How Facebook works

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All your friends and family are on  Facebook and they tell you about it practically every day. Not to mention schoolmates and colleagues: they too can’t wait for you to join the famous social network. In short, now practically everyone is registered on Facebook and only you are missing!

Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life
Image: Facebook

If this is the case and, despite everything, you haven’t decided to sign up yet, maybe it’s because you want to know more about how Facebook works? Did I guess? Well, if so, know that you came across just the right tutorial at the right time. By reading this guide, you will be able to clarify all your doubts regarding Mark Zuckerberg‘s social network.

While it may seem complex on the surface, how Facebook works isn’t all that complex. In the course of the next chapters, I will talk to you, therefore, about its main features, explaining how to use it on smartphones and tablets, through a special app for Android and iOS, and from a computer. Take a few minutes of free time, sit down comfortably, and take a look at what is explained in this tutorial. Have a good reading.

Sign up for Facebook

If you want to know how Facebook works, because the first time you use this social network, the first thing you need to do is create an account: a procedure that you can easily perform from the social network app for  Android and iOS or from its official website. Furthermore, if you are interested, you can also download the Facebook application for Windows 10 through the Microsoft Store.

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Furthermore, I would like to inform you of the possibility of downloading the free Facebook Lite application which, available for download only on Android (it will arrive on iOS in 2018), is designed to be used on less performing devices from a hardware point of view and consumes also fewer data, being optimized for 2G internet connections.

From smartphones and tablets

If you intend to register with Facebook using the Facebook application for Android or iOS, you will be happy to know that the procedure to be carried out is very simple and immediate.

When the application is started, tap on the entry Sign up for Facebook, then click on Start and create an account, entering all the required data: Name, Surname, Date of birth, and Gender.

This is photo of Facebook sign-up page
Image Via Facebook

Then choose whether to create an account using your mobile number, or press on the item use your email address and follow the procedures indicated on the screen relating to the confirmation of your account, by pressing the button Confirm your account that you will have been sent by Facebook or by entering the verification code received via message.

Screen of Facebook Sign Up Page
Image Via Facebook

Once you have created your account, you can begin to customize your profile by accessing it (by tapping on your photo, which should initially be the icon of a little man) and then pressing the  Edit profile button. On the next screen, you can enter all your personal information and make your online profile more complete.

If in doubt, refer to my tutorial in which I explain how to create a Facebook profile or the one in which I tell you about how the one in which I explain how to subscribe to Facebook from your mobile.

From computer

If you intend to register on Facebook from a computer, connected to the initial page of the social network, and in the text fields on the screen, enter the data required for registration: Name, Surname, Mobile number or email address, password, date of birth and gender, then click on the Sign-up button to start creating a new account.

Image: Facebook Sign Up Page From Computer

You will then be prompted to confirm your email address or mobile number by clicking on the Confirm your account button or by typing the confirmation code that will be sent to you by Facebook.

After this step you can already start adding some friends, by clicking on the Add friends button, corresponding to those that are shown to you. This procedure is optional and you can also do it at a later time, as I will explain to you in the next chapter.

Once this is done, first you need to customize your profile. As you will be shown on the screen, press the Add image button, in order to load a profile image, then press the icon of your profile that you find in the menu bar at the top right, in order to customize the image of the cover, by clicking on the Add cover image button.

Screenshot of Facebook Profile Page
Image: Your Facebook Profile Page

Furthermore, I suggest you press the Edit profile button, to also enter information relating to your account, such as your biography, in order to help people find you on Facebook.

How to use Facebook

Once you have registered with Facebook you have the opportunity to use all the features made available by this social network. Having said that, in the course of the next few lines I will talk to you about what are the most prominent features of Facebook, starting from the possibility of adding people as friends up to the publication of posts and interaction with pages and groups. Enjoy the reading!

Add friends

The functionality I want to tell you about in this chapter is the one related to adding new friends. To get in touch with a person on Facebook, and thus be able to send him private messages, following the procedures you will find in the next chapter, you must add a person to your Facebook friends.

Doing so is very simple: Facebook itself will show you the profiles of some users, within a section called People You May Know, visible both in the Facebook app for Android and iOS and on your computer.

