As of September 11th, 2006, Facebook was already widely known throughout the world, usually basing its population towards those in high school and colleges or universities. Nowadays, as of October 2007, Facebook has a total of around 42 million users!

This article will guide new Facebook users to learn how to use Facebook, have fun with it, and join the rest of the 42 million who do! By the way, I have Facebook. Therefore, by the end of this article, you should add me. :) My real name is not Nik Fall, by the way.

Basic

First of all, Facebook is a social interactive network that bonds you and your network of friends (or strangers) together. You can check out their lives, and they can check out yours.

The Home Page & News Feed

Firstly, we have the login screen. So make an account and we can get started. Login using your confirmed email address and password. The first window you will see is usually called your Home. At Home, the most part is your News Feed. You can view updates and have a basic overview of what's happening with your friends and their lives. The News Feed loads up every time you login so you won't have to miss anything important.

This, however, might not be true all the time. The News Feed summarizes only some activities that occurred. You can edit the Preferences of what you want your News Feed to display simply by clicking on Preferences. It should be pretty straight forward.

Left Hand Side of Home

In the left-hand corner of Home you will see a search bar. You can type in a friend's name, a stranger's name, or a group name, whatever. Say you wanted to find a co-worker named John X. The search engine will lead you to pages where you have the eligibility of browsing through many John X's in Facebook and also groups, events, and applications that have the term “John X” in them.

Going back to Home (which you can access in the Blue Bar in the top right hand corner), you will see, under Applications, a total of about 5-6 applications. Applications in Facebook are mini-programs that can function if you add them. Some applications will allow you to check out your daily horoscope, raise a pet, or throw a pizza at a friend.

You can add an application by simply knowing its application name, typing it into the search bar, pressing on it, and adding it…You can choose to display it on your profile or not. Displaying an application on your profile will enable many users to see your application and IMHO, if you have too many, it can get annoying!

Right Hand Side of Home

The right-hand side of Home can have many subheadings. You might see Requests. Friends can Request you to join an event, a group, or an application. Non-friends can send you friend requests. You will see Notifications. I don't access this usually, because it's a list of what you've done with Facebook lately, and it's not like it matters. There can be Pokes. It's a function where anyone can “poke” you. A poke is nothing more than just a way for someone to nudge you for attention basically. It has no special purpose, and no meaning - but you can come up with one.

If you poke a non-friend back, they can see some parts of your profile even if you don't want them to. You will see Status Updates. Yes, you can input a “status” here. A status will begin with “Your name here is ________ (e.g. fishing, hungry, wanting to bathe in bubbles)”. You can fill in the blanks with whatever. If so, you might also see Birthdays. Facebook is awesome because it helps notify you every friend(s)'s birthday who is coming up a couple days before so you don't forget! Then you will see Invite Your Friends. Do so if you'd like. Other things are straight forward.

The Profile/Your Life

Alright! Now we can finally get to the more interesting part. Go to the Blue Bar and click on Profile. Your profile is basically your life. This is like your front page when somebody finds you on Facebook. If they decide to add you, or if they're in your network (I'll explain networks later), they can see your profile. Or, if you'd like, you can set privacy levels to low and everyone on Facebook can check you out…

Facebook accounts can have multiple uses. For advertising a company/business, for uploading photos, for chatting, etc. You can upload photos to Facebook simply by going to the Photos application on the right side. You can edit your information by clicking edit beside Profile on the Blue Bar. You can see and browse your friends. You can do a lot.

Hey, you can change your status here too.

There is a small section called the Mini-Feed, similar to the News Feed at Home. Mini-Feed is not an application. It publishes some things you do on Facebook. You can choose what to publish, and what not to publish. Below it should be the Wall. This is the main feature of Facebook. It simply allows for friends to write/comment on your “wall” and communicate with you. There is an application called the SuperWall which will allow you to input videos, photos, music, and loads of other stuff to your wall or a friend's wall. Using the wall is easy, it's common sense. Somebody posts something on your wall, and you post back on their wall.

You can also comment on photos, or notes that friends create or you can create.

Friends & Networks

The reason for Facebook is usually to keep in touch with old classmates, co workers, friends, family, or random people from halfway around the globe. Sometimes the only way to see somebody's profile is by adding them as a friend.

To add a friend, you have to know their first and last name. If you know their first name, it will be pretty hard to find somebody, now wouldn't it? But then again, this is where Networks come in. Joining a network allows a user to contact other people in the same Networks or view their profiles. You can browse throw a network. You can join a regional network. It is a geographic network. You can also join a business network, if it exists on Facebook. You can create a network. Or you can join a school network. Simply go to Networks and get started.

You also have an Inbox, which is like a message centre. You don't have to add somebody as a friend to send them a message, but you do have to add them as a friend to post on their wall.

Have Fun! Honestly, that's what you should do. You will be addicted to Facebook in no time!