While any new technology or website phenomenon will always have its share of critics and haters, I enjoy Facebook a great deal. I get a lot of news from it first, it’s a great way to find people and stay in touch, and I’ve also had emotional times when looking somebody up will take me back into the past. (It’s quite a trip to look somebody up on Facebook, and realize how far you and that person have come since then.)
So it’s a trip that now Facebook has hit the big 1-0. The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Mark Zuckerberg is celebrating their anniversary with a new tool called A Look Back. Zuckerberg posted, on Facebook naturally, “When I reflect on the last 10 years, one question I ask myself is: why were we the ones to build this? We were just students. We had way fewer resources than big companies. If they had focused on this problem, they could have done it. The only answer I can think of is: we just cared more.”
Some current Facebook factoids tell us that the site is used by 57% of adults, and 73% of people from 12 to 17. Also, half of adults on Facebook have more than 200 friends. The average number is 338, and 27% of people from the age of 18 to 29 have over 500 friends. And for people who don’t use Facebook, half of them live with somebody who does use it, and 24% of them will go on their friend’s account to check things out.
Zuckerberg also wrote that he’s more excited about the next ten years, but a report on Foxnews tells us that the site could lose 80% of its users by 2017. This speculation comes from Princeton University, and the downfall could happen between 2015 to 2017. It’s certainly conceivable to see Facebook losing popularity like MySpace has, and do we hear anything about Napster anymore? But I still enjoy Facebook, and certainly wish them a happy birthday.
