Although it’s pretty rare to overhear financial discussions at Staples outside of economics class, there has been talk about the latest economic news affecting everyone’s favorite social network: Facebook.

When Facebook was launched in 2004, it was privately-held, or owned by an exclusive number of shareholders. However, on May 17, Facebook held an initial public offering (IPO), selling shares of the company on the NASDAQ, the second-largest stock exchange in the world. Now, the public can buy shares of Facebook stock, although founder Mark Zuckerberg has retained a 22 percent ownership share.

The future impact of this IPO on Facebook is yet to be known, as investors and stockholders remain uncertain of how the social network will be spending the $16 billion raised through the IPO.               

Although national controversy has stemmed from this, Staples students almost resoundingly report that the IPO has not affected their Facebook user experience. Joosje Grevers ’12 admitted that she had not even heard of the news.

“I honestly can say that I have no clue what that is, so it really hasn’t had any effect on me whatsoever,” Grevers said.

Anita Vohra ’13 added that she does not think that Facebook’s new IPO will matter to most teenage users.

“I don’t really care about Facebook’s new IPO, since it doesn’t affect me, and I wasn’t planning on buying stocks,” she said.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has subsequently launched a review of the IPO, as there were initial delays to Facebook’s shares opening. At this stage, however, it is still unsure of how, if at all, the money raised through the IPO will affect the actual user experience or interface of the website.

“The stock going public doesn’t affect me now,” Justin Malinow ’14 said, “so I don’t care at all.”