Social Networking

Social networking has become a major part of the 21^st century. Popular sites include Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Myspace.com and many others. They are used to communicate with family and friends, play games, share pictures and to see news updates. Many sites have become integrated with TV shows, like on The X Factor a ‘hashtag’ on Twitter resembles a trend so if you were to type ‘#xfactor Oh My God did you see that audition? It was amazing! J’ people can see what is going on in the show without watching it. Many sites also use a hashtag: Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr. On Twitter @tags are used to mention someone in a tweet, @username is the usual procedure for this and you can send a tweet or a direct message to the person in which they can reply back, favourite or ‘retweet’. 

Facebook is a popular site for instant messaging and sharing photos. This is also used to put up a status to tell people what you are or have been up to. A lot of people use the site to reconnect with old classmates from school and they can easily be found.

More recently, sites like Instagram and Tumblr, are purposed for picture sharing only. You can search for tags for a certain picture, like if you wanted a flower you would type in the search bar flower and pictures from various users will come up and you can like and ‘reblog’ the photo. Due to the smartphone outrage, these companies have expanded on to a mobile version of their sites or they have created a specialised app for iPhone OS, Android or Windows Phone users.

The benefits of social networking and having an account on these sites are that:

• ·         You can build a relationship with like-minded people from the people that follow you.
• ·         It is an extension from blogging in which you can chat to people and have easy access to their page.
• ·         You can reunite and reconnect with lost family members or old classmates.
• ·         It is an easy way to get weather, news and social updates without having to by a newspaper or watch tv.

However many people are against social networking as:

• ·         It can lead to fake profiling so if you were using a site e.g. Facebook for online dating some people may fake their identity and put you in danger.
• ·         It can be used as an easy way to access your information if your privacy settings aren’t set to limited.
• ·         Many people of the older generation feel it has made the youth of today anti-social and illiterate as people use it for extended hours and use slang or leet (internet talk: oMG Tht waz s00000 s1ck) to type instead of standard English.