Social Studies Lab

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The United States of Facebook

Approximately how many Facebook users are there in the United States of America?

  1. How accurate was your prediction?

  2. What most surprised you about the information from the map?

  3. What state is the most and what state is the least Facebooked?

  4. How does your state compare to other states in terms of Facebook penetration and can you explain why that is?

  5. What patterns do you see in this map?

  6. Can you explain any patterns from the map?

  7. Is all this Facebooking good or is it bad?

  8. What the heck is up with South Dakota?

  9. How do you think Facebook and social media have impacted this year's elections?

  10. Are there any other companies or technologies that have a similar impact and penetration into the US population as Facebook has?

  11. If Americans on Facebook were a country, what countries would it be larger than?*

  12. Do a little research, and in the comments section below, write something surprising that there are less of in the US than Facebook users


Action Extension

Record a log of all your in-person face to face interactions over the span of two days. .If you are a Facebook user, get off of Facebook for 2 days and record all the in-person face to face interactions during that time period. Compare the two different time periods. If you are not a Facebook user, you are the first one I've met. Congratulations. You win, Share your crazy off line life story with class.


Learning Extension

Read this fascinating Atlantic Magazine article entitled, How Real Are Facebook Friendships?


*Here's some numbers to chew on

  • There are approximately 116,000,000 Facebook users in the US

  • There are approximately 90,000,000 non-Whites in the US

  • There are approximately 75,000,000 Catholics in the US

  • There are approximately 126,000,000 Japanese in the world

  • There are approximately 80,000,000 Germans in the world

  • There are approximately 115,000,000 homes with Televisions in the US