The social networking websites, especially Facebook and Twitter, are very common worldwide and millions of people are using them for different purposes of socialisation.
These websites are also being used as a new media tool and they are a useful source for propaganda and sharing of news and views. It’s an open secret that the personal information stored on these websites can and is used for commercial and other purposes.
Statistics website shows that more than 5 million Pakistanis are using Facebook as a source to stay connected with family and friends locally as well as globally. This enormous number of the Facebook users makes this developing country 25th in the world raking whereas the developed nations like Japanese, Russians and Chinese are lagged behind us in this race. The website statistics tell that the largest Facebook using age group in Pakistan is 18-24 which has around half of the total FB users whereas 25-34 is the second largest age group with 26 percent of the total users.
Facebook is earning more than 21 million US dollars per year with the ‘help’ of Pakistani users. It is pertinent to note that this sum of money is about two-third of the amount that the UN has appealed to the international community as emergency funding for the flood hit areas of Pakistan.
ATIF K BUTT
Lahore