What happens on Facebook stays there, or does it, wonders Salonaz Sami As I looked through my pictures online, I pointed out to a friend of mine the by now familiar face of an online acquaintance. "We've never met," I told her. "He's one of my Facebook friends." Even now it is difficult to grasp the full extent of the effects social networking has had on my life. I have almost 300 online friends. Many of them I have known for years. However there are scores whom I wouldn't recognise even if they wore name tags. They wander in the strange realm that lies between acquaintance and total stranger. We share common friends, and in the parlance of social media we are connected. In the world of virtual reality it's not about who you know: it's about who you kind of know. Revolting to some it may be. But after all, "everyone is on Facebook. Business owners, public figures, politicians, artists and bands," explained professor of social studies Aida Salama. The online networking tool, which started out as a way to connect Harvard students, has turned in the blink of an eye into the most popular destination for both teenagers and adults. Facebook is now one of the fastest growing and best known sites on the Internet, distinguishing itself from rivals and proving to be a solid investment. In 2007, Microsoft outbid its archrival Google to invest $240 million for a 1.6 per cent stake in Facebook, which valued the company at a startling $15 billion. Although the site's scope has expanded to include more than just students, explained Salama, its purpose remained the same: to give people a way to share information in an easy and entertaining way. "Why else would you upload pictures of your last family trip at 2:30am?" Salama wondered. "Because you simply want someone, anyone to see them. It's all about sharing," she added. Globally, the number of active Facebook users doubles every six months, with an average number of registrations that exceeds 250,000 per day, according to Facebook. In Egypt where more than half the population is under 25 years old, "there is a thirst for new technology," explained Ahmed Ghoneim, a technical director. "Facebook has provided these youths with a chance to escape the backward conditions they were born into, into their own virtual utopia, where anything is possible," Ghoneim added. As such, it is barely surprising that the site has become a tool to spread causes and news of protests around the world. Last April, an Egyptian Facebook group organised an online strike in protest of rising food prices for the first time ever. The group, which had more than 70,000 members, was created by 27-year-old Israa Abdel-Fattah, a human resources administrator. The strike overlapped with a textile workers strike, and although the online movement came as a surprise to the government, the response was both swift and severe. Abdel-Fattah was briefly arrested on charges of organising the strike and inciting hatred against the regime. Upon her arrest, a self-titled Free Israa group spontaneously emerged on Facebook, where she was considered a heroine, by the dozens of thousands who joined in. "This proved once again how powerful these online youths really are," said Ghoneim. Further, according to Ghoneim, the gap between the Arab world and the West is not about money or politics. "It's rather about knowledge," he said, adding that Facebook has given youth the opportunity to become involved in information technology as more than just consumers. "This was one of the major problems here in Egypt," he said. "We are accustomed to being mere consumers, rather than contributors to information technology. Facebook is the first step towards getting more involved." Although the site is not primarily a business tool but rather a social utility, according to Ghoneim, it has its own business privileges. This goes some way towards accounting for the unique appeal of Facebook. "It's not going to help you close a deal," he explained. "But it can help you start your own online business," he said. If you want to place an ad, he went on, it's the place to do so. To start with, we had browsers, then search engines, while today we have Facebook and social networking rivals. It is the filter of personal connections. "In my view the site is becoming even more essential than search tools now," he said. These business advantages, according to Ghoneim, are the reason why the site's fastest growing demographic consists of people aged 35 and above. "I call them the refugees of the cluttered and uncivilised web," he said. For this reason, it is ironic that the website that still today has the reputation for being a hangout for teenagers, in fact "is really about making the web grow up," Ghoneim added. Facebook is a website, explained Salama, but in a sense, it's another version of the Internet itself. "A net within the net, one that is everything the larger net is not." The site also enables people all over the world to have their say in political issues. Just a few days after heroic Iraqi journalist Muntadhar Al-Zaidi threw his shoes at US President George Bush, Facebook became home to scores of groups and applications related to