Facebook Differences: How we use this technology

I examined three different people for this assignment and tried to do my best to find three people that use Facebook in slightly different ways than each other.

The first page that I looked at was a friend from high school. He is always popping up on my news feed and really uses Facebook to its full social potential. He updates his status multiple times a day - sometimes even within the same hour - and it is often things about his moods, where is going, or anything and everything about his life and the day he is currently having. He uses Facebook as a way to express emotion and news about his life to people on the internet, whether they are his friends in person or web friends. He also updates his profile picture very, very often and it is always a picture of him. In his case, Facebook is simply used in almost an obsessive way to get people filled in on his emotions and his life.

Another friend I looked at is a friend of a friend and only somebody that I have met in person just recently. She does not use Facebook in the same perspective as the previous user I have talked about. I have never seen her update her status even once and uses Facebook in the most simple terms to stay in touch with people and respond to friends when they write on her wall. She also does not allow people to view pictures tagged of her and rarely changes her profile picture. For her, it is just a means of staying in touch, not a form of a live social blog.

One last page that I viewed was a relative of mine. More and more people of older generations are starting to use social media as a way to experience this younger, technological culture and how they are using it. My relative, who is in their 50's uses Facebook much, much less than anyone in my age group that I know of. Their profile picture rarely changes, nor do their status updates. They use it as a way to interact with their younger relatives and also to find and stay in touch with old friends from college or their younger years. Older Facebook users also have much more sophisticated wall posts and picture comments, and usually only comment or post anything when they have something meaningful to say. This is contrary to many teens or people in their 20s using Facebook for random thoughts, comments, and anything they want the world to hear.