Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more genuine close friends, according to a survey by researchers who studied how the websites are changing the nature of friendship networks. Although social networking on the internet helps people to collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face contact is nearly always necessary to form truly close friendships.

"Although the numbers of friends people have on these sites can be massive, the actual number of close friends is approximately the same in the face to face real world," said psychologist Will Reader, from Sheffield Hallam University.

Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have taken off rapidly in recent years. Facebook was launched initially in 2004 for Harvard University members but has since expanded to more than 34 million users worldwide. MySpace, which was set up in 2003, has more than 200 million users and was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 2005 for $580m (£285m).

Previous research has suggested that a person's conventional friendship group consists of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger numbers of people whom we keep in touch with less regularly.

This figure is so consistent that scientists have suggested it is determined by the cognitive constraints of keeping up with large numbers of people.

But Dr Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do allow people to stretch this figure.

The team asked more than 200 people to fill in questionnaires about their online networking, asking for example how many online friends they had, how many of these were close friends and how many they had met face to face. The team found that although the sites allowed contact with hundreds of acquaintances, as with conventional friendship networks, people tend to have around five close friends.

Ninety per cent of contacts whom the subjects regarded as close friends were people they had met face to face.

"People see face to face contact as being absolutely imperative in forming close friendships," added Dr Reader. He told the British Association Festival of Science in York that social networking sites allow people to broaden their list of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch online is easy. "What social network sites can do is decrease the cost of maintaining and forming these social networks because we can post information to multiple people," he said.

But to develop a real friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy, said Dr Reader. "What we need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to invest in us, is really going to be there for us when we need them ... It's very easy to be deceptive on the internet."

good relationships are built on trust,honesty and gud understanding of one another!an interaction can be initiated online but nothing is as helpful as an one to one interaction with people!time constraint in meeting new people is der but the time spent online can be reduced and replaced with live interactions !it always make a difference to say a"happy bday" to anyone with a real smile rather than a smiley!and adding to it smileys dont convey all you want to xpress ,at times not in the rigt sense!

People using social networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, can keep their profile anoymous. People who you know online may not be the person you think are. Let me give you an example: One who you thnk is a 14 year old girl can actually be a 70 year old man. Many people will get conned because they make friends online. Making friends in real life will mean you will at least know who they are and what they look like. Therefore I think that it is better and safer to make friends face to face than in social networking sites.

Meeting face to face is easier to make friends as you can talk to them directly and he or she will know your attitude and get to know you better, whereas if you use social networking sites the person might not know you fully or what is completely true about you

I have to disagree, because personally i am outgoing and happy to be friends with anyone. Making friends in real life may have some issues if you are quiet, but once someone gets the ball rolling, you can talk and chat more! You can talk with expression, body language, chat and even go out and have fun!

Talking in real life definitely beats chatting online because you can laugh and actually express yourself with your eyes, facial expressions and as said before, body language. But online, all you can do is go "hahahah" or "LOL". And most of the time, what you type is not what you really express.

However, on social networking sites, you can only type. And sometimes, there are certain people that type with short-forms, no expressions (such as emoticons) and no punctuation, this is harder to understand whether or not they are happy, sad or angry, and without correct use of punctuation, the sentence sounds long and "weird" if said in real life.

Sometimes, making friends on social networking sites does not define that they ARE your friends. They can be faking, trying to con you, or even be someone totally not what you expected them to be. Its very easy to put a fake identity online, but in real life, you hide nothing.

Therefore, i can conclude that making friends in real life is much more easier than making friends online.

Another potential downside of social networking sites is that they allow others to know a person’s contact information, interests, habits, and whereabouts. Consequences of sharing this information can range from the relatively harmless but annoying—such as an increase in spam—to the potentially deadly—such as stalking.

While the vast majority of people using social networking sites do not pose a threat, malicious people may be drawn to them because of the accessibility and amount of personal information available on them.

Criminals can use information provided about a person’s birthday, location, routine, hobbies, and interests to impersonate a trusted friend or convince the unsuspecting that they have the authority to access personal or financial data. They can even use such info to guess your account passwords—which is why you should never have a password that uses the name of your pet, favorite band, hobby, birthday, or something else easily known about you. And stalkers will really appreciate your help if you post your daily routine and whereabouts online!

So, when deciding whether to post something, remember that the more information malicious people have about you, the easier it is for them to take advantage of you.

tyvm

DISAGREE Yes social networking can make friends easily but you will never know the friends you meet, they might be some lech that is looking for the perfect opportunity to prey on you,so in the end they are not considered as 'friends'.

