All about Facebook

If you’ve seen the movie “The Social Network”, you might understand a little bit about the history of Facebook. It was started by an American College kid and its early days were based around individual colleges. But as it was extended, kids suddenly found that their mothers, and even their grandmothers, had Facebook accounts and wanted to be ‘friends’.

But with its youthful roots, it’s little wonder that it can be confusing for older people.

Another thing is that it changes all time and there are several different ways of doing the same thing. It looks and acts differently depending on whether you are looking at it on your home computer or some other kind of device, like an iPad. You can see something that you would like to look again but when you try to find it, it has disappeared into some kind of Bermuda Triangle.

Facebook in New Zealand

Facebook is the most popular social media network in New Zealand. 

• 2.4 million New Zealanders have Facebook accounts – more than half our population.
• 5.7% of them are over 65.

Facebook is also the third most popular website in New Zealand - after Google and just before YouTube and Trademe.

Even the SuperSeniors website is closely linked to a Facebook page and we get a lot of ideas and inspirations from the feedback we get on that page.   If you’ve got a Facebook page, you might like to ‘follow’ us.

Setting up a Facebook account

If you’ve thought about exploring Facebook then why not set up an account? Setting up an account is free and doesn’t commit you to anything. You can use it as much or as little as you wish (and many people don’t use it all even after they join).

Go to www.facebook.com. You’ll have to enter:

• Your first and last names
• An email address or mobile number
• Your birthday and your gender

You’ll also have to choose a password that you can remember easily, but other people won’t be able to guess. Remember not to use the password that you do not use for other confidential things like banking.

Although there are many other things to do to get the most out of Facebook’s many features, you now have an account.

And be confident to ask for help from friends, children or grandchildren if you are having trouble. If they seem impatient when they are showing you what to do, just remind them that you can remember teaching them how to eat with a spoon.

Finding your way around Facebook

Once you’ve got an account on Facebook here’s some advice to help you find your way around.

If you’re at your using a computer, log in to Facebook and use your mouse to click on ‘home’ at the right hand side of the top bar. (It’s a bit different on a phone or iPad and is called the News Feed there)

Think of this as if you’re at a big party. There’s lots of people in the room and you can see everything that they are saying, the holidays they are one, the news that they are interested in, the games that they are playing. You can even see the things they are saying to other people. It can be quite busy and very loud.

If you click on someone’s name, or search for them in the search bar above you will be taken to their newsfeed.

This is a bit more personal. You can see information, photos, and other things that one person has said on Facebook that are personal to that person. You can write a message on their ‘wall’ or comment on any of their photos. But BEWARE this is not a private message. All their friends, and even some strangers, will see what you have said.

If you want to send a private message to your friend click on the little speech bubbles at the top of the page and then click on ‘send a new message’.

We'll be adding more information to these about Facebook and other social media over the next few months.  If there's something that's always puzzled you, let us know and we'll look at incorporating that into our information.