Germany - Another Birthday Party Gone Wild and Facebook is Guilty

Be careful when you invite people for your birthday party. A 16 year old girl Thessa from Hamburg, Germany posted an open invitation for her birthday party on Fecebook. It was supposed to be private, but the teenager forgot to change the settings.

When as many as 15 thousand Facebook users answered to this invitation, Thessa tried to cancel the party, but unfortunately in vain. Crowds gathered in front of her house in the day of expected birthday party. According to Hamburg police records approximately 1.600 guests arrived. Most of them were even wearing shirts with Thessa’s photos. Fortunately, policemen were able to manage the situation. A few people were arrested and one policeman got hurt.  

Really, after so many such incidents Facebook should ban posting open birthday invitations.

90% of Icelanders Are Facebook Users

According to the SocialBakers’ (a company studying the social networks’ statistics) recent data, in Iceland there are as many as 278 480 registered Facebook users. This amounts to 90% of the whole Iceland population. Only 8% of Icelanders with Internet do not have a FB account. The most - 25% - Fecebook users are young adults, i.e. people aged 18-24. Other statistics are the following: 25-34 years old – 24% of Facebook users, 35-44 years of age – 15% of FB users, 45-54 years old – 11% of Faceboook users, and age groups 16-17 and 55-64 – 7% of Facebook users.  

As far as the gender is concerned, 53% of Facebook users in Iceland constitute men and 47% women.

Is a Facebook invitation a good way to ask your friends to come to your birthday party?

It was not for Łukasz K. (29 years old) from Pełczyce, Poland. “Flying” flowerpots, broken beds, and painted with markers walls were only a drop in a bucket of damages after Łukasz’s birthday party to which he invited his 150 FB friends. The party was interrupted by the police who were called by his neighbours. After the party Łukasz packed his clothes and food and headed for a foot trip to Polish mountains.

It all started with Łukasz posting an invitation on Facebook. He wrote his address, the time when the party begins and stressed that places are limited.  Łukasz’s neighbours claim that they have never seen so many people in one place. Later on, when more guests arrived, street fights began. The noise was heard in the whole town of Pełczyce. Łukasz attended the party only in the beginning. Later he went out of his house to line skate with his friend.

As he returned and saw the destroyed house, he packed his clothes and food and left his parents a letter that he went for a foot trip. In his last Fecebook status he wrote he had spent the night in the woods near Leszno.

How Facebook Influences Our Lives?

There is no doubt that Facebook influences our lives and our relations with others. But is this influence good or bad?

As many as 24% of people are addicted to Facebook and did not fully participate in their lives’ important events because they were busy sharing them on FB. Everyday Facebook users spend approximately 10.5 billion minutes (mobile Facebook users are not counted here) on this social network website. It is almost 20 thousand years!!! Americans spend more time on FB using mobile phones than computers. Singapore inhabitants spend the most time on Fecebook.

Most people use Faceboook to maintain contacts with their real life friends. 62% of them shares with their FB friends the good news, like engagement or pregnancy. Others, especially younger people, plan their free time on Facebook. 84% of Fecebook users contact with their friends or family, who live or went abroad or to another town. 39% of this social network users spend more time online than in the real life and 33% of them are more willing to tell something to somebody online than in a face-to-face conversation.

Undoubtedly, social media have their advantages. They help shy and lonely people to find friends and feel better. But do not let FB ruin your real life.

Popular Facebook Users Are More Prone to Stress

Do you think that having a lot of Facebook friends is a good idea? On the contrary. Scientists claim that the more Fecebook friends you have, the worse you will feel. How is this even possible?

A group of scientists from the University of Edinburgh Napier conducted a research on 175 students and asked them questions related to FB. Dr Kathy Charles, one of the scientists, claims that people with many Faceboook friends are more stressed. It is because our behavior and look are judged by a greater number of people.  

As many as 12% of respondents admitted that they feel uneasy about this fact and these were persons who had on average 117 Facebook friends. Interestingly, people with approximately 75 FB friends did not feel this way.

