Facebook

Face behind the screen

Drew, our very clever Webmaster, this week explains to us the ins and outs of Facebook, and how to make it work for you.

Most of us use the computer on a daily basis, and most of us will talk to people via forums or emails and will never see the face of the person at the other end. Over the past few years, this trend has changed with the introduction of the MySpace phenomenon and recently, this has extended to a new site named Facebook. Facebook is much like MySpace, but more advanced. Instead of having to contact all of your friends directly, when you create an account, it will be able to look up your e-mail address book and send all your friends an invitation to add you to their Facebook.

Facebook is not just about having a profile, letting the world see who you are and what you look like, it is also about reconnecting with old friends. The search function is really simple to use. In your profile you can include which school you went to and when you graduated, you can even search for people who finished in the same year if you want to - that is how advanced this website has become!

I will step you through how to set up your Facebook account for the first time, how to get that automated email sent to all your friends, show you how to setup your profile and how to join the AboutSeniors Facebook community site!

The first step is to visit the website. You will be prompted with a simple looking website with an easy to use registration in the bottom right of the page as seen below.

Simply fill out the following information and click signup. You will have to enter a security code that comes on the screen (this is to prevent spammers).

Once you have done this, you need to open your email address and click the relating link to activate your account. It will take you directly to the next page as seen below.

For example, as seen above, it will have your e-mail address already typed in, and a selection of e-mail providers in the drop down menu too choose from. Simply click “find friends” and it will send an e-mail to your friends who will be prompted to either join up or add you as a friend, alternatively, those friends who may have invited you in the past, in the next screen you will be prompted to add them to your Facebook!

Now that we have passed this step, it is time to setup our profile.  You can use as little information as you like in this step, it all depends how much time you want to put into the profile. Click on the edit button shown below.


We will be prompted by a new screen, fill out all the following information and as seen in the next photo, there are different section tabs for us to click on once we save the changes. Make your way through each of the following until you have filled out all the information!

Now that we have set up your profile, it is time to add yourself to the AboutSeniors community! As seen below, the following bar appears on the left side of every page, click the “Groups” button.

Now you will be prompted to search for the group, as seen in the image below, type in AboutSeniors and hit the enter key on your keyboard to search for it (Do not hit create a new group).

Once you have done that, the only option that will appear will be our community group as seen below, click join group where the arrow points it out.

Now you have joined the group, you can browse all the members who have joined, post discussions and share photos!

Let us know how this works for you.

A slap in the Facebook

With social-networking website Facebook taking a beating in the news this week, one could be excused for not remembering it moderates content from over 300 million users worldwide. But what are the benefits of Facebook?

The social networking site Facebook started out as a way for university students in Middle America to keep in touch. What followed was one of the fastest expansions of a media empire in recent memory. It branched off into every available demographic, including teens, tweens, husbands, wives, singles, seniors and infants. It killed Myspace, spawned Twitter, and even began to become a conduit for politicians to interface with the voting public.

The main reason to make the jump over to Facebook is the fantastic opportunities it provides us to communicate with families and friends. We can chat, network and communicate without the need to spend money on travel. Although it is not quite the same as seeing our loved ones in person, the knowledge we can live chat, see photos on each other’s wall or even create a large group conversation in your message inbox.

If all of this sounds unfamiliar to you, then check out this Facebook tutorial.

However, in a nutshell, I’ll go over some of the great social networking tools Facebook offers. At its core, Facebook gives each user a “wall”. This “wall” is like your own personal webpage, however all of your ‘friends’, people you add, can come to your ‘wall’ and ‘post’ conversations with you. You also have an ‘inbox’ where you can ‘message’ your Facebook friends, away from the prying eyes of the rest of the Facebook public. Here is where you can also open up conversations with multiple Facebook friends.

There are also other fun parts of Facebook. The “photos” section allows users to post all their photos and ‘tag’ themselves in a photo. This photo is then permanently attached to their profile. From there, you can check out all your friends and families’ ‘tagged’ photos, and if a particular photo takes your fancy, show your appreciation by hitting the ‘like’ button on the webpage. If the thrill of social interaction begins to run its course, you can start a virtual event online, and then invite only your new or old Facebook friends. It is as easy as one, two, three and in minutes you have a 30 person BBQ organised with no carbon footprint and no dead trees.

Facebook also has many online games such as Farmville, Mafia Wars and many other fun distractions that also have social elements, as well as the marketplace feature, which is kind of like a mock eBay. Yes, if the creators of Facebook had it their way, you would never have to leave your laptop.

In all seriousness however, as a regular user of Facebook I can honestly say it has done wonders in streamlining my social life, helped me get in contact with friends I would have otherwise have never talked to again and allowed me to keep up with the goings on of everyone I care about. While on the surface the site may seem confusing at first, as it did to me, over time it gets easy to navigate. In addition, the staffing team at Facebook continually add updates to make it simpler and more user-friendly.

So what are you waiting for? Make the jump today. Become a member of Facebook and get into contact with some of the hundreds of About Seniors members who have also taken the plunge.

Putting a name to a face

Popular social-networking website, Facebook, has released a new service - strictly on a first come first served basis. The new service allows members to register their own a username, making it easier to your friends to find you!

Up till now, Facebook has assigned a random number to each account for example http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528662072. Other popular sites such as Myspace and Twitter have always assigned a username for example http://www.myspace.com/johnsmith which has made it far easier to find someone or link your social networking page to a friend.

It has been called the biggest online land grab in history, which commenced on Saturday the 13th with a large range of usernames being grabbed up with popular singers and movie stars being given rights to their own names but still many funny movie names and now so known stars named were nabbed by people wanting something unique!

I personally went with my full name and was happy to secure that. To select your facebook username, visit this website now!