Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Cultural Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 8,5, Maastricht University, language: English, abstract: It is the โworldโs largest social networkโ (Stross, 2010) connecting over 600 million users from more than 200 countries on an Internet page that was founded just 7 years ago (Socialbakers, 2011a). The founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was named โperson of the year 2010โ (Grossman, 2010) by Time magazine and is ranked number 40 on Forbesโ list of the worldโs most powerful people with a net worth of approximately $13.5 billion (Forbes, 2011). Facebook, the social network this paper is dealing with, has become part of the daily routine of many users sometimes influencing their purchase decisions or even the way they perceive and see the world. Moreover, it has become an Internet brand which can now be regarded to be on an equal level with Amazon, eBay or Google. Without doubt, Facebook has to be regarded as an important feature of growing inter-connectivity which was made possible through the rise and spread of the Internet. The social network enables people to get in touch with each other, find so-called โfriendsโ all over the world and to create a personal profile representing the user within the Facebook network. Facebookโs self-stated mission is โto give people the power to share and make the world more open and connectedโ (Facebook, 2011). Of course this โmissionโ is not a revolutionary new idea in the World Wide Web as several social networks and micro blogging websites like MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter show. Still Facebook is the most widely-known, preferred and fastest growing social network of todayโs world. As a matter of fact it is also often claimed to be the most โinfluential social networkโ (Brennan & Schafer, 2010, p. 19) of our times.