Social Networking

A Social Network is an online community of people who share a common interest such as music, sports, movies etc. Social Networking has been around longer than most people might think. The website classmates.com offered users the opportunity to keep in touch with friends from school. It wasn't until the early part of the 20th century that it really began to take off however, with the introduction of Friendster, MySpace and Bebo. These social network sites allowed users to build a page for themselves, customize it with wallpaper and video widgets and then build a database of friends and communicate with these friends through email, wall posts and instant messaging. Today there is a loarge number of social networking sites in operation, the biggest being MySpace, Facebook and Bebo.

Although originally intended for friends to keep in contact, the uses for social network sites have become far more numerous. With such high numbers becoming members of the various sites, comanies have become keen to advertise on the sites. The money receiced by the social network sites from advertising allows the admins to better develop them and encourages continuing innovation.

There have been growing privacy concerns regarding social networks. This stems from the worry that people may be divulging too much sensitive information to the site owners. This year Facebook tried to bring in legislation that would give them ownership of any material (pictures, videos etc.) that was on a certain users page, if that user decided to close their account. This was eventually blocked once members became aware of what was happening. There have also been concerns that social networks increase the risk to members by stalkers or sexual predators.

Social networking also has implications for the business world. If used correctly, one can build a network of colleagues in order to discuss issues and develop their business skills and list of contacts. Some examples of how social networks have played a part in the business world are mentioned in the link below.

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