Weird Facts About Facebook

Here on 6rounds we talk a lot of about Facebook. The various apps, how it can be used to connect to your friends and family, the funniest postings, the different kinds of users, and so on. A lot of this is stuff you might have already know about. For this blog posting I thought it would be fun to talk about the weird stuff about Facebook you might not know about. Facebook is gigantic, with hundred of millions of users, and millions more joining daily. You know when that many people get together there’s got to be some strangeness going on somewhere. It’s human nature. It’s why The Waltons and Full House isn’t an accurate depiction of the world. So here are some weird facts about Facebook you might not have known. Some of them are funny, some of them are surprising and some are just…weird.
 

A Ton Of Countries Ban Facebook

We all take the internet for granted. It’s hard not to. You double click and you have the entire world at your fingers, with its millions of opinions and ideas. If you wanted to you could change the world, but…meh, that seems like a lot of work, and you don’t want to miss the newest LOLcats. The thing is, for a lot of countries that kind of freedom is scary, and places like China, Pakistan, Syria, Vietnam, and Iran have chosen to deny their citizens access to his kind of unity and information. These countries rule through oppression and silencing free speech, so something like Facebook, where you can organize protests, share opinions on restrictions, spread information on unjust laws, and generally question the government, is a dangerous thing to the current regime. And they are right to be afraid. The Soviet Union fell when the press became uncensored and newspapers started to show citizens that things sucked all over. So the next time you idly surf all your friend’s wall, maybe stop to think how lucky you are. If you‘re interested, you can join the protest to stop these countries from denying people their God given rights.
 

You’re Fired!

The days of your private life automatically being separate from your job are gone. You might never think too much about it, but if you have a Facebook account, your employer has access to far more information about you than a job interview could ever give. And if you ask people who suddenly became unemployed because of this, you might not think that’s a good thing. Just look at ex-New England Patriots Cheerleader Caitlin Davis. She thought it would be funny to draw swastikas on her passed out friend and then post them on Facebook. Do you know who didn’t find it funny? Everyone else. For some strange reason, the Patriots did love the idea of being associated with Nazism and she was quickly fired. Of course, she was a public figure. That could never happen to someone like you, with a nine to five job, could it? Holy hell, could it ever. There’s the waitress who was fired because of her complaining on Facebook about a bad tipper. A teacher was fired because her profile picture showed her surrounded by beer mugs and wine glasses. A teenage office worker was fired because she posted about being bored at work. And it goes on and on. What’s the lesson here? Don’t friend your boss! And make sure your privacy settings are air tight.
 

Facebook Has Its Own Disorder

Yes, this is a real thing. It’s called “Facebook Addiction Disorder.” It’s “diagnosed” (if that’s the right word) in people who spend an above average amount of time on Facebook. You might have the disorder if you 1) Spend a great deal of time on Facebook, more so every day, and have multiple windows open at once. 2) When you are away from Facebook for a noticeable amount of time you start to get nervous and obsess about what’s written on your wall 3) A lot of your social interactions happen on Facebook. Instead of sending an email or calling someone up you post something on your wall. To be fair though, everything is addictive nowadays, and it’s not like spending a lot of time playing Farmville will give you cancer or anything. Just, you know, maybe take a step outside every now and then.
 

What Do You Think You’re Doing With That Baby?

Mothers breastfeeding their child is billions of years old, but that doesn’t mean Facebook wants to see it. Specifically, they don’t want to see a woman’s nipple. They believe it’s “obscene.” A great many woman’s activist groups have protest this move, petitioning Facebook to stop deleting photos depicting woman feeding their child. I don’t want to get in the middle of it, because I can sort of see both sides. I think uploading a picture of breastfeeding is kind of strange and not something everyone wants to see, but I would hardly call it obscene. If that’s what you want on your account, than hey, got nuts. An interesting twist on this fact is the male artist who created a painting of himself using his nipples. It was deleted.
 

The Facebook Guy

If you were connected to the site before its major redesign, you may remember the “Facebook Guy.” He was the face of a man in the top left corner, partially obscured by binary. Who was he? Well, up until recently, no one had a clue. It turns out it was a manipulated photo of Al Pacino. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator, is a huge movie fan. So…the more you know.
 

Facebook Could’ve Been The Next Napster

One of the earliest features of the sight was it’s peer-to-peer capabilities. You could share music, movies, TV shows, and games through the program called “Wirehog.” Zuckerberg once said he thought Wirehog was going to be one of the main attractions of thefacebook (that’s what it was called back then. Not very pithy.) Unfortunately, peer-to-peer sharing is extremely illegal and steps on all sort of copy right laws, so Wirehog was axed before the site went big. On the one hand, it’s a pity that we can’t share our new Justin Bieber CD with the entire world. On the other hand, if Facebook did support file sharing it would’ve been shut down a long time ago.
 

So those are some weird facts about Facebook. Do you have any? Comment below.