Are you an online network socialite? Do you Twitter about your Facebook status while listening to music on Last.fm? Have your friends noticed that you'll only talk to them 140 characters at a time? Then you've got your finger on the pulse of online social networking -- a big part of Web 2.0.

Just a few years ago, the idea of an online social network was revolutionary. While the Web has always provided a way for people to make connections with one another, social networking sites made it easier than ever to find old friends and make new ones. Today, it's rare to find someone who hasn't at least heard of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or one of a hundred other social networks.

For novices in the world of social networking, the vast online landscape can be a little intimidating. There are so many options available and each one has its own terms of service or end user license agreement (EULA). Even Web veterans may find some of these agreements difficult to understand. There are times when it can feel like you're signing your life away just to get a profile on a Web site. You may not even know why you would want to use such a site in the first place, apart from the fact that everyone else seems to be on it.

We've taken on the task to break down the positive and negative aspects of online social networking sites. Before we go much farther, understand that there are a lot of things you should take into consideration before signing up. You should also know that the good tends to outweigh the bad, particularly if you're careful about the way you use these sites. So, let's start off with the pros of social networking sites.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

u also cannot take back what you said on sites.

Finally, it’s important to recognize that once you publish something online, it is available to other people and to search engines. You can’t retract it.

Even if you go back and remove the information from a site, it’s always possible that someone has already seen it. And they may have saved a copy.

In addition, some search engines “cache” copies of Web pages so that they open faster; these cached copies may be available a long time after a Web page has been deleted or altered. Some Web browsers, also, maintain a cache of the Web pages a user has visited, so the original version of your posting may be stored in someone else’s machine.

The bottom line? Once something is out there, there’s no guarantee you can take it back.

So, the advice mentioned above bears repeating: use your online profile as a free place to promote yourself professionally and academically. If you keep that approach in mind, you won’t post anything you’d regret later, and you’ll enjoy the benefits of staying connected with friends and acquaintances, while protecting yourself and even bolstering your resume.

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Social networking serviceFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search This article is about the type of service. For the concept of relationships between people, see Social network. For a list of services, see List of social networking websites.

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on facilitating the building of social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks.

The main types of social networking services are those that contain category places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with Facebook, Twitter and Google+ widely used worldwide, The Sphere (luxury network), Nexopia (mostly in Canada);[1] Bebo,[2] VKontakte, Hi5, Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), Draugiem.lv (mostly in Latvia), Ask-a-peer (career oriented), StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Tuenti (mostly in Spain), Nasza-Klasa (mostly in Poland), Tagged, XING,[3] Badoo[4] and Skyrock in parts of Europe;[5] Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America;[6] and Mixi, Orkut, Wretch, renren and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands and Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn are very popular in India and Pinterest is also a social networking site which is used in India.

There have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source Initiative). A 2011 survey found that 47% of American adults use a social network.[7]

Contents [hide]

