Social Networking
A social networking service is a platform to build social networks among people who share common interests, activities, backgrounds or real – life connections. People create user profiles.
Different countries have different names and sites. Such as American based sites are Facebook, Google +, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, vine, Tumblr and twitter. They are all used worldwide. Other countries have different names and different sites. Some examples of these are in Germany you have skyrock in Spain you have tagged and in Europe you have Myspace.
When it comes to the history of social networking. Social networking began back in 1994-1995 most of the communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other in different chat rooms. Some of these communities included: theglobe.com, and tripod.com. Some communities such as classmates.com took a different approach by simply having people link to each other via email addresses. In the late1990’s user profiles became a central feature of central networking sites. You were able to create a list of friends. By the end of the 90’s you were able to search and manage your friends list a little bit better. Myspace and LinkedIn began in 2003, by 2005 Myspace was visited more than google. In 2004 Facebook was launched. It was originally created for Harvard students. Then it was opened up to other universities and eventually opened up to everyone. In the year 2009 it became the largest social networking site.
The social impact that social networking had on the world was huge. The creation of Web based social networking made it possible to connect with people. It also helps employers get a better sense of who you are. It also helps give them a better sense of what type of person you are and your sense of character. Employers like to see if you talk bad about your current employer or anyone you work with. It’s also a great way to connect with old friends you haven’t spoken with in a while or just friends you haven’t seen. It also helps you stay connected with family members that may live in a different city state or even a different country. You may also use social networking to find jobs.
Some other forms of social networking are chat sites. You also have Facebook messenger. Which is just a new age form of chatting. In the late 1990’s early 2000’s you use to have AOL messenger and yahoo instant messenger. When it comes to social network or social media there are many pros and cons. Some of the pros that go along with social networking are as follows: * You get to make connections with people (I believe that is the best pro or reason to have some type of social network) * You can use it to stay up to speed with your friends and family * You can use it professionally. (you could be happy with where you are at in your career. But could know someone who needs a job done or you may need a job done. So you look and ask around on one of the sites and see if anyone you know, knows someone who can get the job done.) * You can create events or send out invites easier. (many sites like Myspace and Facebook allow you to create events and then send out and invite (or rather an Evite))
There are also cons or disadvantages to social networking and they are as follows * People can start rumors * A lot of social media comes from social networking which in turn a lot of it is false because people like to start rumors. * A lot of people begin to lose their interest in seeing people face to face because they are spending too much time on these sites. * It makes it easier to bully people because when it comes to the internet people gain a little more confidence because they think when it comes to the internet they are all big and bad because they are not saying to the persons face and they don’t have to actually look at them and fear that they may hit them or fight back. * People can hack your information a little more easily because on these sites most people put their full names and so they can easily get your information and steal your identity * They also make it very easy to stalk someone. * They also make cheating easier because there are many sites out that you can use to try and find people to talk to or go out with. Many of those sites include: Okcupid. Meetme, eHarmony, plenty of fish, farmers only, our time, and many more.
So to sum it all up there are many good things to social networking like keeping up with old friends from high school or college. You can also keep up with family members that you don’t get to see very often. But it also has many bad things to it like people using it to cheat or other people hacking your accounts and stealing your information. Also it’s creating cyberbullying amongst teens and even adults and causing problems with in the work place. Social networking first began back in 1994-1995.