The problem might be the communication with our friends. These are different sorts of people to whom we must adjust our posts and it is not easy. We also should not invite our boss to our friends on Facebook, because we would have to be careful what we write. There were cases when somebody was fired because of a comment about their jobs or bosses.  

 These days we have a lot of causes of stress and therefore we should not stress about our Facebook friends. Maybe it’s high time to „clean” our Facebook friends list.

Facebook does not distinguish bust from elbow

It is not worth trusting the AI. The Facebook case proves it is too early for that.

The algorithms that check FB photos deleted a picture of a woman in her bathtub because of its alleged porn content, which is forbidden by Fecebook.  However, we could only see the women’s face and elbows in the picture. The machine most probably took the elbows for bust and erased the woman’s Facebook photo.  

Faceboook admitted they made a mistake, posted the photo back and apologised to the woman. This case, however, proves that  the AI cannot replace human. Not yet at least.

Another party gone wild because of the Facebook invitation

An invitation posted on FB attracted hundreds of people. A 14-year-old Sandra from a tiny town of Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland posted an open invitation for her birthday on her Fecebook page. Guests from as far as Gdańsk (northern Poland) and Krakow (southern Poland) came to that party.

The birthday party did not take place but Polish police had to intervene for 600 guests were blocking local roads.

In her Facebook invitation, Sandra wrote that everyone can come to her birthday party. One of her neighbours said that it had been written that the richest girl in Tomaszow was throwing a party and everyone could come.

There were as many as 21.000 Likes and approximately 3.000 declarations of participation in the event. It was a huge case in such a small town as Tomaszów. Sandra claims that someone hacked her Faceboook  page and posted this invitation. Local police is in the process of investigation.

Sandra’s neighbours say they have never experienced something like that. People came and went, sang Happy Birthday and wanted Sandra to go out and party with them. The junkies had a great fun and the local pizza house granted discounts for Sandra’s party guests.  

Facebook’s naked fashion

Not so long ago friends of Norwegian skier Marit Bjørgen, i.e. Vibeke Skofterud and Kristin Stoermer Steira undressed to show that they have always been doping-free and have nothing to hide. Now we can admire nude pictures of Czech women’s biathlon team on FB.

Their Fecebook photos have become extremely popular. Although the biathlon team are not as famous as their Norwegian friends, they look equally attractive topless. This is a very interesting way to show one’s attitude to doping in sport.

Facebook lawsuit: Paul Ceglia arrested

Paul Ceglia, who two years ago sued Mark Zuckerberg, has been arrested. He is accused of fraud. Ceglia claimed he owned 50% stake in Facebook; the stake was supposed to be a remuneration for some programming work.  

In 2010, Paul Ceglia filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg demanding his promised 50% interest in FB. Lately, the US court has announced that Ceglia falsified the first page of the agreement between him and the Fecebook owner.  Moreover, it claimed that emails from July 2003 and July 2004 in which both men allegedly discussed thefacebook.com and ideas on how to make money on the website were fabricated as well.

Each of Paul Ceglia’s frauds (mail fraud and wire fraud) carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Facebook and Yahoo to beat Google?

Two women who made Google the most popular search engine now declare war against the company. Together with Facebook and Yahoo  they want to create a better browser than Google’s.  

These women are Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer. They both used to work for Google, but now would like, together with Fecebook and Yahoo, to create a search engine that would be the best in the market. Currently, the unquestionable leader in this field is Google. Google website is visited by 620 million people daily and 97% of the company’s income comes from ads.

This market domination cannot be accepted by FB and Yahoo. Therefore, they hired two former Google managers, Sandberg and Mayer. These two women are the ones to be praised for the success of Google.

The decision on hiring these two influential businesswomen by Facebook and Yahoo should not be surprising. The FB owner, Mark Zuckerberg, has always been dreaming of replacing Google on the first place in the ranking of search engines.  

Polish Priest Announces on his Facebook Page that Halloween is Harmful and Should Be Abolished

Polish priest Pawel Zawada has recently posted on his FB page that Halloween is a Satan’s night and those who would be celebrating it on 31 October are going to be doomed.  He also claims that in Poland it is on Halloween that Satanists provide sacrifices during their black masses.  The priest has as many as 934 Fecebook friends.

