The user appears on the network at 2008-04-15 T14:47:30 (UTC-0600) running an out-of-date browser on an old PC that had previously been associated with a different IP but is now connecting to the internet via a sluggish landline originating in the Flint Hills of Kansas. The user has inherited this particular computer—which was already the cheapest of all possible desktops when it was purchased four years ago at the Topeka Best Buy—from a neighbor who has upgraded his own PC and offered not only to give this one away for free but also to set it up and tutor the user in its basic operations. Of course, the EdgeRank algorithm that first identifies and catalogs the user does not know this information. At first, the only data the algorithm possesses are the answers to two prompts that are the only prompts the user responds to: Name, which is Lawrence Baker, and Interests, which is Jack Baker, this latter response being pretty difficult for the algorithm to parse until it becomes clear that the user has misunderstood the prompt and eventually replaces Jack Baker with Kansas City Chiefs, after which his account is verified and his feed populates with National Football League–associated content and advertising. It is April 2008, and Lawrence Baker has just joined Facebook.
