A lot of us spend time on Facebook every day, have seen the movie The Social Network (about co-creator Mark Zuckerberg), and figure we pretty much know all we need to know about Facebook and how it works. Well, guess what? There's always more to learn about one of the most popular social media sites ever!
David Fincher directed this academy award winning story of Facebook's creation.Courtesy of Columbia Pictures
History
- The website Facebook was launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, who worked along with several of his Harvard classmates to create the site. They built the site in their college dorm rooms!
- It was originally intended solely for students at Harvard, but was later extended to the Ivy League and other universities and, in 2006, to the world at large (as long as you are over 13 and have a valid email address).
- Zuckerberg has said that Facebook's mission "is to make the world more open and connected."
Mark Zuckerberg still owns the largest share of Facebook. Courtesy of fastcompany.com
Fun Facts
- The most prominent color on Facebook is blue; this is because Mark Zuckerberg is red-green color blind, and blue is one of the colors he is able to see the full spectrum of. Interestingly enough, men are much more often color blind than women.
- As of June 2015, there were almost 1.5 billion active Facebook users worldwide, with almost a billion logging in daily! Most of these users are aged 25-34.
- CNN has estimated that there are around 83 million fake profiles on Facebook. Watch out for those catfish!
- Photo sharing is huge! Every 60 seconds, 136,000 photos are shared on the site.
- The average time spent on Facebook a day is about 20 minutes, which makes sense considering people often log on to Facebook and spend just a few minutes catching up before moving on.
- Facebook is banned in China.
- Facebook owns virtual reality technology! Almost a year ago, the company bought Oculus VR, producers of the latest and greatest in virtual reality. Next thing you know, we'll be using the site to travel worldwide (virtually at least).
These days, many of Facebook's active users are accessing the site using their phones!Courtesy of The Guardian
Facebook can be controversial (lots of people have worried about how effective the privacy controls are), but there's no doubt that the website has had an enormous impact on how we ineract with others, from friends to parents and even grandparents! Just one more thing: don't forget to be safe on social media sites. This means making sure you only add people you know, keep your password a secret and change it often, and don't post anything you wouldn't want your mother to see. Happy Facebooking!
Have Your Say!
How often do you check Facebook each day? Share with us!
