Facebook is a social networking website founded in 2004 by Marc Zuckerberg, then a Harvard University undergraduate.

The basic idea is that Facebook users may add personal information and connect with other people. Marital status, education, and hobbies are examples of information that may be made accessible to the network. This data may be used to discover people who have similar interests. Users may organize into groups and ask others to join them. Interactions among members include the exchange of e-mail and multimedia content.

For example, the user will find a list of friends, a list of friends he or she shares with other friends, a list of networks to which the user and his or her friends belong, a list of groups to which the user belongs, a box for accessing photos associated with the user's account, and a "wall" that allows the user's friends to leave small messages to which the user can respond.

In practice, Facebook is not utilized to communicate critical information, but it does give a method to stay in contact with someone and demonstrate that you care about them. Some individuals use it to make significant announcements and wait for responses from their friends, but the majority merely use it to stay in contact.