What is Facebook?

Hi Ian,

Facebook is an internet phenomenon which is currently sweeping the globe. Like instant messaging and sites such as YouTube, Facebook is a website which allows you to find and communicate with friends, share photographs and compare your likes and dislikes.

Facebook has become so popular because it is uniquely viral in that you need to find “friends” before you can communicate with anyone. This means that almost everyone who joins Facebook tries to get as many of their contacts as possible to join up. This process means that large numbers of people join up very quickly.

People either have a love or hate relationship with Facebook as it gets to know an inordinate amount of information about you very quickly – not scary information like your credit card or bank details but information about who dated who and when and what you like and dislike. If providing your friends with this sort of personal information doesn’t sound too scary head over to facebook.com and sign up for a new account.

Setting up a Facebook profile

Once of the first things most people do when they start up Facebook is fill out their profile and add a picture of themselves so others can recognize them. This picture will be displayed to everyone who searches for you and helps people find you amongst others with the same name. To change you profile picture, click on your ‘Profile’ then click Edit then Personal then Picture. This will give you the option to upload your favourite photo of yourself (or any picture if you are feeling camera shy). Once it’s been uploaded, you can move the image around by clicking and dragging in the “thumbnail” section so that your face is the centre of attention.

Adding friends

Once you’ve set up a profile, it’s probably time to add some friends. With so many people using Facebook it should be easy for you to find at least one person you know. To find a friend, simply type their name into the search box. When you find a friend you want to add, simply click on the Request Friend Confirmation box next to their name. When they next use Facebook they will be asked to confirm that you are indeed their friend before you can see who they are friends with, view their photos they have uploaded and more.

Once you start using Facebook it’s amazing how quickly your network of friends grows. If you find your friends haven’t signed up for Facebook yet you have the option to “invite” them to join which can speed things up a little bit.

Sharing Photos

Often while fixing computers, Gizmotechs are asked for the best way to share digital photos with friends and family. Facebook is already the world’s most heavily trafficked photo sharing website and its stores approximately 1.8 billion user photographs and it is a really easy way to share your photos.

Uploading photos is really easy and the beauty of using Facebook is that your friends are automatically notified (on their own Facebook homepage) each time you upload photos and they can then view your photos in their own time. Your friends can comment on your photos and even go as far as “tagging” individuals in your photographs so others know who they are.

Should I give Facebook a try?

Ian, we are incredibly biased, but in our opinion your kids are probably right. With so many people using Facebook it can’t hurt to give it a go and see if you like it.

We hope this helps!

The gizmo team