“There’s no doubt that social-media networks are fantastic communication machines. They allow people to feel connected to a virtual community, make new friends and keep old ones, learn things they didn’t know. They encourage people to write more (that cannot be bad) and write well and concisely (which is hard, trust us). They are a new form of entertainment (and marketing) that can occupy people for hours in any given day”._x000D_
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Facebook is one of the most popular social networks in the world. It was founded on the 4th of February 2004 by the student of the Harvard University Mark Zuckerberg. Initially, this network was available only for students of the Harvard University; later students from the Boston universities also registered in it; then students all over the USA received access to Facebook. Facebook is a global website and part of the world culture. The films are shot about it; its founder became “Person of the Year”, according to Forbes. Facebook is legal and progressive. The quantity of the mobile applications and integrations with other services and development of the website amaze the imagination. It is an absolute invention of the twenty first century._x000D_
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According to the research conducted by Ellison (2007), although initially Facebook was created for students of the University, the users, aged 26 and older, make 70 % from a total number of users. The average user of Facebook spends from 10 to 30 minutes per day. He leaves about 25 comments and presses the button “Like” 9 times. About 70 % of the Facebook users live outside of the United States. The most quickly growing segment of Facebook in the USA is composed of the students of colleges and universities. All the information such as the profile of the user, photos, names, cities and all other information in Facebook is officially considered public._x000D_
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Facebook has more than 400 million active users. About 35 million users update their status every day. Every month more than 2.5 billion photos are loaded on Facebook. The average user of Facebook has 150-200 friends and sends eight inquiries for friendship every month. The recent poll of the 500th largest American colleges revealed that 10 % of the selection committees looked through the profiles of Facebook for the assessment of college applicants. The members of the selection committees told that what they saw generally negatively affected their opinions. It is considered that Facebook takes the second place after Google by the traffic volume. If Facebook was the country, it would be the third country in the world by population after China and India._x000D_
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According to Kate Wadas (2008), Facebook has a lot of advantages for students. Different students’ organizations use Facebook for advertisements of the events which take place in colleges and universities. Moreover, professionals share their valuable information with the each other. Very often students obtain more valuable information via Facebook than attending boring lectures. In comparison with other social networks, the Facebook community is helpful for students in all senses. Besides, it helps them to enjoy themselves._x000D_
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“Facebook members can also join virtual groups based on common interests, see what classes they have in common, and learn each others’ hobbies, interests, musical tastes, and romantic relationship status through the profiles”._x000D_
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Millions of messages through Facebook which users exchange daily belong to the written language, not oral. This is the frequent phenomenon, especially among teenagers: laziness to call, desire to send message instead. Moreover, there is a chat, which helps people to exchange immediate messages. The interesting research called “The Benefits of Facebook “Friends”: Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites” (2007), has shown that 42 % of the subscribers of Facebook at the age from 18 to 24 use messages in Facebook to send love messages, 20 % write messages to agree about a date or appointment and 13 % of the users – to report about the rupture of close relations._x000D_
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“Facebook a one-stop shop or supermarket for imparting blogging, media, calendaring, communicating, sharing ideas or information and others. Facebook can provide “Cooperative Extension” abilities or capabilities to work together and construct our networks in a single place by giving one place without difficulty, imparting ideas or information and discuss subject or topics of interest”._x000D_
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Speaking of other advantages of Facebook, it should be said that it helps people to communicate with each other and even to build serious relations, leading to a family life. Moreover, it helps the students to study, because they can share their thoughts and opinions concerning their study and help each other in doing their home tasks. The main advantages include: informativity, speed, security, absence of spam, interactivity and conceptual simplicity._x000D_
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– Informativity includes compressed style and a great deal of links. _x000D_
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– Speed is caused by the fact that the overwhelming majority of Facebook users read Facebook from phones (through sms) and smart phones (through clients). Accordingly, the reply speed is 10 times higher than by traditional means; it gives an improbable sensation of the participation in the events in the world._x000D_
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– Interactivity which pushes Facebook to the quick reaction and prompt text writing._x000D_
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– Simplicity. Simple systems win the complex ones. Facebook is an overall search._x000D_
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– Advertising. Another advantage of Facebook is the fact that it is possible to create profiles of firms and companies in order to promote them on the market._x000D_
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Summing up the paper, I would like to say that simple and easy-to-use service of Facebook allows any person to create his own profile and tell the whole world about oneself in a real time mode. Facebook quickly covers the territory of the world with a great speed in geometrical progression. It is a means for broadcasting of not only thoughts, but also events.