1 History

2 Social impact

3 Features

3.1 Typical features

3.2 Additional features

4 Emerging trends

4.1 Social networks and science

4.2 Social networks and education

4.3 Social networks and grassroots organizing

4.4 Social networks and employment

4.5 Social network hosting service

4.6 Business model

4.7 Social Interaction

4.8 New trends in social networking

5 Issues

5.1 Privacy

5.2 Data mining

5.3 Notifications on websites

5.4 Access to information

5.5 Potential for misuse

5.6 Risk for child safety

5.7 Trolling

5.8 Online bullying

5.9 Interpersonal communication

5.10 Psychological effects of social networking

5.11 Patents

5.12 Worker's rights

5.13 Decentralized architecture

6 Investigations

7 Application domains

7.1 Government applications

7.2 Business applications

7.3 Dating applications

7.4 Educational applications

7.5 Finance applications

7.6 Medical and health applications

7.7 Social and political applications

8 Open source software

9 Market share

10 World Usage

11 In the media

12 See also

13 References

13.1 Notes

14 Further reading

[edit] HistoryThe potential for computer networking to facilitate newly improved forms of computer-mediated social interaction was suggested early on.[8] Efforts to support social networks via computer-mediated communication were made in many early online services, including Usenet[9], ARPANET, LISTSERV, and bulletin board services (BBS). Many prototypical features of social networking sites were also present in online services such as America Online, Prodigy, CompuServe, and The WELL[10]. Early social networking on the World Wide Web began in the form of generalized online communities such as Theglobe.com (1995),[11] Geocities (1994) and Tripod.com (1995). Many of these early communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other through chat rooms, and encouraged users to share personal information and ideas via personal webpages by providing easy-to-use publishing tools and free or inexpensive webspace. Some communities - such as Classmates.com - took a different approach by simply having people link to each other via email addresses. In the late 1990s, user profiles became a central feature of social networking sites, allowing users to compile lists of "friends" and search for other users with similar interests. New social networking methods were developed by the end of the 1990s, and many sites began to develop more advanced features for users to find and manage friends.[12] This newer generation of social networking sites began to flourish with the emergence of SixDegrees.com in 1997,[13] followed by Makeoutclub in 2000,[14][15] Hub Culture and Friendster in 2002,[16] and soon became part of the Internet mainstream. Friendster was followed by MySpace and LinkedIn a year later, and eventually Bebo. Attesting to the rapid increase in social networking sites' popularity, by 2005, it was reported that MySpace was getting more page views than Google. Facebook,[17] launched in 2004, became the largest social networking site in the world[18] in early 2009.[19]

[edit] Social impactMain article: Social impact of the Internet#Social networking and entertainment

Web-based social networking services make it possible to connect people who share interests and activities across political, economic, and geographic borders.[20] Through e-mail and instant messaging, online communities are created where a gift economy and reciprocal altruism are encouraged through cooperation. Information is particularly suited to gift economy, as information is a nonrival good and can be gifted at practically no cost.[21][22]

Facebook and other social networking tools are increasingly the object of scholarly research. Scholars in many fields have begun to investigate the impact of social-networking sites, investigating how such sites may play into issues of identity, privacy,[23] social capital, youth culture, and education.[24]

Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social networking model for philanthropy. Such models provide a means for connecting otherwise fragmented industries and small organizations without the resources to reach a broader audience with interested users.[25] Social networks are providing a different way for individuals to communicate digitally. These communities of hypertexts allow for the sharing of information and ideas, an old concept placed in a digital environment.

In 2011, HCL Technologies conducted research that showed that 50% of British employers had banned the use of social networking sites/services during office hours.[26][27]

[edit] Features[edit] Typical featuresAccording to Boyd and Ellison's (2007) article, "Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life", social networking sites (SNSs) share a variety of technical features that allows individuals to: construct a public/semi-public profile, articulate list of other users that they share a connection with, and view their list of connections within the system (6). The most basic of these are visible profiles with a list of "friends" who are also users of the site. In an article entitled "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship," Boyd and Ellison adopt Sunden's (2003) description of profiles as unique pages where one can "type oneself into being."[28] A profile is generated from answers to questions, such as age, location, interests, etc. Some sites allow users to upload pictures, add multimedia content or modify the look and feel of the profile. Others, e.g., Facebook, allow users to enhance their profile by adding modules or "Applications."[28] Many sites allow users to post blog entries, search for others with similar interests and compile and share lists of contacts. User profiles often have a section dedicated to comments from friends and other users. To protect user privacy, social networks typically have controls that allow users to choose who can view their profile, contact them, add them to their list of contacts, and so on.

[edit] Additional featuresSome social networks have additional features, such as the ability to create groups that share common interests or affiliations, upload or stream live videos, and hold discussions in forums. Geosocial networking co-opts Internet mapping services to organize user participation around geographic features and their attributes.

There is a trend towards more interoperability between social networks led by technologies such as OpenID and OpenSocial. In most mobile communities, mobile phone users can now create their own profiles, make friends, participate in chat rooms, create chat rooms, hold private conversations, share photos and videos, and share blogs by using their mobile phone. Some companies provide wireless services that allow their customers to build their own mobile community and brand it; one of the most popular wireless services for social networking in North America is Facebook Mobile.

[edit] Emerging trendsAs the increase in popularity of social networking is on a constant rise,[29] new uses for the technology are constantly being observed.

At the forefront of emerging trends in social networking sites is the concept of "real-time web" and "location-based." Real-time allows users to contribute content, which is then broadcast as it is being uploaded - the concept is analogous to live radio and television broadcasts. Twitter set the trend for "real-time" services, wherein users can broadcast to the world what they are doing, or what is on their minds within a 140-character limit. Facebook followed suit with their "Live Feed" where users' activities are streamed as soon as it happens. While Twitter focuses on words, Clixtr, another real-time service, focuses on group photo sharing wherein users can update their photo streams with photos while at an event. Facebook, however, remains easily the largest photo sharing site - Facebook application and photo aggregator Pixable estimates that Facebook will have 100 billion photos by Summer 2011.[30]

Companies have begun to merge business technologies and solutions, such as cloud computing, with social networking concepts. Instead of connecting individuals based on social interest, companies are developing interactive communities that connect individuals based on shared business needs or experiences. Many provide specialized networking tools and applications that can be accessed via their websites, such as LinkedIn. Others companies, such as Monster.com, have been steadily developing a more "socialized" feel to their career center sites to harness some of the power of social networking sites. These more business related sites have their own nomenclature for the most part but the most common naming conventions are "Vocational Networking Sites" or "Vocational Media Networks", with the former more closely tied to individual networking relationships based on social networking principles.

