Facebook: an introduction

Facebook is very popular with more than a billion members worldwide. You use this social network to keep in touch with people you know, but also to find people and play games. You can create your own page with all kinds of information, such as photos and messages.

In this article you will learn about the background of Facebook and why it is so popular. Read in the article ‘Facebook: create an account and find friends’ how you can start a Facebook page yourself.

facebook is a social network where you can share information about yourself, such as hobbies, interests and vacation photos. Find acquaintances and invite them for a digital friendship. They can view the information you have shared on your personal page. People cannot become unsolicited friends with you. You must confirm friend requests from others and if you invite people they must accept your invitation.

Facebook is the name of the service. Use Facebook on your computer via the internet, or via the apps on your tablet and smartphone. You also use the internet connection there. The apps work differently than the site, although it comes down to the same thing: keeping in touch with people you know.

All added persons will be added to the contact list. This creates a snowball effect, as you also have the opportunity to invite friends of friends. You will soon have a whole list of friends!

Communicate with the contacts by sending messages or chatting. Nice is the possibility to post a status update. You simply type a text about something that is currently on your mind, to which anyone can respond.

With so many users, there is a chance that your acquaintances are present on Facebook. Young people in particular are active there, but people over 50 are also increasingly using it. It is of course also nice to keep track of the ups and downs of your (grand) children via this route.

Facebook was founded in 2004 by American Mark Zuckerberg. At the age of nineteen, the then Harvard student launched the social networking site along with three classmates. Facebook (literally “facebook”) was intended for his fellow Harvard College students to present themselves and keep in touch with each other. A film about the foundation was released in 2010 under the name The Social Network .

Facebook has made Zuckerberg one of the richest people on the planet. Facebook mainly earns money from advertising revenue. But in order to sell those ads, Facebook collects a lot of information about users. Facebook was discredited when it became clear how much information the company actually collects. There was clearly a privacy violation. Read about this in the article ‘Facebook and privacy’.

You can use Facebook in several ways:

• Let others know how you are doing.
• See how others are doing.
• Track down old friends.
• Play games with other visitors, such as chess, Monopoly and the popular Farmville (the games are usually in English).

Thanks to Facebook, you can easily keep in touch with friends and family and track down acquaintances from the past. Making contact is simple. For example, you respond to a photo or you send a personal message.

If you want to make a digital friendship with acquaintances via Facebook, you must create an account. Then you can create your own page on Facebook. You are completely free to decide what information you share with others. You visit the website where you fill in all the requested information. Then you look for friends, acquaintances and family. In the article ‘Facebook: creating an account and finding friends’, we take a closer look at the possibilities of this profile website. You will then read step by step how to create a profile and find friends.