By Niemah Davids
The Facebook phenomenon has taken the country by storm, not just among teenagers but adults too, prompting a number of companies to bar access to the Internet site in the workplace.
At the beginning of this year most South Africans had not even heard of Facebook. It took off in June when 90 000 South Africans registered on the site, described as a "social utility that connects people".
Have your say
'excessive use of any website that has nothing to do with work has got to be barred' In less than two months the number doubled to 180 000, according to media IT specialist Arthur Goldstuck.
Continues Below ↓
Worldwide, there are about 40 million Facebook subscribers.
Facebook was launched on February 4, 2004.
Initially membership was restricted to students at Harvard University.
It was a trend aimed at young people, attracting mainly teenagers and students to catch up and communicate, but adults have been getting hooked on the social site too.
"At first sight it seemed to be a youth phenomenon, teenagers seemed to dominate with exuberance.
"But behind the scenes, the adult working masses were coming on board just as fast," Goldstuck said in the latest issue of The Media publication.
Goldstuck told the Cape Argus the reason for the attraction among adults was that it "energised those on line".
"Everyone has the need to communicate. And the need to be in contact with each other is the reason they're always going back. It's a very powerful site," he said.
Goldstuck said the social site has given the corporate world "a fright".
"Their immediate reaction by banning the site was purely due to a lack of knowledge," he said.
Old Mutual told the Cape Argus the company had blocked access to Facebook for all its employees.
Continues...
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
