While writing this article, I searched for “Facebook” on the American Google News site. That’s all – just “Facebook.” Yet four of the first six results came from Canada, and this illustrates a new trend: our neighbors to the north are becoming big fans of the social networking site.
Facebook’s Privacy Engineer, Nico Vera, even blogged about the development. “If you were to check out the Toronto, ON network page,” he began, “you’d notice that the Toronto network has over half a million members – a huge chunk of the explosive growth Facebook has recently seen in Canada (2 million Canadian users – or 10% of the Facebook population – and counting).”
But who are these Facebook-loving Canadians – a bunch of college-aged kids? Well, possibly, but that may make them more important instead of less. An article on GuelphMercury.com (a Canadian publication) calls Facebook the “new face of politics.” (Also, I should note that I’ve used Facebook and am college-aged – no offense intended, in other words.)
The Guelph Mercury article goes on to list three different political figures who have made their presence known on the site, and adds, “All politicians seem to understand the need to communicate in any way possible with young people. In 2004, almost 44 per cent of registered voters came out to cast a ballot on the University of Guelph campus, compared with more than 64 per cent city-wide.”
But regardless of why people are using it, Facebook is quite pleased that so many Canadians have signed up. Nico writes, “On behalf of all the Facebook Team, and as the resident Canadian, I want to say ‘Thanks Canada!’”
