Social Networking
"Social networking" is a term branded around more and more these days. Social network sites are web-based services that allow individuals to:
- Construct a public or semi-public profile
- Communicate with a list of other users with whom they share a connection
- View and use their list of connections and those made by others within the site.
MySpace was one of the very first Social Network sites and arrived in 2003. It allowed people to create a list of friends and to format their 'space' with their favourite music, photos and colours. Wikipedia - History of MySpace.
Bebo - an acronym for "Blog early, blog often" - came about in January 2005. It had similar features to MySpace with friends lists and discussion groups. It added Bebo Music which allowed up and coming bands to have their own profile page to show-case their own music. Wikipedia - History of Bebo.
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg on February 4th, 2004, while attending Harvard University as a sophomore. This has quickly become one of the most popular sites out there. It has hundreds of 'Applications' varying from Sending Good Luck to Support Cancer Research. Wikipedia - History of Facebook.
I have to admit that I have a profile on all of the sites above! That is a little over the top I know. However, in my defense I am an IT trainer so I have to keep abreast with the lastest on the web.
I created a profile on MySpace when it first came out and have not been back since. Not because there is anything wrong with it, in fact it still has the most users to date, but because at the time none of my friends or colleagues were using it so I had a pitiful friends list.
When Facebook came on the scene I created a profile, had a look around and thought that just like MySpace I would hardly use it. However, about six months later one of my oldest friends messaged me on it and now I have over 100 friends on there. Alot of users have huge friends lists and have lots of people on there that are 'Virtual' friends as opposed to 'Real' ones. I will say that all mine are people that I do know.
Bebo is a more child-friendly site and because of this I use that site to talk to my partner's two lovely children who live quite far from me and it allows us to keep in touch on a more regular basis around their school hours.
If you haven't yet jumped on the band-wagon I would highly recommend Facebook as a start. Even if you just want to look up old school friends it is a mass of information.
A word of warning though - Be prepared to get addicted!!
