Prime Time 5, Transition, Coursebook mit Audio-CD

2 Facebook – an introduction Discussion: Who is a friend? a) What exactly is the meaning of the word “friend”? What other words could you use instead? b) Is a Facebook friend a real friend? c) Which of the features of Facebook seem to be the most appealing ones? d) Do you use social networking sites? If yes, why and what for? If no, why not? Reading: The story of Facebook Read the text about the story of Facebook. Complete the sentences (1–4) using a maximum of four words. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. 1 Useful phrases In my opinion, … . • For me a friend is … . • Friends should be … . • I would call them people I know. • I personally like/don’t like … . • I prefer talking to my friends in person. • The advantage of social networking sites is … . P 2 1 What it is According to the makers of the site, Facebook is a “social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them”. The most important feature on Facebook is the ability to invite friends and to be invited as a friend by others. When this is done, accepted friends are able to see each other’s “walls” and “status”. A wall is an individual user’s page where any message in which they are mentioned will appear, such as their own status or photos including them. A status is simply what the user has written, often to describe whatever is going on in the user’s life at that moment. Friends can then comment on the status and so begin a conversation. It is easy to invite friends; simply put their name into the search bar at the top of any page or ask Facebook to look inside any e-mailing contact list that you have. If they have a Facebook account, they will appear and you can send an invitation. If they accept the invitation, then they become your friend and each of you can see the other’s information. 2 How it all began Facebook was established in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while they were students at Harvard University. First it could only be used by Harvard students, but soon it spread to other important universities in the USA. As Facebook evolved and grew in stature, it spread to most of the universities across the world; any student could start an account by listing a university e-mail address. Today Facebook is available to anyone aged 13 or over, provided they have access to the internet. When Facebook was founded, large numbers of people – mainly teenagers and young adults – were using the social network- ing sites MySpace and Bebo. At the beginning Facebook struggled to overcome the advan- tages of these already well-known social sites, as users were unwilling to change sites and start building their networks afresh. However, by 2009 Facebook was ranked as the most widely-used social networking site with a clear margin over the second most widely used, MySpace. 24 It’s my life Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv