THUNDER BAY – Facebook continues to grow, but the popular social networking site has lost members in Canada and the United States. In Canada, 1.52 million people logged off Facebook. However there are 16 million users in Canada.
The growth of social networking as a tool for both work and for fun has continued in many other countries. There are currently 700 million people world-wide on Facebook.
Facebook is popular in Northwestern Ontario. There are 72,380 people on Facebook listing Thunder Bay as their hometown on the social networking site. In Dryden there are 5,850 people, 9,180 in Kenora, and 12,980 in Sioux Lookout.
Those kinds of numbers all demonstrate an increase, only about a year ago there were about 50,000 people in Thunder Bay using the social networking giant.
Increasingly local politicians are finding their way to Facebook. Provincially both Bill Mauro and Michael Gravelle are on Facebook. Federally so are Bruce Hyer and John Rafferty.
At the civic level, Mayor Hobbs, as dubbed on NNL is the city’s first Facebook Mayor. Andrew Foulds is a regular poster on Facebook as well. So is Councillor Aldo Ruberto. Ken Boshcoff is a frequent poster on the site too. Some Councillors are on Facebook but do not appear very active.
The ability of politicians to communicate directly with people on Facebook is positive, however it is also limited. A posting on Facebook will reach the friends of the politician, but not usually far wider.
Reaching all of the people in Thunder Bay on Facebook would exceed the maximum number of friends a person can have, which is 5,000.
The growth of Facebook appears to be well noticed in our community as more events, more people and more businesses are joining the site.