Photo: Mark Zukerberg, from Wikipedia.
Facebook was born in February 2004. It now has 500 million active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a 20-year old Harvard Sophomore, with his college roomates and fellow computer science students. Zukerberg’s idea was to form a network so that students could get to know each other better. It was initially limited to Harvard students. Zuckerberg was born May 14, 1984 in White Plains, New York. He is now 26 years old and is CEO of Facebook, Inc.
In January 2009 Facebook was ranked as the most widely used social network worldwide in monthly active users.
Facebook generated 450 visitors in its first four hours online. Within its first month more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the site. It expanded to Stanford, Columbia and Yale. It gradually expanded to all Ivy League schools, New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Expansion continued to universities in Canada and the United States. It currently gains 1 million new users per day, according to David Kirkpatrick, author of “The Facebook Effect.” It is located in Palo Alto, California. Facebook is currently open to all persons age 13 or older with an e-mail address.
The website is now worth some $15 billion dollars. More people visited Facebook than Google in 2010. A movie about Facebook, called “The Social Network” will be released next month.
Facebook is a social network where friends communicate with each other and keep track with what their friends are doing. Kirkpatrick states users of Facebook will reach 1 billion users worldwide within another year. He says that communications between people via Facebook exceeds that of e-mails.
Pahrump, Nye County and residents of the entire state of Nevada are well represented on Facebook. Not only individuals, but politicians and multiple businesses are active on the site. Groups of all kinds maintain active use of Facebook. For example “Positive Pahrump” has 1,781 friends, mostly residents of Pahrump or people actively involved with the Town, reflects positive attributes of the community.
Another group, “Mule-Lick Nevada,” is a humorous parody about Pahrump that is one of my favorites.
Local politicians use Facebook. Both Tony DeMeo and Scott Cobel, candidates for election to Sheriff of Nye County, have a presence on Facebook. You can learn a lot about each just by visiting their Facebook pages.
Whether you love or dislike Sharron Angle you will find her there as well.
Both Laurayne Murray and Dan Schinhofen, competing for election to the Nye County Board of Commissioners pursue their campaigns on Facebook. So do Carolene Endersby, Tom Waters and Don Rust, running for Town Board of Pahrump. Brian Kunzi, candidate for Nye County District Attorney, is there, though I did not find Ron Kent, his opponent.
Oddly, neither the Nye County Democratic Party nor Republican Party maintain a presence on Facebook that I could find. The Nye County Republican Central Committee has a website but seems to ignore Facebook. The Nye County Democratic Central Committee not only ignores Facebook but the internet completely since they have no website presence at all.
One would think both political parties would be communicating furiously with their members by both methods, particularly with the November elections fast approaching.
Facebook’s effect on the American political system became clear in January 2008. Both Facebook and Twitter has virtually revolutionized politics. Facebook is an extremely popular and powerful new way to interact and voice opinions on the political scene.
Facebook has been blocked intermittently in several repressive countries including Pakistan, Syria, People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, and Iran.
The impact of Facebook on the future of the United States has been recognized. Particularly with the younger generation, which is quite familiar with the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, and the whole range of communicative techniques of modern 21st Century. For the first time in history ordinary people are capable of personally interacting with each other, governments notwithstanding. That is a good thing.
You are welcome to read more about this and other matters on the Nye-Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals blog at http://nyegateway.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Featheriver.
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FWIW the “Positive Pahrump” group was so sickeningly syrupy it really isn’t realistic at all. Its a whole lot of people who moved here from California and now want to “change” Pahrump into a giant mini mall. They are VERY pro Town Manager and to them, he can do no wrong.
I suspect its run by the BHOP (Bored Housewives of Pahrump) crowd, with their fearless “leader” Stephanie Lopez.
Whether “syrupy” or unrealistic, that bunch on Positive Pahrump are active, and are expressing their views, whether they are agreed with or not. I don’t personally know all of the 1,781 in the group, but do know some of them. I just like the fact that they have a place to and are expressing their views back and forth.
Maybe you should share your views with them.
Best regards
Featheriver
Featheriver´s last [type] ..Facebook
I have to say Rod, thats pretty harsh… but I will say this.
I was a member over there for a short time. What I saw repulsed me. People being told who to vote for, people mindlessly agreeing like sheep and THEN to top it all off, a page long bitch session about these “Scummy locals that smoke and chew tobacco” . That was enough for me, I left the group and never looked back.
I dont think its just a bunch of housewives, I suspect its a person trying to gentrify Pahrump and get rid of anything they dont like and anyone who they deem unworthy via higher prices and higher taxes.
Lots of us moved here because we dont care who we live near, what someone looks like, or what kind of car they drive, we just want to enjoy our life and be left alone.
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