Despite often referring to myself as Facebook-illiterate, I cannot help but be constantly impressed by the ever-increasing and profound role that this form of social media has in our world.

In 2008, Oscar Morales, the Bush Institute Fellow for Human Freedom, utilized Facebook to organize an international protest de-legitimizing the FARC terrorist organization as the “people’s army” in Colombia, the 2009 Iranian Green Movement communicated and publicized information almost exclusively through Facebook, and just this week, the Egyptian protest that led to three deaths was advertised through Facebook as well. Facebook is consistently on the big screen and in the headlines of major news sources around the world.

Checking Facebook is the one non-biologically necessary activity that five hundred million people engage in on a regular basis. Try as I might, I cannot think of an equivalent historical phenomenon.

Facebook has become not only the most successful tool for procrastination, but also one of the most efficient and effective means of communication around the globe.