You’re probably tickled pink about your childhood crush having just “poked” you. Maybe you’re losing sleep over a fight with a Paris Hilton wannabe, or wanting to drink more human blood. Or you might be spending time writing something for a worthwhile cause you feel passionate about. Or you’re keeping up with what’s happening in the life of a college friend you haven’t seen for years. All these, because of a five-year-old.
Yup, Facebook has just turned five.
Facebook, a social networking site that caters more to people in their 30s and older, has helped more than 150 million active users find long-lost friends and keep tabs with each other. And these are not just your run-of-the-mill lurkers. Facebook estimates that all of its users spend around 3 billion minutes a day on the site, with around 10% of these users updating their profiles every single day.
In five short years, Facebook slowly became the social networking site of choice. As MySpace denigrated into a messy montage of horrible HTML themes, and even more horrible sexual predators and frauds, and while Friendster catered to the younger set, upwardly mobile young professionals, young mothers and the people-next-door types, Facebook flourished.
There are a lot of reasons why Facebook became such a success and became much loved among its users. For one, it has made communication easier by fusing e-mail, chat and IM, making it the one-stop-shop for people who just want to communicate with other people on their contact lists, or perhaps make new friends and find someone to network with.
In the past five years, Facebook has seen a lot of changes and improvements. One of the most worthwhile is the change in its user interface, which basically streamlined and organized everything to make it much easier to use and navigate around. Simple, yet very functional.
What’s more, there are always things to do on Facebook. With more than 52,000 applications currently available, and with more than a hundred added everyday – not to mention the ability to add photos, videos, blog posts, microblogs – there is always something for everyone to look at, read or do.
Facebook has come a long way in such short time. It’s a testament that in the Internet, not only could 80-year-old gramps pose as 18-year-old nubile youths, but a five-year-old could host a party that never seems to end.
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