Facebook

Facebook is very similar to Myspace and shares many features, so I won’t make you read through those again. Rather, I’ll briefly discuss the main differences between Facebook and Myspace and give you a description of the features that are unique to Facebook.

The biggest difference between Facebook and Myspace is the layout and background design of your “space.” Myspace allows its users to manipulate the HTML code and have a background as creative or cluttered as you like. Facebook requires the clean, blue and white look for every user, and in my opinion this makes Facebook more user-friendly.

Like Myspace you have a contact section, a school section, and a personal section that allows you to put your favorite quotes, movies, books, television shows. It has an “about me” space for self-description, a work section, a place to put your gender, sexual orientation and relationship and religious statuses.

You can add photo albums and tag friends in these photos and add videos.

The Wall:
It also has a comments section, but on Facebook it’s your “wall.” Recently due to the popularity of the site, Facebook added a “top friends” application, but this does not come automatically on your page, you must download it.

Applications:
Applications are worth mentioning, because they are a recent addition to the Facebook brand. They are almost limitless and include anything from “stickers” (or little sayings or pictures like you’d buy in a coin machine,) to a game called Zombies and Vampires where you bite your friends to turn them into a Zombie or Vampire. It's very strange and not very interesting.

You can make a lot of money designing an application that people use. You can also buy gifts for people that will appear on their profile. They cost $1 and basically consist of an icon stored on someone’s profile page with a little note from the sender. I know this all seems a bit ridiculous, but remember try not to judge.

Notes:
The blog section in Facebook is called “Notes,” so you publish Notes instead of blog entries. There is no bulletin section, however you can post articles or videos from news websites or Youtube that you find interesting.

Newsfeed:
Facebook first had the newsfeed section, which users initially hated but have since come to love. This section essentially makes it easier to find out what your friends are doing. Every time a facebook friend updates his/her profile, is “tagged” (remember what tag means?) in a picture, or writes on someone’s wall, you know about it. It seems a bit stalkerish, right? But that’s the point of Facebook and Myspace in a lot of ways.

In fact, I would even go so far as to say this generation has changed the meaning of the verb and noun stalk/stalker to something far less sinister. At least that’s what they want to think.

Chat:
The latest feature on Facebook is the chat feature. You can now instant message friends that are signed into their Facebook account at the same time you are.

The point? Facebook and Myspace change daily, they add new applications, try out new features. To keep up with it you must be vigilant.

The Poke:
Another kind of silly feature of Facebook is the poke. The poke is an option that allows you to virtually “poke” (with your virtual finger) a Facebook friend. Again, this is something I can’t really explain to you, but it is a feature worth noting.

Safety and Privacy:
Unlike Myspace Facebook does not have an intense safety tips section. In fact, there is no safety section, only a privacy page. Again, I believe this is because younger teens and tweens tend to choose Myspace over Facebook and because many of the headline news stories occurred on Myspace, not Facebook. They’ve managed to stay out of the media, for the most part.

The privacy settings are easy to use and easy to set, but you have to set individual preferences about who can see your profile, your pictures, your videos all separately. You can also choose limited profile for your friends, like for example if you’re friends with a co-worker or employee and you only want him/her to see your basic profile but not your wall, photos, etc.

Next post will cover two social networking sites for the pre-tween, under 12 age group!