the subject. "If it's on the news, you will find it on Facebook," said Salama. One of the applications, appropriately titled the Bush Shoe Toss, which has more than 17,745 monthly active users, read on its description: "We don't like throwing shoes, but we also don't like throwing the world into disarray. If you are frustrated with soon to be former President Bush, show it by throwing a virtual shoe. Just a few seconds to voice your displeasure with the last eight years." On a related group's wall, Samantha Earley wrote, "If only we could bury Bush in shoes, then he'd stink as bad as his speeches and both his terms." Meanwhile, reactions to the Israeli war on Gaza were instantly voiced on the website. Hundreds of groups and pages were created in support of Gaza. Free Gaza was just one of them. On the discussion board, one member wrote under the title, "The lying silence of those who know", quoting veteran journalist John Pilger. We are diminished as a civilised society, it read. For what happens in Gaza is the defining moment of our time, which either grants the impunity of war criminals the immunity of our silence, while we contort our own intellect morality, or gives us the power to speak out, it continued. When the truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie. The latest application related to the issue is titled: Stop Israel's war crimes in Gaza. While Facebook is a new form of online activism, to others it is merely a nuisance. Artist Dina Assem describes it as "another form of consuming technology rather than creating it. It is a waste of time." Plus, Assem added, it is annoying to receive dozens of invitations a day to take a quiz or add an application. "It intrudes on your privacy, allowing everyone to keep track of your activities," the artist added. Assem is particularly critical of the latest application, the News Feed. It was introduced by Facebook in September 2006, and it helps users stay updated about what friends and acquaintances are up to. The application caused different reactions among users. While some argued it was too cluttered and full of undesired information, others claimed it to be the best online invention since MSN Messenger. "It updates me on who my friends have befriended, what they are doing, where they are vacationing, and stuff like that," Salama said. In the world of Facebook, she further added, friends don't drift apart, because it is a world designed to help you stay on top of the activities and opinions of those who matter to you most. It bears mention that users are able to prevent friends from seeing updates about their activities. Still, the website is not without its dangers. IT student Yehia Belal told Al-Ahram Weekly that some of his friends are addicts, and are continually updating their status, changing their photos and adding new friends. Indeed, Salama said, it could turn into an addiction similar to drugs or alcohol. "Social networking junkies count the minutes before their next Facebook fix, checking their profiles dozens of times a day to see who did what and how many virtual peers or new friends they have acquired," he said. Last year, Facebook opened its online platform to anyone who wants to build applications for it, from music-sharing services to stock monitoring. It now has more than 7,000 free add-on applications. "Every one of those applications represents one more aspect of your life that you can live on line," explained Belal. Social networking tools like Facebook have become almost indispensable, according to Ghoneim. Even religious fanatics have turned to it. Facebook recently blocked the 120-member strong group, Fursan Ghazawat Al-Nusra, whose title roughly translates as Knights of the Victorious Invasions, after the group wrote that its purpose was to "support jihad and mujahideen" and to "invade this website". Group members included well-known members of Al-Qaeda's leadership as well as prominent Saudi clerics. Moreover, the world's first legal judgement that defines summons posted on Facebook to be legally binding was issued by the Canberra Supreme Court of Australia this December. The court ruled that Facebook is a valid protocol to serve court notices to defendants. So how does the site make enough money to cover its expenses? According to Assem, Facebook generates revenue by selling web advertising space. "Advertisers can specify, on the basis of the demographic data collected from users' profiles, exactly which members they want to view the ad," he said. The majority of the funding, however, comes from private investors. According to Facebook, it has received more than $40 million in funding since it launched in 2004, by Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg. According to Alexa.com, Facebook's ranking among all websites increased from 60th to seventh, in terms of worldwide traffic, from 2006 to 2007, and is currently fifth. In the status bar, where you can tell people how you are feeling or what you are up to, US President-elect Barack Obama wrote on 20 December, "Barack is in Hawaii and will not be befriending anyone until '09. For immediate friendship, contact Bill Clinton via instant messenger."