Foursquare gained popularity as it allowed for users to "check-in" to places that they are frequenting at that moment. Gowalla is another such service that functions in much the same way that Foursquare does, leveraging the GPS in phones to create a location-based user experience. Clixtr, though in the real-time space, is also a location-based social networking site, since events created by users are automatically geotagged, and users can view events occurring nearby through the Clixtr iPhone app. Recently, Yelp announced its entrance into the location-based social networking space through check-ins with their mobile app; whether or not this becomes detrimental to Foursquare or Gowalla is yet to be seen, as it is still considered a new space in the Internet technology industry.[31]

One popular use for this new technology is social networking between businesses. Companies have found that social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great ways to build their brand image. According to Jody Nimetz, author of Marketing Jive,[32] there are five major uses for businesses and social media: to create brand awareness, as an online reputation management tool, for recruiting, to learn about new technologies and competitors, and as a lead generation tool to intercept potential prospects.[32] These companies are able to drive traffic to their own online sites while encouraging their consumers and clients to have discussions on how to improve or change products or services.

[edit] Social networks and scienceOne other use that is being discussed is the use of social networks in the science communities. Julia Porter Liebeskind et al. have published a study on how new biotechnology firms are using social networking sites to share exchanges in scientific knowledge.[33] They state in their study that by sharing information and knowledge with one another, they are able to "increase both their learning and their flexibility in ways that would not be possible within a self-contained hierarchical organization." Social networking is allowing scientific groups to expand their knowledge base and share ideas, and without these new means of communicating their theories might become "isolated and irrelevant".

[edit] Social networks and educationSocial networks are also being used by teachers and students as a communication tool. Because many students are already using a wide range of social networking sites, teachers have begun to familiarize themselves with this trend and are now using it to their advantage. Teachers and professors are doing everything from creating chat-room forums and groups to extend classroom discussion to posting assignments, tests and quizzes, to assisting with homework outside of the classroom setting. Social networks are also being used to foster teacher-parent communication. These sites make it possible and more convenient for parents to ask questions and voice concerns without having to meet face-to-face. The advent of social networking platforms may also be impacting the way(s) in which learners engage with technology in general. For a number of years, Prensky's (2001) dichotomy of Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants has been considered a relatively accurate representation of the ease with which people of different ages—in particular those born before and after 1980—use technology. Prensky's theory has been largely disproved not least on account of the burgeoning popularity of social networking sites and other metaphors such as White and Le Cornu's Visitors and Residents (2011) are gaining greater currency.

The use of online social networks by libraries is also an increasingly prevalent and growing tool that is being used to communicate with more potential library users, as well as extending the services provided by individual libraries.

[edit] Social networks and grassroots organizingSocial networks are being used by activists as a means of low-cost grassroots organizing. Extensive use of an array of social networking sites enabled organizers of the 2009 National Equality March to mobilize an estimated 200,000 participants to march on Washington with a cost savings of up to 85% per participant over previous methods.[34] The August 2011 England riots were similarly considered to have escalated and been fuelled by this type of grassroots organization.

[edit] Social networks and employmentA final rise in social network use is being driven by college students using the services to network with professionals for internship and job opportunities. Many studies have been done on the effectiveness of networking online in a college setting, and one notable one is by Phipps Arabie and Yoram Wind published in Advances in Social Network Analysis.[35]

Many schools have implemented online alumni directories which serve as makeshift social networks that current and former students can turn to for career advice. However, these alumni directories tend to suffer from an oversupply of advice-seekers and an undersupply of advice providers. One new social networking service, Ask-a-peer, aims to solve this problem by enabling advice seekers to offer modest compensation to advisers for their time.

[edit] Social network hosting serviceA social network hosting service is a web hosting service that specifically hosts the user creation of web-based social networking services, alongside related applications. Such services are also known as vertical social networks due to the creation of SNSes that cater to specific user interests and niches; like larger, interest-agnostic SNSes, such niche networking services may also possess the ability to create increasingly niche groups of users. An example for this is Ning.

