Social networking isn�t just for kids anymore. With the
increased popularity of sites like Facebook, Classmates.com, Flickr,
Reunion.com, Twitter, and LinkedIn, the Internet is becoming a social
playground for young and old alike.
www.facebook.com
Facebook is a popular, free-access social-networking
website. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and
region to connect and interact with others. People can also add friends,
send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends
about themselves. The website�s name refers to the paper facebooks depicting
members of a campus community that some colleges give to incoming students,
faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus. Mark
Zuckerburg founded Facebook as a 21-year-old student at Harvard University.
Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was
expanded to other colleges in the Ivy League and Stanford University. It
later expanded further to include any university student, then high school
students, and, finally, to anyone age 13 and older. The website currently
has more than 500 million active users worldwide. According to Social Media
Today, in April 2010 an estimated 41.6 percent of the U.S. population had a
Facebook account.
It�s not uncommon to see television commercials that
include entreaties at the end for the viewer to �Like� them on Facebook.
Most websites you visit on the internet are also linked to Facebook; in
fact, over 2.5 million websites have created their own Facebook pages �
including Cooperative Living magazine (�Like� us at
www.facebook.com\cooperativeliving).
Facebook is popular because it connects people around
the globe. It�s a place where you can share what�s happening in your life
with a single sentence.
www.LinkedIn.com
Launched in May 2003 mainly for professional
networking, as of March 2011, LinkedIn reported more than 100 million
registered users in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The
site is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and
Spanish. Quantcast reports LinkedIn has 21.4 million unique U.S. visitors
and 47.6 million globally per month. The site allows registered users to
maintain contact with people they know and trust in business. People in the
list are called connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or
not) to become a connection.
This list of connections can then be used in a number
of ways: A contact network is built consisting of direct connections, the
connections of connections (second-degree connections) and connections of
second-degree connections (third-degree connections). This can be used to
gain an introduction to someone you wish to know through a mutual, trusted
contact. It can be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities
recommended by someone in one�s contact network. Employers can list jobs and
search for potential candidates. Job seekers can review the profile of
hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce
them.
The �gated-access approach� (where contact with any
professional requires either a preexisting relationship or the intervention
of a contact) is intended to build trust among the service�s users. The
searchable LinkedIn Groups feature allows users to establish new business
relationships by joining alumni, industry, professional and other relevant
groups.
www.twitter.com
Twitter is a free social-networking and blogging
service that allows users to send and read others� updates (known as
tweets), which are text-based posts up to 140 characters in length. Updates
are displayed on the user�s profile page and delivered to other users who
have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in
their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can
receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, or email, or through
applications that include Facebook. Twitter was produced in March 2006 by
Jack Dorsey and launched in July. Since then Twitter has gained popularity
worldwide and is estimated to have 190 million users, generating 65 million
tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day.
So how does Twitter work? You have 140 characters to
describe what you are doing. It means just that. Whether you are at your
computer or on your cell phone, you share your thoughts or actions in the
moment. When you sign up, you have an inbox. You search the Twitter database
for friends or people (including celebrities and companies) that you want to
�follow.� The people you choose to follow create tweets. Their tweets show
in your inbox and you can respond or �re-tweet� so your followers can view
the messages.
www.myspace.com
MySpace is a popular social-networking website with an
interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs,
groups, photos, games, music, and videos for teenagers and adults. On
MySpace, users load the site with photos, music, and information about their
likes and dislikes. MySpace is a place where people can go to �broadcast�
themselves by personal expression through music, art, poetry, etc.
MySpace is one of the world�s largest social networks,
with about 125 million users. Originally inspired by Friendster, MySpace
quickly grew to become the world�s largest social network, before being
overtaken by its main competitor, Facebook, in April 2008, based on monthly
unique visitors. User pages are easily customized and support integration
with widgets such as Slide or YouTube. MySpace helps users connect via
content and culture.
