Ten things you may not know about the social networking world of MyFace (unless you’re a geek) .

  1. It’s hated. An increasing number of students in England are boycotting Facebook.  But it comes at a cost for these “Facebook refusenicks”: missing parties  and being closed off from groups like Newcastle & Northumbria Uni’s “Student DRINK Delivery Service,” which offers students a selection of discounted drinks, just for being Facebook users. — Times online
  2. It’s anti-hate. Octogenarian president Shimon Peres has encouraged students to fight anti-Semitism through Facebook. — AP
  3. It’s big. If MySpace were a country it would be the 11th largest by population, between Japan and Mexico, thanks to its 110 million monthly active users.
  4. It’s Big Brother. Facebook archives your profile information after you have deleted it. Nasty. However, you can stop this by manually deleting everything off your profile before deleting the whole thing. — Switched
  5. It’s Big Brother, seriously. Researchers recently busted the company for tracking users’ activities on external sites, even after they logged out of Facebook. — Wired blog
  6. It has powerful friends. The Wall Street Journal recently accepted Facebook’s request to be online friends. The Journal has developed a FB application so that readers can share articles they like amongst themselves. — AdWeek
  7. It’s unfriendly. The prevalence of unwanted friend requests, spam and s-xually suggestive material has driven some users away, even giving rise to the term “MySpace refugee.” — The NYT
  8. It’s addictive. Psychologists are worried about Facebook and MySpace addiction. “Notifications, messages and invites reward you with an unpredictable high, much like gambling. That anticipation can get dangerously addictive.” But unlike cocaine or alcohol, “you can’t preach abstinence to a student society that functions on internet usage”, says psychologist Rob Bedi. — The Muse (Canadian student paper)
  9. It’s cradle snatching. The Women are younger, the men are older. Statistics show that this is consistent for MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Facebook, Friendster and Xanga. And although MySpace gender distribution is almost equal, the new profiles are mostly Female. — Pipl statistics
  10. It’s on notice. Fed up with spam and glitches, blogger Simon Owens declared January 30 “International Delete Your MySpace Account Day”. Someone created a Facebook group devoted to the event.