The year 2010 was good for the folks at Facebook.
Facebook.com became the most-visited website in the world, the site surpassed 500 million active users and the company’s 23-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg was named Time’s Person of the Year.
If you’re unable (or unwilling) to learn more about friends, likes, status updates, privacy settings and the rest of it, don’t fret.
Your turn will come.
If social media’s pervasive pop cultural assault doesn’t get you to open your own account, tales from those you know and those you love will do their best to break down what little resistance is left.
The vast array of social media sites and tools, of which Facebook and Twitter lead the way, experienced their most significant coming of age in 2010 by penetrating mainstream culture.
The past year even featured the first exospheric tweet from an astronaut on his way to fix the Hubble telescope.
Whether trivial or germane, social media has clearly taken off. These days, it’s hard to find a company, NGO, sports franchise, rock band or ballet troupe without a Facebook or Twitter presence.
Given that Facebook really gained traction when users realized it was a great way to see if that special someone had finally broken up with their partner, it’s anyone’s guess how the public will handle the mad rush of corporate and governmental Facebook enthusiasts.
Even more unclear is how social networks will jive with those organizations’ heavy reliance on rigid codes of conduct and the rule of law — an issue that came into view last week when an individual posted a controversial anti-Trust video on the Islands Trust’s own Facebook page.
A cursory “fans tally” taken on Tuesday afternoon may offer an indication of where we’re headed:
Kim Kardashian: 3,795,786.
United Nations: 50,934.
We’ll check in again next year.
— Gulf Islands Driftwood