Is Facebook taking over the world?

What is the source?

The source is newscientist.com Which is the website for New Science magazine. It is a weekly science and technology magazine. It includes articles from current issues, and it also had archived articles from past issues. It's main focus is "exciting areas of science". The article I am focusing on Is Facebook taking over the world? was published on June 25 2010 by Jim Giles.

Who is the intended audience for the source?

The intended audience for this source is individuals who are tech savvy, and are interested in new technologies. This particular article is geared toward Facebook users, which is roughly 800 million people worldwide in 2012. It is also for those who are concerned with how much power and influence Facebook already has, and how much power it can potentially have.

What does the source demonstrate about cyberculture? What are the major themes/ideas that this source typifies, demonstrates, or explains?

The source itself is the article speaking about Facebook and it's already great influence upon society. This shows how the influence of a cyber culture has much more affect upon society than we ever could have thought. According to a former Facebook employee "In five years there won't be a distinction between being on and off Facebook... It will be something that goes with you wherever you are communicating with people." The infrastructure within Facebook is so useful, and this rarely gives customers the need to go elsewhere. Individuals can send messages via Facebook instead of emails. They can also play games, listen to music, upload pictures. Where does it end? This source also displays the potentials and gives reasons why more Facebook power and influence is not always good. The article is weary of so much power through a private company on the Internet. Should a private company be able to handle so much of the worlds communications? With so much information, what if some day Facebook changes their ethos and starts sharing more types of information in cyberspace?

Why did you choose to share this source with us?

I chose this source because in class we briefly discussed the problem of Facebook getting too big and having too much influence. We studied what extreme positive effects Facebook can have with the example of the government overthrows in Tunisia and Egypt when watching the BBC documentary. We did not discuss what negative potentials Facebook can have. I think that this source does a good job of explaining how Facebook has the potential to be a resource for everything on the web, and how a private company having too much influence can be a bad thing.