Face my book

David Kirkpatrick ‘s book The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World really explains what about Facebook is so unique and captivating. As the title suggests, the site deals with connecting people, and does so by changing the way people communicate. The Internet opened up new mediums for human interaction, and most of these are available on Facebook. This gives the site a great amount of power and prestige, something early investor such as the Washington Post and Accel noticed. There is a lot of worth and potential in a site which functions as a social interaction space. These early investors saw this and acted quickly and in the case of Accel hungrily. The willingness to pay millions of dollars for interest in the company demonstrates not only the power of such a site but the overall future want from Internet users.
Where once going away to college meant being disconnected from friends and family, Facebook has all but eliminated this problem. The site connects people, and allows for continuous communication through such features such as writing on people’s walls, poking and leaving messages. One interesting component mentioned by Kirkpatrick was the addition of photos to the site. Mostly used by girls at first, the posting of pictures adds an additional form of communication. Where once the happenings at a party had to be told first hand to others, it is now possible to go on Facebook and see what took place. In addition to telling story though picture, these photos also inform the world who people are friends with and what sort of social interaction they have with one another. As the author quotes, “I consider these people part of my life, and I want to who everyone I’m close to them” (155). By posting and tagging photos, users construct a type of hierarchy. Pictures are proof a person attended a party and how the other party goers interacted with that person. This can also be seen with groups, joining a group means the person has an interest, or at least wants other to think they have an interest in a particular idea. Joining certain groups creates an online persona for that user. By adding pictures or being tagged and joining groups, people can become “cool”, compared to others. The social interactions which ran high schools are now available online.
This idea of Facebook hierarchy even appears with online advertising. Advertising on Facebook almost guarantees the right people see certain advertisements, for example the Gwen Stefani “Hollaback” song. The advertisement was aimed at cheerleaders with the hope they would adopt it for their performances. Soon the song became popular during football games; being a cheerleader meant having first access to the song and a step up on this social hierarchy. Facebook may have changed how we communicate and connect with people, but certain parts of social interaction, for instance popularity, still remain.