SARASOTA - The unofficial story behind Facebook's much contested creation is set to hit theater's Friday. The social networking site has more than 500 million active users and people across the world spend more then 700 billion minutes on Facebook each month.
Politicians non profits businesses and everyday people use the site. John Tatum says he spends about two hours total each day updating the Cattlemen Pizzeria Facebook page.
He says it's time consuming but worth it. "It's the best free marketing in the world it's really helped me build my pizzeria here in the last year and a half" says Tatum. He offers free lunch to Facebook friends on their birthdays and posts pictures of the daily specials.
Customer Patti Fige uses her lunch break to check her Facebook news feed. "Helps me save time; I can keep up with family and my friends throughout the day" says Fige.
Others admit they spend a lot more than an hour a day on the social networking site. "I'm on it 24/7. My boyfriend's always we are always fighting you are always on Facebook and I'm always updating statuses putting up pictures. It's fun but it's a really bad addiction" says Susan Roldan.
Some say there are benefits to logging on. "You don't always have to talk to the person like use your minutes on the cell phone or text messages. But it can also be very addictive and it can get people in trouble and say things gossip goes around they can get in trouble at school. So there's pros and cons about Facebook" says Christina Bythrow.
USF Sarasota-Manatee Associate Professor of Marketing Jim Curran has researched some students who use social networks. He says some are at the point where it's created too much drama in their lives. "Some people have actually started to turn away and get away from Facebook and the next generation going to have to find them someplace somewhere else. Social networks obviously have become well accepted and a powerful tool but who knows where the next thing's coming from" says Curran.
Despite the fact there are half a billion users world wide there are people who don't think it's useful and feel all of the clutter and personal posts are a waste of time. "I think it's ridiculous to spend that much time on a computer unless you are working of course" says Debbie Rolling.
Which it is what Tatum is doing. He says it's beneficial to market directly to the people have declared themselves fans. And he's saving money. "Probably thousands of dollars but I don't know if us business people want Facebook to know how much we love the free service you know" says Tatum.
According to Facebook there are more than 150 million users accessing the site through mobile devices. And those people are twice as active on the site as non mobile users.
