HERE'S a staggering fact: almost half the Australian population are users of Facebook, a virtual den for nearly two million teenagers.
A modicum of skill is required to become a Facebook member; if you know how to set up a free email address, this is a breeze.
To the younger generation, life is viewed through the prism of Facebook. Their every waking moment is captured then relived on the popular, almost cult-like, social networking website.
Facebookers bring others on their journey, chronicling the highs and lows of their personal lives and freely sharing their innermost thoughts with them.
Last month there were 9,361,520 people living in Australia who actively use Facebook.
Thirty-five per cent or roughly 3.2 million subscribers fall into the 20 to 29-year-old category. At 21 per cent or nearly two million users each are the 30 to 39 and 13 to 19 age band.
More than 1.2 million users are in the 40 to 49-year-old band that makes up 13 per cent of the total. And about 732,000 people between the ages of 50 and 59 form 8 per cent of the total. The remaining 210,000 are aged 60 and above.
Globally Facebook has more then 500 million active users, each with an average of 130 friends. Facebook claims users spend more than 700 billion minutes a month on the site. Yesterday The Wall Street Journal reported Facebook is valued at $US50 billion ($49.3bn).
As teenagers move into adulthood, it's quite apparent email has lost some of its shine. It still has a part to play but usage patterns have drastically changed, especially with the under-19s.
Charlotte Riddle, 15, from Sydney happens to be one of 1.97 million teenagers in Australia on Facebook and she uses email mainly to check on Facebook updates.
Her sister Georgina, 13, and family friend Caitlin Bye, 14, say they don't usually use email although they have email addresses and are comfortable using it.
There are occasions when email is called on, usually to communicate with their parents, but beyond that Planet Facebook is their universe. "All of our friends use Facebook rather than email and all our friends are on Facebook," Charlotte stresses.
She notes email comes into play to check on Facebook statuses; users can choose to be alerted via email if, for example, a friend comments on their status or tags a photo of them.
Email, however, seems to be the communication tool of choice for Charlotte's parents and grandparents. "I do use email . . . we recently had a party [at home] and mum was emailing me to organise the invite list so they do still communicate with me via email.
"We use email to communicate more formally, for example with grandparents overseas, communicating to the older generation, or long distances," Charlotte says.
At the end of the day, the girls view email as old school: it's a restrictive, one-dimensional tool.
They say Facebook allows them to "see" who their mutual friends are and lets them "chat" in a way that email can't. Emailing someone is akin to writing letters, the trio say.
"And these days none of our friends want to write letters; we want to send short notes or SMS or status updates via Facebook," Charlotte explains.
The teens feel it's easier to interact on Facebook because they have visual aids, such as photos, and keeping abreast with their friends' lives through status updates. Responses from friends via Facebook are almost instant and while on the move: the iPhone is their trusted Facebook companion.
On the downside - yes, it's not all rosy - Facebook doesn't give members the ability to delete photographs of them that are uploaded by others. "If somebody puts up a photo [of you] you can't delete it. You have to contact them and ask them to delete it; you don't have the power to delete it yourself," says Charlotte.
Although glued to Facebook, the girls are well aware of the dangers it presents.
Sharon Williams's over-arching advice to her daughters, Charlotte and Georgina, is to think before posting because Facebook is their resume for life. "I tell my children don't write anything that you wouldn't write if I, your father, your headmistress or the local police officer were sitting over your shoulder watching you.
"I tell them their future husband, boyfriend [or] employer can all look at their Facebook profile and research them, so they must be careful what they write," Williams says.
She stresses the importance of setting Facebook ground rules with kids; she doesn't allow swearing at home and that applies to the digital world.
Charlotte's says her mother's advice is taken seriously, especially since people can get into trouble or expelled from school for doing the wrong thing.
Williams understands the opportunities and perils of Facebook more than many parents as she runs a marketing and communications firm and has social media engagement businesses in Sydney. She says that as an employer, Facebook is a valuable tool because she can research applicants on the site. "This means young people must be careful what they write."
That was how Warren Davies landed his gig as a senior account manager at social media strategist Thinktank Media.
The Melburnian drew up a list of top agencies he wanted to work for and started developing an online relationship with them. "I started to develop an online rapport with people I thought were important and I gave them access to my thoughts," Davies recalls.
Thinktank's bosses liked what they saw and offered him a job. The interview, which lasted only 20 minutes, was more of a formality because his future employer already knew a fair bit about him through Facebook and micro-blogging site Twitter.
Davies uses email for work purposes but has also done business using Facebook's messaging capabilities. He says people hardly speak on the phone these days.
"The 'what's going on with you?' phone call doesn't happen anymore . . . phone calls are actually quite rude these days while Facebook messaging is passive."
Davies believes Twitter may come and go but Facebook's dominance will prevail.
"The language of Facebook becomes the language of online . . . liking things, sharing things, it's changing the way we even speak.
"Some would say it's dumbing it down but I suppose you want to get everyone communicating in the same way.
"It's like we all share the same language and Facebook is here to stay."
He reckons Facebook "enriches quality time"; when people meet they don't need to spend time asking what the other has been up to because "it's all on Facebook".
Rather, the time is better spent discussing other issues affecting their lives.
People share small details such as what they had for breakfast or places they plan to visit because they're creating a "complex web" around their lives made up of connections with micro-information being generated from one person to the next.
"It's just so subtle . . . we're communicating less substantially but more often and we know more about people through Facebook or Twitter," says Davies.
Social media expert Katerina Morjanoff agrees, describing Facebook as a filtering tool of sorts.
"It actually allows you to filter out people better and you have much deeper human connections when it gets to real life."
Facebook's impact on her personal live was an eye-opener for Morjanoff, who is business development director at Sydney's X Media Lab.
Morjanoff recalls a Facebook incident with a former partner who gave her a virtual gift via the site. When she thanked him in person, he wasn't pleased.
"Because I didn't say thank you on his Facebook page he got a little bit pissed off at me."
Her mistake was not recognising that he wanted public recognition on Facebook for his effort.
Morjanoff has since removed a significant amount of private relationship information from her Facebook page.
She is a strong advocate of Facebook 101 lessons; people need to be taught and shown how Facebook can impact them, she says.
"In real life when people are communicating with their friends and families people don't listen to what they're actually saying.
"So they put things on Facebook without thinking [but] like alcohol, Facebook is an amplification tool," Morjanoff says.
She has been using Facebook as an email replacement for several years now as she finds Facebook "more relevant".
"With one click you can see what people are up to and make your message relevant to them."
She has her Facebook and Twitter IDs on her business card and Morjanoff finds it challenging to communicate with people not on Facebook.
"There are still people that are not on Facebook and it's like they don't exist."
Teens Charlotte, Georgina and Caitlin also can't understand why people would use email when they can easily hop on to Facebook.
To them it feels like email moves at a snail's pace: "We get replies from emails perhaps a day after we've communicated," Charlotte says.
Facebook messages or notifications are instant but email doesn't "pop up" in the same way, they say.
And if Charlotte ran Facebook's product development team, she would integrate video-calling capabilities into everyone's page.
She hopes Skype can one day be embedded into Facebook. And if this ever comes to pass, Facebook could be likened to the Eagles' Hotel California where you can check out any time you like but you can never leave.
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