refers to sending out bulk promotional messages. When we talk about harassment, we mean deliberately tormenting or bothering another person or group of people. If you do any of these things on Facebook, there’s a good chance your posts will be removed and your account can be shut down.
Facebook is about real people and real connections. It’s one thing to message a mutual friend or the occasional stranger whose timeline implies being open to meeting new people if the two of you have matching interests. However, between Facebook’s automatic detection systems and user-generated reports, sending too many unsolicited messages is likely to get your account flagged and disabled.
Similarly, Facebook aims to be a trusted environment for people to exchange ideas and information. If people deliberately disturb the peace with pornographic, hateful, or bullying content, that trust is pretty much broken. While there are many places on Facebook where you can find spirited public discussion of controversial topics, Facebook does respond to reports of offensive material and will take down anything it deems hate speech. (The definition of hate speech is a notoriously difficult needle to thread, so a common complaint against Facebook is that it allows too much hateful material to stay up for too long.)
If you see trolling, spam, harassment, or hate speech taking place, you can report the content or person to Facebook (you see how to report a photo, for example, in Chapter 11). Its Community Operations team will investigate the report. If you’re getting warnings about things like spamming, chances are you just need to tweak how you’re using Facebook. For example, you may need to create a Page instead of using your personal account for mass messaging. You see how to promote your business (or yourself) in Chapter 14.
You can’t upload illegal content
Facebook users live in virtually every country in the world, so Facebook is often obligated to respect the local laws for its users. Respecting these laws is something Facebook must do regardless of its own position on pornography (where minors can see it), copyrighted material, hate speech, depictions of crimes, and other offensive content. Doing so is also in line with Facebook’s value of being a trusted place for people 13 and older.
Realizing How Facebook Is Different from Other Social Sites
Lots of social sites besides Facebook try to help people connect. Some popular sites are Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, and WhatsApp. We start with the biggest reason Facebook is different. Literally, the biggest: Facebook has over two billion users across the world (yes, billion with a b). Other social sites might be popular in one country or another, but Facebook is popular pretty much everywhere.
You’ll see a lot of similar functionality across different sites: establishing connections, creating timelines, liking content, and so on. However, each site brings a slightly different emphasis in terms of what is important. LinkedIn, for example, helps people with career networking, so it emphasizes professional information and connections. Twitter encourages its members to share short tweets, 280-character posts with their connections. Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) encourages its members to share cool photos taken with mobile phones. Snapchat allows people to have video chats with friends while applying silly filters to their image in the video.
You might find some or all these sites useful at different points in time, but Facebook wants to be the one that's always useful in one way or another — so it tries to offer all the functionality we just mentioned … and more.
Finding Out How You Can Use Facebook
Now that you know what you can do, generally, on Facebook, it's time to consider some of the specific ways you may find yourself using Facebook in the future. The following list is by no means comprehensive, and we’ve left out some of the things already mentioned in this chapter (such as sharing photos and events and groups). These are more specific-use cases than an advertisement for Facebook’s features.
Getting information
At some point, you may need to find someone’s phone number or connect with a friend of a friend to organize something. Facebook can make these practical tasks easier. If you can search for someone’s name, you should be able to find him or her on Facebook and find the information you’re looking for.
Keeping up with long-distance friends
These days, families and friends are often spread far and wide across state or country lines. Children go to college; grandparents move to Florida; people move for their job or because they want a change of scenery. These distances make it hard for people to interact in any more significant way than gathering together once a year to share some turkey and pie (pecan, preferably).
Facebook offers a place where you can virtually meet and interact. Create a room where you can hang out virtually with friends; upload photos of the kids for everyone to see; write posts about what everyone is up to. Even the more mundane information about your life (“I’m at jury duty”) can make someone across the world feel, just for a second, as though she's sitting next to you and commiserating with you about your jury summons.
Moving to a new city
Landing in a new city with all your worldly belongings and an upside-down map can be hugely intimidating. Having some open arms or at least numbers to call when you arrive can greatly ease the transition. Although you may already know some people who live in your new city, Facebook can help connect with all the old friends and acquaintances you either forgot live there or have moved there since you last heard from them. These people can help you find doctors, apartments, hair stylists, Frisbee leagues, and restaurants.
As you meet more and more new friends, you can connect with them on Facebook. Sooner than you thought possible, when someone posts about construction slowing down his commute, you know exactly the street he means, and you may realize, I’m home.
Getting a job
Plenty of people use Facebook as a tool for managing their careers as well as their social lives. If you’re considering a job at a company, find people who already work there to get the inside scoop or to land an interview. If you’re thinking about moving into a particular industry, browse your friends by past jobs and interests to find someone to connect with. If you go to a conference for professional development, you can keep track of the people you meet there as your Facebook friends. Facebook has a jobs listing portion of the site you can use to browse for jobs in your desired field or area, putting the “networking” in “social networking.”
Throwing
