Facebook

Facebook is something that has become a worldwide phenomenon very quickly. Even since New New Media was published facebook has grown immensely and there has even been a hollywood film produced about it. Almost everyone in our generation has a facebook, and it has recently started to expand out to older and younger generations. There are also fan pages on facebook for almost any company, celebrity, public figure, etc. It is amazing to me, not only how useful it is for the common folk who use it simply to keep tabs on friends, family, etc. but also how often facebook is employed for other reasons. One of the pages that I am a fan of is for the Morning Mash Up, which is an XM radio station. On their page they post questions and topics that they are discussing on-air at that very moment and ask for replies and responses. Hundreds of people respond within minutes and the hosts themselves sort through the answers and read some live on the show. This has changed the radio game completely. One used to have to call in to the station and often not get through or not get put on the air. Nowadays, everyone has the opportunity to respond and get their posts read.

Another aspect of facebook that I was actually discussing over the weekend with my family was the advertisement aspect. A friend of mine who is very computer and internet savvy told us that facebook actually tracks our internet usage and other sites that we visit, other than just facebook. If you are logged into facebook, but on another website, facebook can track you. They use this to personalize advertisements so that they are the most relevant to you. I have to say that in the past, I have noticed that the facebook ads shown on my page are somewhat relevant, which leads me to believe that facebook is doing a good job stalking my internet usage. However, I can't say that I have ever clicked on an ad or followed through with whatever it was telling me to do.