Social Networking Sites

An example of Web 2.0 is social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Myspace where users can interact with others and create their own profile pages. Social networking sites build online communities where people can share information and communicate with friends. Facebook is one of the most widely used social networking sites with around 250 million users worldwide and claims to ‘help you connect and share with the people in your life’. Facebook allows users to add and message friends, update their status to notify friends as to what they are doing and upload photos and videos to share with friends.
Facebook was founded by a group of students at Harvard University in 2004 initially for Harvard university students to get to know each other better but was expanded to other colleges such as Stanford and Yale University and due to its fast expansion, was later expanded all high school and university students and in 2006 was opened worldwide to anyone over 13.
Facebook is an example of Web 2.0 as it allows users to create and edit the content of the webpage as users have their own profile in which they can customise. Facebook, like Twitter is an interactive website which allows the user to update their status to inform their friends of their whereabouts, what they are doing or thinking and upload photos of recent events on which friends can leave comments about and tag themselves in photos. This allows users to edit the information seen by other users and allows people to join online communities where they have control over the online data, rather than non interactive websites where users can only view the information provided.
The majority of facebook users are between 18 and 25, however facebook is seeing a growth in users aged between 35-44. This has grown due to the ease of finding and keeping in touch with people on networks such as old school and university friends. Young people have grown up in the online age and most college students register to facebook to keep in touch with friends and keep updated on events.