How to Use Facebook
From LoveToKnow SocialNetworking
Knowing how to use Facebook can enhance your social networking experience on this extremely popular site. No matter what your reason is for using Facebook, there are some essential functions you should get use to and basic links to get familiar with.
News Feeds
When you log in, you are taken to the main screen. This is where you will do most of your Facebook business. Down the middle of the screen are your news feeds, which is updated each time one of your friends changes their status, someone takes a quiz and publishes the results, or if someone posts photos or videos. Those three are the main reasons the news feeds usually update. If you have a lot of friends, then the middle of the screen may continue to scroll without anything stopping it. There are a few things you can do to control the updates. As you hover the mouse over the upper right corner of the update, a drop down menu called "HIDE" appears. This lets you hide any and all updates of your friend as well as updates referring to whatever they posted, like a quiz they recently took. So if another friend takes the same quiz, the update won't show on your news feed.
Adding Friends
Social networking is all about friends, right? To get friends, you need to start adding them. At the top of the screen, click "Friends" and an advanced search screen loads. Chances are that a friend may have invited you to join Facebook. Definitely start with them and see if you know anyone they know.
You can find people by entering in your email address and password, and Facebook will search your contacts to see if any of those email addresses are associated with any accounts. Another way to add friends is to see what suggestions Facebook has for you. As you build friends, Facebook does its best to figure out who else you might know based on your current friends. Basically, the formula works like this: if three people know the same person and you are friends with the three people, then you may know the one they both know.
You can also search by first and last name, school (high school and college), and by workplace.
How to Use Facebook Applications
Applications are part of the meat of Facebook. You can play games, take quizzes, and post blogs for starters. In the bottom left of the screen, click "Applications". There are some general ones already listed, like photos and video (see below), but you have the option to add more. Click on "Browse More Applications" and search through the hundreds of things you can do. Look by popularity, what your friends are playing, or type of game. Once you "Allow" the game to attach itself to your Facebook, you can find it in the "Applications" section.
Chatting
In the bottom right part of the screen you can see who's online and who's recently been online. Selecting any of your friends opens up the chat window, which pops up right next to the "Chat" icon. The window is small, but very dependable.
Photos and Video
You can create photo albums for your friends to see. Click on Applications, then photos. This opens up a page where you will see all the photo albums of your friends, the most recently changed first. At the top, click "My Photos". To create a new album, just click "Create a Photo Album" and upload your pictures. To add pictures to an existing album, select "Edit Album" and add your pictures.
Videos work the same way. The two most recent videos you upload will be posted to your profile. You just need to ensure the video is less than 1GB and less than 20 minutes.
Something New
After a few hours, you should feel right at home on Facebook. Hopefully, this article taught you how to use Facebook and understand how to do the most common functions Facebook offers.
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This page has been accessed 325 times. This page was last modified 02:43, 29 June 2009.
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