1. Social Networking
Social networks have been blamed by many moral guardians for starting a trend of violence in younger people. This is mainly because it is usually a younger demographic of people who use the Internet as a whole and they can access practically anybody they want to over the Internet using a social network. Since so much crime these days is tied into connection with younger people, parents and the government have made the link. However, social networks can also promote healthier links with the outside world in that a young person can start a group which discusses positive things like the environment or bettering the world with a project for charity. Of course, therefore, it depends on the person who uses the networking service, and their intent, with regards to whether violence is provoked or not.
Some social networks include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Ning, LinkedIn, Last.fm, and Xanga.
A social networking site is a site on which you can connect with others near and far, as well as post several different forms of media for sharing with those whom you chose.
Some advantages of social networking include the fact that it is free, you can interact with people no matter where they are in the world, you can use them as an area to store your media (by setting it as only viewable by yourself), you can join groups to find people with common interests, you can promote your business using a page, you can choose only to exhibit the best qualities in yourself, and that it is a novel, new way of connecting with others.
Social networking is usually free and therefore uses a large amount of advertising in order to keep the firms alive.
However, social networking sites have their disadvantages. Since you can customise so much about what you show to others, you could be talking to someone who is malicious or shady without realising it. Furthermore, you have to be online at the same time as someone else to be able to have a coherent discussion with them. Social networking sites often have bugs that render them unusable for certain periods of time. Your content can be seen by anybody within your privacy settings and this can lead to arguments. Flame wars are very common on social networks. It is easy to accidentally share something private about yourself. Since they are free they can be of lower quality to other forms of communication, and therefore less reliable.
It is thought, according to The Telegraph, that the average teenager spends about 31 hours online a week, with a lot of this time being dedicated to social network use.
Firms and businesses often have accounts or pages on many different social networking sites. This is because so many people use them that they would be a wonderful potential investment of their time and money on advertising. However, they are also used to promote offers exclusive to the social network in question, which encourages users to be a part of their business on as many networks as they are a part of, which in turn will increase custom in any individual and provide more outlets for word to get around. One example of this is EA; they have pages for each of their products on many social networking sites like Facebook and have competitions periodically.
Features of social networking sites include an instant messaging service, private inbox service, the ability to write and share statuses, the ability to share photos and group them into albums, sharing links and videos, starting groups, starting pages, playing games and using apps. You can also sometimes share your action on other websites directly to a social network by syncing accounts.