ColleenSully

Social media platforms are an easy and free way for all people to stay connected with the world. Newer apps are constantly being created and are often taken over by the younger teen generation. Facebook, one of the first forms of social media, was created in 2004 and has since become a billion dollar company.

The platform’s mission clearly states that it was created to bring people from all over the world together by stating: “Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world and to share and express what matters to them.”

With more than 2.45 billion monthly active users, Facebook has certainly succeeded in connecting people with the rest of the world.

Since Instagram was released in 2010, Facebook stopped gaining younger users. Instagram became more popular among teens with 400 million daily users. Although Instagram is more popular with teens, Facebook has become quite popular for seniors in high school getting ready to transition to their next stage of education.

Seniors are able to join groups with the admitted students for the colleges they are planning on attending. “I got Facebook to meet people going to Iowa State,” senior Mo Flanery, who is planning on attending there in the fall, said.

It also makes it easy for girls to connect with their future classmates and find potential roommates. “I have Facebook to connect with the people going to my college. I even met my roommate on Facebook for next year,” senior Abby Elkins said. “It is also a great way for me to stay in touch with my relatives.”

Math teacher Ms. Megan Han, class of 2013, has had Facebook since high school. “I think it was my sophomore year of high school that I got Facebook,” Han said. “Everyone had it, so it was kind of the thing to do back then.”

“We used to post whatever random thoughts we were thinking on our friend’s walls. We would post things like ‘hey, what’s up?’ and have full conversations with them on their wall,” Han said.

Han has seen a change in how people use Facebook today. When she was in high school, it was used as a way to communicate with her friends. It served as the primary way her and her friends would pass information onto each other. “People would use it to invite people to birthday parties and stuff,” Han said.

“I use Facebook now to keep up with all my friend’s lives and what they’re doing. I also follow several news accounts to stay up to date on what’s happening,” Han said.

Although girls meet their future classmates over Facebook, many will resort back to Instagram to direct message each other and Snapchat to talk on a daily basis. Facebook proves to be an efficient way to build community with people all over the world.