, because every single one of my friends can share things as well, which can lead to me finding new things that I enjoy or don't like at all. With Facebook being the way that it is, it's great for everyone to show themselves, and other people can influence a person's personality just as much as the media can.