In Poland he is not the only one who thinks like that. Poland is predominantly a Catholic country and many have a similar point of view. Warsaw Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz, for example, claims that Halloween promotes “occult and magic” and therefore is against the teaching of the Catholic Church.   

In Poland Halloween is a new tradition. Since 1989, i.e. the Fall of the Iron Curtain, Poles have been celebrating All Saints’ Day (on 1 November).

Max Schrems vs. Facebook

Although Facebook has many proponents, a great number of them find at least something annoying about this social network.  A 24-year-old student from Austria, Max Schrems, finds the whole idea of Facebook not only annoying, but against the law.  According to Schrems FB makes illegal use of its users’ private data.

Max Schrems got interested by this dark side of Facebook last year, when he came for a one-semester student exchange to Santa Clara University, US. Then, his professor invited Facebook privacy lawyer Ed Palmieri to give a speech to the class. Schrems was shocked that the lawyer had little idea about how severe data protection laws are in Europe. He decided to write his thesis about Fecebook not understanding Europe’s privacy law. While making research for his paper, Max found out that Faceboook  owns hundreds-of-pages-long acts about one user and keeps data even about those who signed out from FB. After his come back to Austria, he publicized his findings online. Now this is a case for Congress.  

Medvedev Urges Facebook CEO to Open a New Research Centre in Moscow

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, visited Russia on his world tour, on which he searches talented programmers. In Moscow Zuckerberg talked to Dmitry Medvedev. Russia’s PM was convincing FB CEO not to lure away Russian programmers but to open a research centre in Moscow.

Medvedev  is known for being a fan of this kind of social networks. "I have a Facebook page myself," he told Zuckerberg.

There are approximately 9 million Faceboook users in Russia. Much more famous is Russia’s domestic VK, with around 34 million fans.

Kaspersky Lab and Facebook to fight together for safer social networking

Kaspersky Lab and Facebook started to cooperate in order to make social networking safer. Kaspersky Lab is supposed to inform Faceboook about the most recent software threats. The data will be used to protect Facebook users from opening malicious websites. Additionally, All the Fecebook users will have the opportunity to test exclusive free six-month subscription for the Kaspersky Lab’s security products.

Facebook to help Croatia win the qualifier

It’s unbelievable! The coach of Croatia football team, Igor Sztimac (45 years old) turned to fans for advice in an unusual way, via Facebook. He wanted them to help him beat Wales in a qualifier for 2014 World Cup. The fans are supposed to tell him the squad and tactics for this match. 

“I am opening a discussion regarding Tuesday's match against Wales. What is your ideal team for that match? What system would you apply against Wales? 4-3-3? Bring it on!” Stimać wrote on his Facebook page.

Croatia takes second position in their World Cup qualifying Group A. Will Fecebook fans help the team to become the group leader?

1 billion Facebook users

Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that 1 billion people use Facebook monthly. Since its launch in February 2004, Facebook has recorded 1.13 trillion Likes, 140.3 billion friend connections and 219 billion shared photos. About 600 million people use Faceboook's mobile platform, and one in 10 uses only mobile to access it.
As a result Mark Zuckerberg has become one of the richest Americans. His fortune is estimated at 8.1 billion dollars. In his Facebook timeline, Zuckerberg wrote: “Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life. I am committed to working every day to make Fecebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.”

Facebook invitation for a bloody birthday

It was supposed to be an unforgettable birthday. For sure this day will remain in the memory of Melanie Zwama (16 years old), the jubilate, and the whole Dutch town of Haren.

By creating a Fecebook event, Melanie invited her friends for a birthday party. Unfortunately, she made the event open, not private. As a result, the invitation was received by some 30,000 people, i.e. all the Facebook friends of Melanie’s friends. Reports said up to 6,000 people showed up at the party. Interesting is the fact that the town is populated only by 18,000!

Disturbances broke out. As many as six people had been hurt (three of whom seriously), shops vandalized, street signs damaged and a car set on fire by the time riot police arrived. There were at least 20 arrests.

