3. What are the alternatives? When is the last time you were on Facebook? If you are a typical college student, it probably was sometime within the last 24 hours. In fact, so many people check their Facebook profile regularly that the company claims 65% of all undergraduate students at four-year colleges across the country are members of the Facebook community. Traffic on the site has increased by over 270% in the last year alone. With growth numbers like that, Facebook is meeting the needs of its users. Mark Zuckerberg, a 21-year-old Harvard University dropout, started Facebook.com in 2004. Zuckerberg got the idea after he and a few friends realized that Harvard did not have a face book, in other words a directory, with student ID pictures that classmates could use to look each other up. Within two weeks of building the initial Facebook site, two- thirds of Harvard students had uploaded a picture and added some information about themselves. After experiencing such instant popularity among Harvard students, Zuckerberg and his buddies expanded Facebook to include more schools and students. This time, roughly 150,000 students from 30 schools established profiles for themselves. Shortly thereafter, Zuckerberg moved to California and formed the company that exists today.