Face Time

The internet has gone through some great and exciting (although I suppose that's a relative thing to say) over the past few years. It is becoming more and more accessible through wi-fi and cell phone developments for people to use almost anywhere! It is certainly making it easier for people to "connect", both in a literal sense to the internet, and also to people they may not have been able to so easily connect with before.
In early 2004, Mark Zuckerberg created and released The Facebook to his friends at Harvard University. He had developed a website that allowed people to set up a profile and be linked together with their friends within their college. In the beginning, Facebook was limited to just Harvard students, then quickly expanded to other Ivy League Schools, and Stanford University.
I remember as a freshman, in October 2004, this program becoming available to me at Villanova University. Not many schools were on at this point, as you needed a valid school ID and to be on the network Zuckerberg approved. It was a great way to keep connected with friends from HS that were at other colleges. Quite rapidly more and more schools were added to the list, and with that were also changes to the layout and features the site offered. Now you can post pictures and tag your friends. Keep up to date with relationship gossip, and at the same time take a quiz to see what Seinfeld character you are most like.
With all these new applications that are available to add to your profile, a lot more marketing is going on for companies paying to advertise on the site. Also now you do not need a school email, you can be anyone and almost anywhere to be a member of facebook. For example, I studied abroad in Morocco, and I have been able to stay in touch with my Moroccan friends and roommate through Facebook. Although it is great as a network for connecting with people you know, you need to be concious of people you don't know connecting with you. I can see the need for more privacy settings to come about and be used, so that private information is only as readily available as you wish it to be.
It is interesting to see how much the Facebook as grown in only 5 short years and it has no signs of stopping anytime soon! I wonder what application they will come out with next . . . .