what is Facebook?
Facebook is a social networking site that makes it easy for you to connect and share with family and friends online. Originally designed for college students, Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg while he was enrolled at Harvard University. By 2006, anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address could join Facebook. Today, Facebook is the world's largest social network, with more than 1 billion users worldwide.
Why use Facebook?
Have you ever wondered why people like using Facebook? After all, there are already a lot of other ways to communicate online, like through email, instant messaging, and so on. What makes Facebook unique is the ability to connect and share with the people you care about at the same time.
For many, having a Facebook account is now an expected part of being online, much like having your own email address. And because Facebook is so popular, other websites have worked to integrate Facebook. This means you can use a single Facebook account to sign in to different services across the Web.
Click the arrows in the slideshow below to see examples of the different ways you can use Facebook.
How does Facebook sharing work?
Facebook allows you to send messages and post status updates to keep in touch with friends and family. You can also share different types of content, like photos and links. But sharing something on Facebook is a bit different from other types of online communication. Unlike email or instant messaging, which are relatively private, the things you share on Facebook are more public, which means they'll usually be seen by many other people.
While Facebook offers privacy tools to help you limit who can see the things you share, it's important to understand that Facebook is designed to be more open and social than traditional communication tools. We'll talk more about sharing and controlling your privacy in our lessons on Facebook privacy and adjusting privacy settings.
Lesson 2: Getting Started with Facebook
Introduction
If you're thinking about joining Facebook, this lesson will show you everything you need to get started. We'll explain some common Facebook terms and how to create a Facebook account. We'll also explore the Facebook homepage, Timeline, and Facebook for mobile devices.
Watch the video below to learn more about getting started with Facebook.
Common Facebook terms
Friends? Likes? Status updates? If you're new to Facebook, there are a lot of terms and phrases that may seem a little confusing at first. Reviewing some of the most commonly used terms will give you a better understanding of how Facebook works and what to expect as you get started.
Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn about some common terms on Facebook.
Creating a Facebook account
Before you can use Facebook, you must create an account. Creating a Facebook account is free. All you need to get started is an email address and a few minutes of your time.
To create a Facebook account:
- Navigate to www.facebook.com in your web browser.
- Under the words Sign Up, enter your personal information and desired password, then click Sign Up.
- You can then follow the directions on the screen to find friends, upload a profile picture, learn about privacy settings, and more.
Before you can access all of Facebook's features, you'll need to confirm your email address. To do this, sign in to your email account, open the confirmation message from Facebook, and click Confirm Your Account.
Exploring Facebook
Once you create an account, you'll want to spend a little time becoming familiar with the different parts of Facebook, including the homepage and Timeline.
The homepage
The homepage appears whenever you sign in to Facebook. The homepage displays your News Feed, which shows the things your friends have shared on Facebook. The homepage also allows you to navigate to other parts of Facebook, such as your Timeline.
Click the buttons in the interactive below to become more familiar with the homepage.
The Timeline
The Timeline (also called your profile page) is where you'll share information about yourself. Whenever you post an update, it appears on your Timeline. Your friends can also share posts on your Timeline.
Click the buttons in the interactive below to become more familiar with your Timeline.
Facebook for mobile devices
Facebook makes it easy to connect on the go. In fact, most Facebook users primarily access the site from a mobile device. Facebook offers an official mobile app on a variety of smartphones and tablets, including iOS and Android.
You can use the mobile app to do just about everything you can do in the desktop version of Facebook: post status updates and pictures, read stories and updates, and chat with friends. We'd like to give you a quick overview of the two most popular versions of the Facebook app: Facebook for Android and Facebook for iPhone. While the interface for these apps is somewhat different, you'll notice that each app gives you access to the same basic features.
If you don't have a smartphone, you may be able to access a limited version of Facebook on your phone through the Facebook for Every Phone program or Facebook texts.
Facebook for Android
Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn more about using Facebook for Android.
Facebook for iPhone
Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn more about using Facebook for iPhone.
If you have any doubts. Please let me know.