Then press the Add to Friends button in correspondence with the profiles that are shown to you, to send them a friend request that they will have to accept but can also deny (usually on Facebook only people you know are added to friends).

How to add friends on Facebook
Image: How to add friends on Facebook

You can also view the list with other suggested people, by pressing the button with the symbol of two men that you find in the top bar of Facebook from your computer or in the bar at the bottom, if you are using the application for smartphones and tablets.

Alternatively, you can add a person to your friends, use the Search text field at the top, to type in a name and surname; after which, once identified, press the Add to friends button (the symbol of a little man, if you are using Facebook from a smartphone or tablet) and wait for the request to be accepted.

If successful, you will receive a notification from Facebook and you can later view all the content posted by the added person.

Send messages to friends

If you’ve added someone to your Facebook friends, you can start a private conversation from your smartphone, tablet, and computer. On smartphones and tablets, it is necessary to download the Messenger application, which is available for free on Android and iOS  (and is also available in the  Lite version, whose operation is optimized for less-performing devices from a hardware point of view and for Internet connections. in 2G, as it consumes fewer packet data). On the computer, on the other hand, you can act through the use of the integrated chat on Facebook or using the Internet Messenger site, dedicated to those who want to send private messages to users without the distractions of the news feed.

From smartphones and tablets

If you intend to send a private message to a Facebook friend from a smartphone or tablet, start the Messenger application previously downloaded on your device, pressing the icon that you find on the home screen or in the drawer, then log in with your Facebook credentials, in order to see the list of your contacts after synchronizing them, by pressing the Activate button.

How to Sign-in on Facebook messenger
Image: Facebook Messenger

If you have previously started a conversation with a user, tap on their name on the main screen or tap on the text field at the top to find the name of the person you want to get in touch with.

To send a new private message on Facebook, you can also press the icon with the pencil and sheet of paper symbol in the upper right corner, then use the text field To to type the name of the person with whom you want to start a conversation or tap on one of the names that are suggested to you.

Screenshot of Facebook Messenger that shows how to send message to your friends
Image: Facebook Messenger

In addition to sending text messages, you can send photos and emojis by pressing the button with the camera symbol or the icon of a smiley respectively.

From computer

To start a private conversation with a Facebook friend from your computer, open the integrated Facebook chat by pressing the icon with a cartoon symbol located in the top bar, or connect to the official Messenger site and log in with the data of your Facebook account, so you can take advantage of the dedicated chat.

This is photo of Facebook messenger on Computer
Image: Facebook Messenger

In both cases, locate the person to whom you want to send a message from the list of your contacts or, press the New Message button (on the Messenger site it is the icon with the sheet and the pencil ), if you want to type the name of the person with whom you want to get in touch, using the text field To:

This image shows that how to send messages from computer on Facebook to your friends
Image: Facebook Messenger on Computer

Once this is done, use the text field Type a message you see below, to write a text message. Alternatively, use the icons present just below, such as the one with the symbol of a smiley that is used to send an emoji or the GIF button, which allows you to send an animated image.

Publish posts

Another very important feature of Facebook concerns the ability to share content with your friends, publish posts within your profile, acting through the official website.

In this regard, you must know that the contents published on Facebook can be textual but also multimedia. You can also share photos, videos, and status updates via the Facebook app for Android and iOS. In the next lines, I’ll explain how to proceed step by step.

Using Facebook from a smartphone, tablet, or computer (the functioning of the social network, in this case, is the same) refer to the News section (on Android and iOS it is the section with the symbol of a newspaper that you see in the bar at the bottom or at the top) or to that of your profile, accessible by pressing on your profile picture from your computer and the icon with the symbol of a little man from Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

Then refer to the text field that you can see in the top bar, corresponding to the wording What are you thinking about [your name]? to type in an update of your profile and share it with your Facebook friends.

Screenshot of Facebook Post Page
Image: Facebook Post Page

Before doing so, by pressing the Share button, choose whether to create a message with a colored background, by pressing on the boxes that are shown to you, or whether to share photos/videostag a friend, or even share a mood/activity.

In addition to the options listed above, other tools concerning the publication of a post on Facebook are visible by pressing the symbol (…). For example, you can post a GIF or a survey.

Furthermore, you can choose to share the post you made in the News section and/or within the stories of your profile ( Your story ), by placing a checkmark on the appropriate items.

