Table of Contents Abstract Research Question Introduction Methodology Literature Review Case Studies Presentation of Data and Analysis

Conclusion Reference Appe ndix Page 2 Page 3 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 11 Page 15 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 1

Abstract This research work has been carried out on Facebook and its impact on the people of Bangladesh. We have explained in this study how Facebook has enabled social interactions to be personalized and diversified. 2

Research Question In what ways do Facebook help the Bangladeshi people to personalize and diversify social interactions with their friends and family through the Internet? Introduction Facebook is one of the most popular Social Network Sites (SNS) in Bangladesh. It basically helps to maintain contacts with friends and family very easily. A Fac ebook-user can make an online profile, add friends, and post each other comments , send gestures, drinks, photos, articles, videos and several other elements usi ng the numerous applications that offer a variety of modes of contacting people. Facebook users can learn about each others interests, likings, hobbies, taste in music, relationship status etc. As the usage of internet is exponentially incre asing in Bangladesh, Facebook has become a very popular site for social interact ions through the internet especially among high school, college and university s tudents. This research has been done from the Bangladeshi context. 3

Methodology The research has been carried out using a quantitative survey. The questionnaire consisted of 30 close-ended questions. A random sample of 200 people was taken. The age group was 15 to 30 years. Each of them was given a questionnaire set. T he obtained results have been represented in graphical forms. The 30 questions h ave been divided into ten sections. Four Case Studies were also done on two fema les and two males. The Case Studies were aimed to given us a better understandin g of the results that were obtained from the questionnaire survey. Both the quan titative survey and the case studies have been analyzed to investigate the ways in which Facebook aids the personalization and diversification of social interac tions with friends and family. The survey could also have been carried using only qualitative methods. But then the sample size will have to be lessened. As the population for this research i s quite large, surveying with only a small sample size will not provide sufficie nt and satisfactory answers to what ways that Facebook helps us to socialize. He nce we have carried out a quantitative survey along with four case studies to in vestigate this research work. Facebook has caused a massive impact on the social interactions of people, espec ially in Bangladesh. Every other person that we see around us within the age gro up of 15 to 30 years has an account in Facebook. This research intends to invest igate the following hypothesis: 4

? Hypothesis 1: Facebook has imposed alterations to the way the Bangladeshi peop le socialize with friends and family. ? Hypothesis 2: Facebook aid to personaliz e the social interaction in various ways. ? Hypothesis 3: The mode of social int eraction with people has now taken a much diversified form via Facebook. This st udy should give us a better understanding of the changing online interactions of the Bangladeshi people. Literature Review Basic information on Facebook Name Type Founded Facebook, Inc. Private Cambridge, Massachusetts (February 4, 2 004) Headquaters Palo Alto, California Key People Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO Du stin Moskovitz, Co-founder Sheryl Sandberg, COO Matt Cohler, VP of Production Ma nagement Revenue Employees US $ 150 million (Estimated) 500 (till March 2008) (W ikipedia) 5

History of Facebook Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004. The websit e is owned and operated by Facebook, Inc., the privately held parent company of the website. The free-access website allows users to join networks, such as a sc hool, place of employment, or geographic region, to connect and interact with ot her people. Users can post messages for their friends to see, and update their p ersonal profile to notify friends about themselves. The name of the website refe rs to the paper face books depicting members of a campus community that some Ame rican colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and s taff, as a way to get to know other people on the campus. (Wikipedia) Facebook h as more than 69 million active users worldwide. The website's ranking among all websites increased from 60th to 7th in terms of traffic, from September 2006 to September 2007. It is also the most popular website for uploading photos, with 1 4 million uploaded daily (Wikipedia) and over 1.6 billion page views per day (Ne edham & Company, 2007). Due to the website's popularity, Facebook has met with s ome criticism and controversy in its short lifespan related to privacy concerns, the political views of its founders, and censorship issues. Facebook is the mos t popular social networking site in many English-speaking countries, including C anada and the United Kingdom. (Wikipedia) Features of Facebook When Facebook launched, it included several features that still exist today on t he website. They include the Wall, which is a space on each user's profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see, Pokes, which allows us ers to send a virtual "poke" to each 6

other, Photos, where users can upload albums and photos, and status, which allow s users to inform their friends of their current whereabouts and actions. The Fa cebook Wall allows users to post messages on the profile of their friends. A use r's wall, dependent on privacy settings, is visible to anyone who is able to see that user's profile. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attach ments to the wall, whereas the wall was previously limited to textual content on ly. Over time, Facebook has added several new features to its website. On Septem ber 6, 2006, a News Feed was announced, which appears on every user's homepage a nd highlights information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthd ays, related to the user's friends. Initially, the News Feed caused some dissati sfaction among Facebook users: some complained that the News Feed was too clutte red and was full of undesired information, while others were concerned that the News Feed made it too easy for other people to track down individual activities (like changes in relationship status, events, and conversations with other users ). In response to this dissatisfaction, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook , issued an apology for the site's failure to include appropriate customizable p rivacy features. Since then, users have been able to control what types of infor mation are shared automatically with friends.] Users are now able to prevent fri ends from seeing updates about different types of activities, including profile changes, wall posts, and newly added friends. (Wikipedia) One of the most popula r applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload alb ums and photos. Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos, c ompared with other image hosting services, such as Photobucket and Flickr, which apply limits to the number of photos that a user is allowed to upload. However, users are limited to uploading up to 60 photos per album. Privacy settings can be set for each 7

individual album, limiting the groups of users that can see an album. For exampl e, the privacy of an album can be set so that only the user's friends can see th e album, while the privacy of another album can be set so that all Facebook user s can see it. Another feature of the Photos applications is the ability to "tag" users in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a user's friend, then the u ser can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a notification to the friend tha t they have been tagged, and provides them a link to see the photo. (Wikipedia) Just like every other social network, Facebook has something called groups. Users can create new ones or join and participate in existing ones. This is also displ ayed in their profile and is a good indication of hobbies and interests a person might have. There are two kinds of groups, a normal group and a secret group, w hich isn t shown on the profile. A normal group is just like any other, but users can also create and invite others into secret groups. These can be used for coll aborating on university projects, and provide a way to have closed discussions. About 80% of the groups are fun-related and companies can even sponsor groups - as is the case with, for example, the Apple users group. Facebook Profiles As Facebook has evolved, so have its profile pages - new fields have been added and users can share more information than before. A typical Facebook profile con sists of a number of different sections, including Information, Status, Friends, Friends in Other Networks, Photos, Notes, Groups, and The Wall. Most of the sec tions are self-explanatory but some are specific to Facebook. 8

Surveys & Studies A large number of surveys and studies have been conducted around Facebook - some with interesting results. For instance, according to an internal September 2005 survey, approximately 85% of the students in the supported colleges had a Faceb ook account, with 60% of them logging in daily. A survey conducted by Student Mo nitor revealed Facebook was the most in thing after the iPod and tying with beer a nd comScore Media Metrix discovered users spend approximately 20 minutes everyda y on Facebook. Another 2005 survey said 90% of all undergraduates in the U.S. us e either Facebook or MySpace regularly, and a detailed questionnaire analysis by Chris Roberts revealed that 76.2% never click on its ads. Perhaps the most amaz ing statistic of all may be that Facebook is the 7th most trafficked site in the U.S. (Mashable) Another research was carried out by students from the Departmen t of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media, of the Michigan State Un iversity, USA. Their topic was; The Benefits of Facebook Friends: Social Capital a nd College Students use of Online Social Networks. The topic that these students researched on had broader angles. But our research is based on solely Facebook a nd the ways it personalizes and diversifies social interactions. This meteoric s uccess of Facebook has caused it to be quite a lucrative topic for researches al l round the world. The technological capacities and the mass usage of Facebook m ake it a kind of bridge between the offline society and online society. But earl ier works on Facebook is seen to be more concentrated on its identity presentati on and privacy factors. Facebook helps to maintain better privacy than Hi5 (anot her very popular SNS in Bangladesh). 9

Another research was carried out by Peter Cashmore. He found out that 69% of US females in that age group say Facebook is their favorite site, while 38% favor M ySpace and 22% like YouTube best. College-aged guys also prefer Facebook (56%), while YouTube comes in second (19%) and Yahoo is third (17%) - MySpace, meanwhil e, is only the sixth most cited site. The eMarketer data pretty much speaks for itself, and it seems to gel with our assumptions: college kids prefer Facebook, while MySpace is more of a teen hangout, even though its mainstream news coverag e has resulted in plenty of adults signing up. (Mashable 1, eMarketer) No compre hensive research work on Facebook on the Bangladeshi context was available on ww w.google.com, www.yahoo.com or www.msn.com. This research will aim to fulfill th at vacancy. Miscellaneous Information on Facebook The popularity and commercial aspects of the Facebook applications are incredibl e. The Where I have been application has been sold to TripAdvisor for 3 million US dollars. (Mashable 2). Stanford University is offering a class on the subject o f application deployment on the popular social network. There s a Facebook Group f or the course here. Saddled with the unwieldy name of Create Engaging Web Applica tions Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook , the course will have students devel oping and deploying apps on the Facebook developer platform. (Mashable 3) 10

The Case Studies Case Study 1: Anika Noor Age: 21 Uses Facebook from 2005 Friends: 387 Q. Name five Facebook applications that you use the most. Explain each of your choice. A. Five applications that I use the most are: Wall: I write on the wall everyday. I use it when I am just jo king with friends. Messages: I use messages when I have to write something perso nal and/or private. Photos: I regularly upload photos. This application is very convenient as the photos can very organized in an ordered manner. Besides, the Ta g Photo option is very useful. Events: This application is very handy. I get invi tation to different events, and I can check who is coming and who is not. Honest y Box: It is fun using the Honesty Box. I can send completely anonymous messages to my friends and vice versa. Q. What are the cons of Facebook? A. A con is tha t too many Uncles, Aunties and young kids send friend requests. As I mainly use it for keeping in touch with friends, it is quite awkward to have an uncle, aunt y or a young cousin in the friend list. 11

Q. Do you have any suggestions for Facebook? Explain. A. I will suggest Facebook to reduce the number of applications. They are too much now and the net surfing spend slows down because of too many applications. Facebook should not be avail able to people of all age; it should be age specific. Case Study 2: Nazia Fairuz Tuba Age: 23 Uses Facebook from 2007 Friends: 154 Q. Name five Facebook applications that you use the most. Explain each of your c hoice. A. Five applications that I use the most are: Wall: It is easier to acces s than send messages. I only write casual messages on the wall. Messages: I use it to send personal messages and also if a message is quite long. Poke: I like t o bother my friends with this. It is fun. Super Poke: The dimension of poking pe ople is changed with application. I can send sheep to them; spank them etc. inst ead of just simply poking my friends. Hatching Eggs: It is fun using the Hatchin g Eggs application. You can send your friends eggs that hatch into gifts. Q. Wha t are the cons of Facebook? A. Facebook has too many applications. Most people d o not understand how to use an application properly. It should have an age limit . Kids should not be allowed to access Facebook. 12

Q. Do you have any suggestions for Facebook? Explain. A. The profile visitors sh ould be viewable like in Hi5. Case Study 3: Shafat Bin Haider Age: 22 Uses Facebook from 2007 Friends: 124 Q. Name five Facebook applications that you use the most. Explain each of your c hoice. A. Five applications that I use the most are: Wall: It is easier to acces s than send messages. I only write casual messages on the wall. Horoscope: I reg ularly check my horoscope update with. Message: I regularly use it to send messa ges to my friends. It is very convenient because of the thread messages. The who le conversation stays within one message. Fun Wall: I send pictures, videos, art icles etc. to my friends using the Fun Wall Likeness: It is fun to answer the di fferent likeness tests and then compare it with friends. Q. What are the cons of Facebook? A. It is very addictive. Q. Do you have any suggestions for Facebook? Explain. A. It should have an age limit. 13

Case Study 4: Sheikh Minhas Hamid Age: 21 Uses Facebook from 2006 Friends: 404 Q. Name five Facebook applications that you use the most. Explain each of your c hoice. A. Five applications that I use the most are: Message: I use it a lot. I like sending messages as my other friends cannot view it. Photos: I often upload pictures in different albums and share it with friends. Wall: I write on the wa ll the things that are not very important. Just to have fun. Groups: I am a memb er of several groups. For instance, I am a member of the Young Writer s Group. It is where I post my writings and receive comments from other members. It is not n ecessary that those members have to be my friends. I get a lot of criticism whic h is very positive for the betterment of my writing. Likeness: I like all those various types of tests. It is very interesting to compare my score with my frien ds. Q. What are the cons of Facebook? A. It does not show the profile visitors. Q. Do you have any suggestions for Facebook? Explain. A. They should have a prof ile visitor application. 14

Presentation of Data and Analysis Out of the 200 sample population of this study, 128 were males and 72 were femal es. The age of the target group was maintained within 15 years and 30 years. Hen ce, maximum of the surveyed people (65%) were students varying from schools to u niversities. 26% were students as well as part time job-holders. 9 % were profes sionals only. Even though Facebook started as a global web-based community in 2004, it started gaining popularity in Bangladesh from 2006. 78.5% of the surveyed people starte d using Facebook from 2006. In 2004, only 7% of the sample population was famili ar with Facebook and in 2005, another 14.5% started using it. 15

Apparently the students are the ones who use Facebook more than professionals. W hile carrying out the survey, we encountered several working individuals who can not use Facebook because of lack of spare time. But the popularity of Facebook i s increasing fast and spreading wide. It is very interesting that a staggering 92% of the sample population had access to internet at home. This is probably because the surveyed samples were all in the middle class, uppermiddle class and high class sections of the society. Even still, 50% of the total sample population did not use the internet on a daily b asis. Among the 50% who used the internet on a daily basis, the majority (47%) u sed internet