Social Networking

Social Networking. . . It's the way the 21st century communicates today.

Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is most popular online. Social networking is used my the majority of people and there are many types of popular sites: 'facebook' 'myspace' 'bebo' and many more.

Early social networking communication began in 1994 and this began in the form of generalized online communities such as Theglobe.com.

Facebook

Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.

It was launched in 2004 and is the world's largest social networking site with more than 500 million active users which is about 1 person for every 14 in the world. It allows you to view other friends page, chat to them, write on their 'wall' and chat via IM on the website. This site is very popular as it allows you to easily communicate with friends and family for free, this can either be done by posting a comment on their 'wall' which is there profile page meaning it will be public for everyone to see, you can instant message them via the chat application in the right hand corner, and you can also send private messages if you do not want people to view what you say. Facebook also offers a range of games you play via facebook, there are simulation games such as 'farmville' where you can run your own farm, by looking after the animals and cutting the crops.

This shows how you can comment on someones 'wall'

                             This is how the IM chat appears.

This is what the private message looks like

It is used by people in every day life as a way of communicating, as it is free and very simple, it is also now a popular way of socialising online. Also people can keep up to date with what other people are doing via people's status updates, which is where you can write anything you want about what you are doing, your feelings, or anything you like. 

There are many advantages to facebook, it allows you to search for new and old friends, it could be that you are trying to get in contact with someone from your primary school. It can be used as a way to make new friends, to find someone to be in a relationship with so as a form of online dating, or just keep in touch with friends and family. Can make it easy to find people with similar likes and dislikes as you can join groups on facebook, this can be a good way of meeting people with similar personalities. The best advantage is the fact it is a free easy way of communication. With any site as well as advantages there are always disadvantages, stalking is possible on facebook as people can see what you are doing, and even now can see where you are via certain applications. Your account can also be hacked and people can pretend to be you, security on facebook is getting stricter but it is possible for this to happen or for people to impersonate you. The fact people can see what you are saying and doing means that it can often cause arguments and conflict between people and groups of people.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1189143/Facebook-forced-lift-ban-theyd-imposed-breast-cancer-victims-sexual-abusive-mastectomy-scar-photos.html

This story is about  how a women had talked about how fight against breast cancer and had also uploaded photographs of her scar, but these photos were later removed as facebook claimed they were 'sexual and abusive'

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/.../Teacher-killed-boyfriend-post-naked-pictures-Facebook.html

This story is about how a teacher killed herself due to her boyfriend posting indecent photos of her on facebook.

Bebo

Bebo is another type of social networking site, it is a free easy way of communicating with people, and was set up in 2005. Sign up to Bebo is easy and only takes seconds, you have the chance to edit your profile saying about yourself and adding photos. Their are many similarites between Bebo and facebook like you can easily to talk to people by message, but it does not have an IM application on the page but you can link your windows messenger, aim and skype to your bebo page so that people can add you and talk via one of those services. On bebo you can create a timeline where you add pictures from each month adding comments about them and it creates your own personal timeline. Overall on bebo you can create your 'life story' using this timeline, talking about yourself, adding photos and lots more!

 Bebo is used in everyday life as a way of communication between people. Some people also

like using it everyday so they can update their profile as a sort of way of blogging. It is a very popular way to communicate and it because part of peoples daily lives as it is something they need to always check like you would your emails.

The picture above shows your profile and will talk you through how you can edit it and write about yourselves.
The picture on the right shows the 'timline' that can be created.

There are advantages and disadvantages to Bebo as with all sites. One of the main advantages is that it is great for socialising and it is a free way of communicating with friends and family all over the world. It is an easy site to use and there are many different applications to use including games, music, viewing people's sites. It is also an easy site to maintain and is a secure and safe site, which means you don't have to be worried about your information. The disadvantages of this site are that it can be quite slow, and sometimes things don't always work. Also people have said that sometimes strangers do add you to their friends lists without your permission, which can be quite scary. Some say that it is trying to turn into facebook but have more to do but at the moment it is found by some quite boring. Overall it seems like a good and interesting site to use and an easy way to communicate and share & view photos and profiles.