What is Facebook?

 

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What is Facebook?

The Facebook logo.

What's coming up

In this short activity, you'll be introduced to the world's biggest social media network, Facebook.

You will learn what Facebook is, and how it benefits its billions of users.

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What is Facebook?

Facebook is an online social media platform that allows its users to share their thoughts, photos and interests with just a few people, all their friends or the entire world. When you share something on Facebook, it's called a post.

A close up of a Facebook newsfeed showing a recent post from Julie.
A graphic of a bar graph.

Some key Facebook statistics

To say that Facebook is popular is a bit of an understatement. It has:

  • 2.7 billion users (and counting) world-wide, including 3.5 million Australians over the age of 55
  • 150,000 messages sent every minute (approximately)
  • 300 million photos uploaded by users every day.

The benefits of Facebook

People use Facebook for many reasons, including:

  • keeping in touch with family and friends, even if they are living far away
  • reconnecting with people from the past
  • keeping up with the travel adventures of children, friends and other loved ones
  • connecting with likeminded people in the community and abroad
  • joining groups based on common interests and hobbies
  • keeping up with news and current affairs.
A graphic showing Julie and some of her connections on Facebook.
A smartphone and tablet displaying social media app icons.

Congratulations!

This the end of the What is Facebook? activity. You've learnt what it is, how popular it is around the world and some of its benefits.

Up next, we look at how to get set up on Facebook in the Creating a Facebook account activity.