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Digital technology has gained momentum owing to sophistication of the modern computers and Internet technologies. As a result, digital technology has penetrated into almost all aspects of daily life, including communication, business, governance, education, and entertainment among others. Particularly, digital technology has been the key building block for the dozens of online applications and websites, especially the social network websites, including Facebook, MySpace, and You-Tube. Accordingly, this paper discusses Facebook as the most used social networking site among Internet users.
Facebook is a social networking site with millions of users across the globe. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and has since attracted millions of users. Initially, Facebook was developed as an exclusive network for the students of Harvard University. A year later, Facebook was made available to the students of high school and college. Later on, in 2006, Facebook became open to anyone owning an email address. Currently, a user can request friendship with other registered users as well as participate and follow groups, events, and fan pages. As a result, Facebook has become the widely used social networking site.
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Technically, Facebook employs Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP as the core technologies making it robust and scalable. Facebook servers mainly run Linux operating system, because it can be customized and works well when it comes to security configuration. More so, Linux is an open source. At the database end, Facebook uses MySQL to store and manage users’ information in a logical way. One of the reasons why MySQL is popular is its reliability and speed. Such benefits double with the use of PHP as a programming language. Additionally, Facebook applies memory caching technology called memcache, which speeds up the Facebook’s databases. Therefore, interaction of these technologies makes Facebook one of the robust websites.
Facebook has a number of benefits to its users. First, the site has become a hub, where people share the same ideas, create online forums, and host discussions. Different groups and fan pages are created by the classmates, workmates, political, religious and corporate organizations, etc., which manage and update themselves. Secondly, Facebook has become a multimedia sharing platform, where the users can exchanges photos, video, and games among each other. Thirdly, Facebook can be an e-directory, where the users can visit and search for their registered counterparts. It is quite interesting and useful, because Facebook acts as a reunion destination, making the long time reunions real. Other benefits of using Facebook are the following. The site is free and has a vast of online resources such as games. It is usable and can be a source of up to date information. In addition, no spamming is allowed. Thus, the numerous benefits mentioned above have made Facebook a giant online digital application.
However, it should be noted that Facebook also has its downsides that have been criticized because of the different reasons. First, due to the nature of interaction and relationship among the Facebook users, there is a possibility of deterioration of the long distance face-to-face interaction. Secondly, Facebook instills its users with a rampant addiction. It is mainly evident in the working and learning environments as many people spend most of their productive time surfing Facebook. Thirdly, Facebook poses privacy and security issues of its users. This aspect can be viewed in a number of perspectives, but the common ones include impersonation of profile, hacking and cracking of login credential, and stalking. However, there are also many other security breaches that may eventually expose Facebook users to the sexual predators and cyber bullying. Other disadvantages of Facebook include time wastage, presence of the unfiltered content, and impairment of the personal relations.
In conclusion, Facebook and other social networking sites are great examples of the development of digital technology. Particularly, Facebook coincides with the digital age and even its disadvantages have been overshadowed by the benefits it brings to the users all over the world. Nevertheless, judging Facebook is a tradeoff between its advantages and disadvantages with the later being suppressed by the former.