In addition to Male or Female, Facebook now let’s U.S. users choose among some 50 additional options. According to CNN News, You don’t have to be strictly a man or a woman on Facebook anymore. Facebook wrote in a post on its Diversity page, “When you come to Facebook to connect with the people, causes, and organizations you care about, we want you to feel comfortable being your true, authentic self.” Allison Palmer, a former GLAAD vice president worked on the project with Facebook.
Facebook which celebrated its tenth anniversary in the week beginning February 3, 2014, is an online social networking service.
The social network added a third “custom” gender option for people’s profiles. Among some of the 50 additional options are “transgender,” “cisgender,” “gender fluid,” “intersex” and “neither.” Facebook users also now have the ability to choose the pronoun that they’d like to be referred to publicly: he/his, she/her, or the gender-neutral they/theirs.
Although some of the categories were a bit confusing to some, the reaction to the new profile feature on social media was largely positive. The social network did not reveal when the new Facebook gender options might be available to users outside the U.S.
In 2012, Facebook was valued at $104 billion, and by January 2014 its market capitalization had risen to over $134 billion.
Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. Some argue that Facebook is beneficial to one’s social life because they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives, while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies because people are not directly communicating with each other. Some studies have named Facebook as a source of problems in relationships. And several news stories have suggested that using Facebook can also lead to higher instances of divorce and infidelity, but the claims have been questioned by other commentators.
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