A teenager kills a friend for posting derogatory comments on Facebook

Children kill children. In Holland, a 15-year-old girl decided to kill her best friend, Joyce Hau, who had been posting derogatory comments about her on Facebook. Together with her boyfriend, she hired a 14-year-old hitman, whom she paid less than 100 euro for stabbing Joyce. 

Nobody knows why Joyce Hau began to post these awful comments about her friend, Polly. There are speculations she was jealous about Polly’s boyfriend and spread gossip that her friend was having sex with many men.

Joyce had been posting such comments for several weeks. Polly and her boyfriend could not stand it and decided to kill Joyce. They hired Jinhua to kill Joyce and threatened him that if he did not kill her or if he told somebody about the murder, they would kill him. They contacted him also via Facebook. The worst has happened – Jinhua stabbed Joyce and hurt her father. 

The court sentenced the teenage murderer for a year in jail. It is the maximum sentence possible in the Netherlands for a minor after the horrific murder. Joyce’s father blames Fecebook and other similar social networks for this situation.

Facebook purging fake and double accounts

In August Facebook announced that as many as 83 million created accounts are fake or double. Lately, it has begun to purge them. The process resulted in some fan pages losing thousands of fans and the one that suffered the greatest loss was Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker (200 thousand fans). It seems a lot, but in fact this drop equaled only roughly 0,3% of the more than 65 million poker fans.  

Among other fan pages that lost the most Likes were: CityVille (72 thousand), Lady Gaga (65 thousand), Rihanna (49 thousand) and Shakira (48 thousand).  

Obviously the drop of Likes is only an apparent loss for Faceboook fan pages. Thanks to the purge of the fake and double accounts, admins will get to know the real number of their followers and thus –  plausible statistics. 

Every fifth Facebook user plays Farmville

The number of Facebook users playing Farmville exceeded 80 million monthly. Every day, however, the game is played by approximately 30 million Internauts. 

Farmville has been becoming more and more popular. The fact that it is played by 80 million people means that monthly every fifth Faceboook users uses this app.

In 2009 Zynga, the company that created both Farmville and other Facebook games, like Mafia Wars, estimated that its games were played by 200 million Internauts monthly. The company was then valued at $1 billion. Now it is $7 billion.

Addicted to Facebook

Genes are to blamed for women’s obsession with Facebook, Twitter and online shopping. Scientists say that the addiction to Internet, just like the addition to nicotine, is hereditary and most often concerns women.  

The way we look and behave is determined by our genes. 

Genes; however, are also responsible for our additions, like our addition to alcohol or Internet. Christian Montag from the University of Bonn claims that “Internet addiction is not a figment of our imagination. Researchers and therapists are increasingly closing in on it.”

Scientists from Bonn interviewed 843 people about their Internet habits. The results showed that as many as 132 men and women were addicted to Internet. They admitted that they think about Internet all day and the lack of the Internet access causes their poor state of mind, irritation and outbursts of anger.

The next step of the research was to examine genetic variants of those 132 people. 

It turned out that many of them had the same genetic variant, which was also responsible for nicotine addiction. “Within the group of subjects exhibiting problematic Internet behavior, this variant occurs more frequently – particularly in women.” And added that this phenomenon “could be linked to a subgroup using social networks like Facebook.”

Facebook – to stalk or not to stalk?

More than a half of Facebook users, by means of this social network, stalk their ex-partners. Specialists claim that such a behavior may badly affect mental health of jealous ex-boyfriends or girlfriends.  

The recent studies show that by stalking their ex-partners, Internet users risk having mental problems. Psychologists stress that dwelling on the past and the inability to handle the break-up may cause significant mental disorders.    

Brunel University psychologist Tara Marshall admits that stalking was in the past much more difficult than it is nowadays. There was no Internet, so it was harder to find out what our ex-partner was doing at the given moment or who he or she was dating. Therefore, it was easier to come to terms with the break-up.

However, the longer we stay friends with our ex-partner (either in the real life or on Facebook), the harder it is for us to deal with the break-up. According to Tara Marshall, “Facebook may furnish information about an ex-partner that only intensifies heartbreak.” She claims that we should avoid our former partners, both offline and online, for it is “the best remedy for healing a broken heart.”