This article has been out for a while but I had the pleasure of reading this 50+ page article on a flight to Costa Rica last Christmas. Now I'm not big on reading especially reading for pleasure but when I picked up this article I couldn't put it down. The article discusses how Facebook came to be, where it's at now and where it will be in the future.
It was amazing to see how big Facebook actually is. In the article, they explain that if Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest country behind China and India. One in twelve people in the ENTIRE world are active on the social media site.
Facebook started out as a small social media site Zurkerberg created for his dorm at Harvard when he was a sophomore, and quickly gained a life of its own. The site now has more than 550 million members, gains 700 thousand new members daily, and is translated in more than 75 different languages. On top of that, last year the website accounted for 1 out of every 4 sites visited in the United States.
It is amazing to see that a student's website that was created merely to connect college students to other college students turned into such a normal part of everyone's life. It doesn't look like Facebook will be going anywhere anytime soon, even with new social media sites popping up all the time. Where do you think Facebook, let alone social media in general, will be in the next 5; 10; 15 years? I encourage you all to read the article and tell me what you think. Peace Out for now!
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2036683_2037183_2037185,00.html
The only information I really know about the history of Facebook and Mark Zukerberg is from what I learned when I watched The Social Network so I think that this article is really interesting both from a social media standpoint but also from a student standpoint. It's crazy to think that Facebook is so big that if it were a country, it would be considered the third largest in the world, and it's even more crazy that it is still continuing to grow. I think that Facebook will continue to grow and expand over the next few years, but I think that Facebook will either have to change dramatically (and not these stupid layout changes they keep making) for it to continue to exist in the future. This is because social media is constantly growing and changing. Facebook will have to continue to evolve with social media or something else will come along that is even bigger and more successful than Facebook ever was.
ReplyDeleteI think that Facebook will continue to grow in the next 5-10 years and will probably be used for even more than it already is. I feel like Facebook changes every other month and adds new features that make it easier to organize information. It's crazy that so many people are on Facebook and that it would be the 3rd largest country in the world. I think that statistic single handedly shows how important social media is in this day and age.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Mr. Zuckerberg we are now living in a hyper-connected world, like it or not. Now all that matters is whether one embraces such a world; and today, if you want to be connected, Facebook is the main place to do so (with Twitter and LinkedIn being close seconds). It is hard to even fathom Facebook ever declining in popularity in the next 5-10 years, barring some other unwordly phenomenon unknown to me or most others. BUT, at the rate at which technology is and has historically been moving, I won't be the person to completely rule out some possibility of something even more game changing to come along and present itself. Right now though, there is nothing that could be predicted to stop this massive movement towards hyper-connectivity.
ReplyDeleteWow - that fact on Facebook being the third largest country in the world was shocking. It really put into perspective the vast audience and users the site attracts. I think the future of Facebook is yet to be determined. The site has done a good job of changing with the current social trends, but can it hang on forever? I don't think so, but only time will tell. I've personally become "burnt out" on the site, but maybe with the "big changes" coming the site will get another power surge to keep its users engaged.
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