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| Image via Wikipedia |
Whether or not you like or have even used Facebook, if you've heard of it then you probably have an opinion. Some have called it revolutionary and others the best/worst way to spend an entire day. There are more than 500 million active users on Facebook, people who log on at least once every 90 days. According to the website over half of their users log in each day. With approximately 2 billion people on the internet, that's a very large portion connecting through facebook.
Let's start by taking a look at what Facebook is and does. "Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet."
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| Facebook login page |
To get started you will need to register yourself as at www.facebook.com. The sign-up process is very simple. You need to submit your first and last name, your e-mail address, age, and gender.
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| Basic profile options |
Facebook allows users to connect to friends and family and share information. The first place to look is the "wall" which shows a list of your latest conversations and activities on Facebook starting from the newest. The wall is where other people can go to leave you a quick message or comment. Everything that you share and do will be posted on your personal wall, and this allows you to quickly look at a friend's profile and find out what they've been doing.
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| Sharing options |
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| Status update |
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| Finding friends |
One of the most attractive features of facebook is it's ability to help you find friends. Soon after you have signed up, you can allow Facebook to check your e-mail account for any contacts that are also registered on their site. Facebook will also suggest friends based on who other people know. Mutual friends and colleagues as well as distant cousins can be found through the the website. This makes social networking (connecting with people) much easier.
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| Privacy options |
If are a regular user, you will inevitably have more people on your list of friends than you know what to do with. Most users could benefit from a method to control how their information is shared. Facebook allows you to adjust privacy settings in two ways.
You can set "global" privacy settings which affect your entire account by limiting how your wall, photos, and personal information can be viewed and by whom. These settings are broad and give you the option of being completely open or closed, visible only to friends and networks, or by fyour friends and their friends.
The second way to adjust privacy settings (and my preferred option) is to make lists of your friends according to the type of access you would like them to have. You can create a list of all of your family, colleagues at work, friends you've met through school, or any other method to categorize your relationships. Once you have created these lists you can then toggle the privacy settings so that members in that list can only see certain parts of your profile. This give you a surprising amount of flexibility so you can control what information is shared.
Setting appropriate privacy controls is very important for all users. You should take the time to check yours once in a while to make sure you're comfortable with the settings.