Face Book a powerful tool for creating a digital Bangladesh
Salahuddin Ahmed | Monday, 2 March 2009
COMMUNICATION has become easier and faster in this present era. Thanks to the innovation of modern technology that enables us to communicate with the rest of the world within a second. Through internet we stay connected with our near and dear ones. Different types of websites serve people by networking through the internet. But the type, which is becoming very popular around the globe very quickly is "Face Book." Face Book is a free access social networking website that is organised and owned by Face Book Inc.
Mark Zuckerberg from Harvard University founded this website and initially limited this website to the students of Harvard University only. Later the website was extended to Boston area, Ivy League and Stanford University. Slowly students from any universities and high school in the USA got the privilege to connect through Face Book. Later the website has become free to everyone around the world and right now just after nine years of its initiation, the Face Book has more than 175 million active users around the globe.
Face Book has a number of interactive features that attract millions of people worldwide. The features include Wall that allows friends to post messages for users to see and people can also send instant message that works like an e-mail. It includes Status which allows users to inform their friends of their situation and actions. A user's Wall is visible to anyone who is able to see that user's profile, depending on the privacy settings of users. In July 2007, Face Book began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only. Through Face Book, people can meet and interact with other friends around the globe and discuss various issues by posting web links, videos, notes etc. Face Book has become the leading social network. According to COM Score, Face Book is the leading social networking site based on monthly unique visitors, having overtaken main competitor My Space in April 2008. It is also unbelievable to see the total valuation of this website. In August 2008, Business Week reported that private sales by employees, as well as purchases by venture capital firms, had and were being done at share prices that put the company's total valuation between $3.75 billion and $5.0 billion.
This writer would like to emphasise how Face Book influences Bangladeshi people, especially the young generation of our country. A report in August last year revealed that there are 100,000 Face Book users in Bangladesh while the total internet user is 500,000. It can easily be assumed that most of these users belong to the young generation of Bangladesh. The first question that comes in mind is: can Face Book educate people, especially these young groups? When a student is connected to Face Book, he/she can get free access to networking with people around the globe. They can learn about the country, culture and from these people who could enhance their knowledge to a greater magnitude. There is International Student Union in Face Book and people can join there to learn about foreign institutions and what it does feel being in a different country.
Sometimes people create various groups regarding various social and political issues and a user from Bangladesh can be a part of these groups very easily. These groups discuss various issues, for example "stop terrorism from the world" and people have opportunity to put their comments on it. Face Book has introduced the blog, through which people post various links, notes, lectures etc., that all users can know about. Now Face Book does have separate regions, countries and through this feature people can meet others from their own country. If someone wants to meet a Bangladeshi in Chicago, Face Book can tell if there is any Bangladeshi living in that place. We better call this website a place of global network where people from all around the globe are connected and share their views.
Another question props up in mind whether this great website can affect people negatively. Certainly, there are some people who spend hours and hours chatting with their friends. A person like this would not understand the value of this website. Instead of this, chatting people can try to educate them by looking around if there is anything going on that could educate them. Again, Face Book can provide teaching on culture from other country, but for example, if a Bangladeshi simply tries to imitate those cultural aspects in daily activities, it would definitely affect our society negatively
In our country, we are currently talking about the concept of 'Digital Bangladesh' that would allow us to accelerate the information communication technology. Face Book is a great tool through which we can accelerate communication and it certainly can turn the idea of 'digital Bangladesh' into reality.
The writer is an MBA student at Ashland University, OH, USA. He can be reached at Email: [email protected]
Mark Zuckerberg from Harvard University founded this website and initially limited this website to the students of Harvard University only. Later the website was extended to Boston area, Ivy League and Stanford University. Slowly students from any universities and high school in the USA got the privilege to connect through Face Book. Later the website has become free to everyone around the world and right now just after nine years of its initiation, the Face Book has more than 175 million active users around the globe.
Face Book has a number of interactive features that attract millions of people worldwide. The features include Wall that allows friends to post messages for users to see and people can also send instant message that works like an e-mail. It includes Status which allows users to inform their friends of their situation and actions. A user's Wall is visible to anyone who is able to see that user's profile, depending on the privacy settings of users. In July 2007, Face Book began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only. Through Face Book, people can meet and interact with other friends around the globe and discuss various issues by posting web links, videos, notes etc. Face Book has become the leading social network. According to COM Score, Face Book is the leading social networking site based on monthly unique visitors, having overtaken main competitor My Space in April 2008. It is also unbelievable to see the total valuation of this website. In August 2008, Business Week reported that private sales by employees, as well as purchases by venture capital firms, had and were being done at share prices that put the company's total valuation between $3.75 billion and $5.0 billion.
This writer would like to emphasise how Face Book influences Bangladeshi people, especially the young generation of our country. A report in August last year revealed that there are 100,000 Face Book users in Bangladesh while the total internet user is 500,000. It can easily be assumed that most of these users belong to the young generation of Bangladesh. The first question that comes in mind is: can Face Book educate people, especially these young groups? When a student is connected to Face Book, he/she can get free access to networking with people around the globe. They can learn about the country, culture and from these people who could enhance their knowledge to a greater magnitude. There is International Student Union in Face Book and people can join there to learn about foreign institutions and what it does feel being in a different country.
Sometimes people create various groups regarding various social and political issues and a user from Bangladesh can be a part of these groups very easily. These groups discuss various issues, for example "stop terrorism from the world" and people have opportunity to put their comments on it. Face Book has introduced the blog, through which people post various links, notes, lectures etc., that all users can know about. Now Face Book does have separate regions, countries and through this feature people can meet others from their own country. If someone wants to meet a Bangladeshi in Chicago, Face Book can tell if there is any Bangladeshi living in that place. We better call this website a place of global network where people from all around the globe are connected and share their views.
Another question props up in mind whether this great website can affect people negatively. Certainly, there are some people who spend hours and hours chatting with their friends. A person like this would not understand the value of this website. Instead of this, chatting people can try to educate them by looking around if there is anything going on that could educate them. Again, Face Book can provide teaching on culture from other country, but for example, if a Bangladeshi simply tries to imitate those cultural aspects in daily activities, it would definitely affect our society negatively
In our country, we are currently talking about the concept of 'Digital Bangladesh' that would allow us to accelerate the information communication technology. Face Book is a great tool through which we can accelerate communication and it certainly can turn the idea of 'digital Bangladesh' into reality.
The writer is an MBA student at Ashland University, OH, USA. He can be reached at Email: [email protected]