Screenshot of Facebook Publish post that shows how to create your story and post
Image: Facebook Story

Before pressing the Share button, remember to adjust the privacy of the content you publish. By default, in fact, the contents published within Facebook are visible only to friends, but by pressing on this menu item you can for example choose whether to share a post with Everyone (i.e. with anyone on Facebook and outside Facebook) or only to some friends except some ( Friends except… ) or only to some specific Friends.

screenshot of facebook publish post that shows how to share your post with Friends/Everyone/Only me
Image: Facebook Post Share

Publish stories

screenshot of Facebook Story Page that shows how to post your story on Facebook with you friends
Image: Facebook Story Page

On Facebook, it is also possible to publish stories, i.e. multimedia content that remain visible in a special section of your profile for 24 hours, after which they are no longer viewable.

That said, to publish a story on Facebook, you have to act from a smartphone or tablet, through the social network application. To do this, press the (+) button that you can see in the Stories box, then choose one of the items that are shown at the bottom, such as Normal, Boomerang, Video, or Live, depending on the content you want. realize as a video, a photo, a video loop, or a live stream.

You can also press on the emoticon symbol, to apply filters and effects in real-time, or add multimedia content present in the memory of your device, by pressing on the multimedia gallery at the bottom right.

Before publishing the story, by clicking on the Your story button, you can use the Facebook story editor, which allows you to write on a photo or video ( Aa ), to add a sticker, such as a survey (the smiley face symbol ) and to draw on photos or videos (a scribble symbol ).

If you prefer to publish the photo also in the News section, click on the Next button and check the relevant item, then click on the Share now button. The published stories are visible both from a smartphone/tablet and from the computer, by clicking on the item Your archive (it is called Archive on the computer).

Interact with friends, pages, and groups

Now that I have explained to you what are the main features of Facebook, we can move on to the part in which I talk to you about how to interact with other users of the social network, for example by “like”, commenting, and sharing the posts of friends, pages or groups.

In this specific case, the functioning of the Facebook interaction methods is the same in its use on smartphones and tablets as on a computer, consequently, once you have logged in to the platform with the data of your previously registered account, the first thing you will see the news feed, that is the section in which the contents published by your friends, the groups you follow and the pages you like are displayed.

This image show that how to interact with other users of the social network, for example by "like", commenting, and sharing the posts of friends, pages or groups
Image: Interact with friends/others on Facebook

That said, if you see content that interests you, you can interact with it by “like”, commenting, and/or sharing. To do this, press the “like” button (the symbol of a thumb up ), touch it (from a computer), or hold it down (from a smartphone/tablet) to see the menu of reactions: these allow you to express yourself through emotions, such as the heart or the Wow for example.

How to Interact with friends/others like, commenting, and sharing on Facebook
Image: How to Interact with friends/others like, commenting, and/or sharing on Facebook

If, on the other hand, you want to comment on the post displayed, click on the Comment button and use the text field Write a comment to type the message, then send it by pressing the key with the symbol of an airplane. The Share button, on the other hand, is used to share the content of particular interest, republishing it on your profile.

You can carry out all the operations just indicated to interact with all public posts or posts shared by your friends or by your friends’ friends, depending on your privacy. Facebook pages, on the other hand, are public so that you can see all the posts contained within them.

In particular, if you were to identify a page that interests you as you have typed its name into the Facebook search engine, you can press the Like button corresponding to it, in order to view the contents that are displayed in the newsfeed.

Screenshot of Facebook Page
Image: Facebook Page

In the event that you have identified, again through the Facebook search engine, a group and wish to interact with it, you may find yourself in a situation in which you are unable to see and interact with the contents published within it.

In this case, it means that you have in fact come across a closed group: then click on the Subscribe to the group button, in order to request an invitation from the administrators of the same.

Screenshot of Facebook Group
Image: Facebook Group

Only when you are accepted and you will be notified of successful registration, will you be able to interact with the contents published within it, as already explained in the previous lines.

Other interesting guides

If you are interested in knowing how a particular Facebook feature works, which may be in this tutorial I have not had the opportunity to analyze in detail, refer to the archive of all the guides I have published regarding Mark Zuckerberg’s social network: