Beginner's Guide to Facebook

There are many facets to Facebook which are fun, social and actually somewhat addictive. It is a very entertaining way to keep in contact with friends and family, and with this simple guide, YOURLifeChoices will show you how.

The creators of Facebook have spawned a language of their own. In order for you to understand most of this guide, you will first need to understand the online lingo.

Profile – Your profile is your homepage. It is made up of all your information, your profile picture, and of course your wall. It is basically a mini webpage which you control.
Wall – The wall is the area on your profile page where your status updates are posted and friends' messages appear. Depending on your security settings, anything you post on your status or a friend's wall can be seen by your entire network of friends. 
Status Update – A personal message from you, posted on your own profile.
Comment – When a friend posts a status or posts on your wall, you can simply comment directly on their action by clicking a button and typing your text in the drop down box below.
Like – When someone comments, or posts on your wall, or uploads a funny picture, Facebook gives you the option of ‘liking’ their action with the simple press of a button.
Post – A public message which you post on your friends' walls to start a conversation. 
News Feed – ‘Pictures’, ‘Status Updates’, ‘Posts’ and ‘Videos’ which are posted by you or your friends appear in the News Feed, to ensure that you are kept informed of the current goings on of all your Facebook friends. 
Message Inbox – You also have an inbox, a somewhat reduced version of an email inbox whereby you can communicate with your Facebook friends away from the prying eyes of the larger Facebook community.
Private Message – You create private messages in your Message inbox. These can be between two people, or you can create ‘threads’ of many people having private discussions. 
Tagging – When uploading pictures on the site, a huge part of Facebook is ‘tagging’ yourself in the picture, so the picture is then connected to your profile. 
Poke – Somewhat of a silly part of Facebook, you can ‘poke’ a friend, which sends them an online greeting. Has been the subject of online derision, and creator Mark Zuckerberg has slowly tried to phase out the action.