karel baloun

I was one of the first users of Facebook back in April 2004 when it was rolled out to specific schools other than its founding community, Harvard. I had graduated college the previous year, so many of my classmates seemed to have “moved on” from the social sites of my time (all of which have dissolved). But over the past few months, the Facebook community has become a huge success and is continuing to flourish, and my classmates are slowly beginning to join the network.

I look back at Facebook’s emergence as a truly popular and desirable network that has simply gone from good to better. While other networks seem to lag behind, Facebook is truly another face in the crowd. And it’s obviously doing something right.

I “interviewed” my friend (and fellow ’03 grad) who recently signed up to Facebook. Why the sudden appeal? Not surprisingly, word of mouth took the cake. The icing? Her younger siblings were using it all the time. Facebook is not just a social network anymore; it is a society. I’ve seen several profiles with quotes to the likes of “I live on Facebook.” And several people are trying to convince others to jump on the bandwagon, because this one seems to be a keeper.