Social Network for institute

Put it this way

If you have 0 PHP knowledge it will take time and effort. Yes the PHP fast track is good here, it helped me learn the basics.

That being said, after you have done the PHP track you will find the best way to learn is simply by trying to build a project. You will learn things as you go , you will research things you need to find out. All developers constantly have to check up on documentation, or stack overflow and then watch new videos tutorials for new technologies.

If you want to create a social media website I would follow these steps or take a similar approach. If you haven't got any experience at all with web development, then do the Web Design Track + Front End Web Development Track first.

1. Do the PHP track here at treehouse
2. Look deeper into object orientated through online examples and tutorials.
3. Have a play around and try and make your social media site. (This will more than likely fail but will help you understand the areas you will need to explore).
4. Learn an MVC Framework (I would recommend Laravel)
5. Build around 3-4 projects with this framework for different things (This will help you gain an understanding of an MVC framework and OOP - you will make mistakes here)

From the hard work, time and effort you have put into the previous steps, you should be ready to attempt your social media site. Do not expect it to be a quick 1-2 month things. I estimate that with no knowledge of PHP and assuming no knowledge of any other programming language, it will take you around 2 - 3 years. But that is assuming you have no previous experience with any language.