How Facebook has changed daily life

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (WWLP) - Jessie Taylor says she checks Facebook pretty often. “Truthfully maybe a half dozen, to a dozen times a day, just checking it quick.”

That’s why Mark Zuckerberg has become a household name and Time Magazine's person of the year. Facebook has changed the way people all over the world communicate.

In six years the site has grown to 500 million users worldwide and it allows people to interact that's not face to face.

Yara Youssef from Northampton said “It's a good way to keep up with people, people post pictures of their kids and their weddings and sending messages is easy, chatting is easy.”

Taylor who works at Left-Click computer store said, “It was certainly kind of a revolutionary kind of social media application, a way for people to connect in a way that wasn't possible before.”

Even businesses utilize Facebook.

Bud Stockwell is the owner of Cornucopia, a small store in Northampton. He tries to post daily offering daily deals and ways to get in touch with customers.

Stockwell said, “We'll frequently put things on that are just for our Facebook customers. Specials just to thank them for coming on Facebook.” And it works. “When we put something on Facebook as a special, all of a sudden there is action there.”

Mark Zuckerberg is the second youngest "Person of the Year" at 26 years old.