[edit] Business modelFew social networks currently charge money for membership. In part, this may be because social networking is a relatively new service, and the value of using them has not been firmly established in customers' minds.[citation needed] Companies such as MySpace and Facebook sell online advertising on their site. Their business model is based upon large membership count, and charging for membership would be counterproductive.[36] Some believe that the deeper information that the sites have on each user will allow much better targeted advertising than any other site can currently provide.[37]

Social networks operate under an autonomous business model, in which a social network's members serve dual roles as both the suppliers and the consumers of content. This is in contrast to a traditional business model, where the suppliers and consumers are distinct agents. Revenue is typically gained in the autonomous business model via advertisements, but subscription-based revenue is possible when membership and content levels are sufficiently high.[38]

[edit] Social InteractionPut simply, social networking is a way for one person to meet up with other people on the net. People use social networking sites for meeting new friends, finding old friends, or locating people who have the same problems or interests they have, called niche networking.

More and more relationships and friendships are being formed online and then carried to an offline setting. Psychologist and University of Hamburg professor Erich H. Witte says that relationships which start online are much more likely to succeed. Witte has said that in less than 10 years, online dating will be the predominant way for people to start a relationship.[39] One online dating site claims that 2% of all marriages begin at its site, the equivalent of 236 marriages a day. Other sites claim 1 in 5 relationships begin online.

Social networking sites play a vital role in this area as well. Being able to meet someone as a "friend" and see what common interests you share and how you have built up your friend base and "likes" you can truly see a fuller picture of the person you are talking with. Most sites are free instead of being pay based which allows younger people with stricter budgets to enjoy some of the same features as those of adults who are more likely to be able to afford pay based sites. While not the intended or original use for these social sites, a large area of their current function has stemmed from people wanting to meet other people in person and with the extremely busy schedules of most people, it is a fast, reliable and easy way in which to do so that costs you little time and money (if any).

[edit] New trends in social networkingNextdoor is a new private social networking site aimed at neighborhoods to help strength and enhance social ties. This SNS will help to bring together communities since neighbors drifted away because of the digital era. [40]

I'll assume that the rest of the debate title ought to read "CE TO FACE". If so, then I'll have to disagree.

In my circle of friends on facebook, I'm the joecavalry of the gang, always ready to make a joke at anybody else's expense, especially my own. I've come to meet people simply because they so like my sense of humor, but you don't become friends with somebody occasionally chatting with them on facebook, you have to interact face-to-face; not everything can be done behind the computer screen.

Why is it easier to make friends over the internet than in real life?

This is going to be super verbose. You may skim through this TL;DR wall of text if you'd like. I won't feel offended at all.

--

I can't seem to understand why it's so difficult for me to make just one, good solid friend. Trying to make friends in high school was fickle for me (and maybe that's just normal for high schoolers in general) but in College---why is it so hard? (and before anyone asks, yes. I'm in College.)

Real Life:

For a while, I thought it was because of my interests/hobbies. I love video games and I'm a Cosplayer. It's hard for me to talk about anything else that's not related to these subjects and although I try, it just seems fake and forced and it's difficult. Hell, I don't even mention video games to them because they're going to think it's weird and are going to be put off by me. (And trust me, I've told this to one person in my class and she's stopped talking to me.)

But, I have met one person on campus who is into video games...though, the genre of games we play are the same, the titles we play are completely different and mine are usually bashed/"looked down on"/not popular enough to sustain a...conversation that doesn't include lots of arguing.

Aside from that, this one person likes to belittle me. He says he's joking around and for a while, I dismissed his crude comments on everything I do. But it's now come to the point where I've literally fussed at him. (He's also fresh out of high school so that...may or may not explain his.....immaturity and how he treats me).

And although, the several other people I've met and have tried to befriend at college have not been difficult to speak with such as the person I've mentioned, trying to communicate with anyone, really, has been causing me to have very little patience with people in real life. It makes me feel lonely, and as if I will never obtain any friends with my kind of love for my hobbies/interest.

The Internet:

I've made a handful of friends on the internet that I appreciate/grateful to know, enjoy talking too. I even have two online friends that I've known for about 6 years and we still keep in contact with each other.

Why is it easier to make friends on the internet than in real life?

It's because you can meet others who share the same interests as you, right?

Because you can trust them and can immediately relate to them, etc.

You don't feel as lonely when you're behind a computer screen chatting away at them

- Yao wei

Medical and health applicationsSocial networks are beginning to be adopted by healthcare professionals as a means to manage institutional knowledge, disseminate peer to peer knowledge and to highlight individual physicians and institutions. The advantage of using a dedicated medical social networking site is that all the members are screened against the state licensing board list of practitioners.[96]

A new trend is emerging with social networks created to help its members with various physical and mental ailments.[97] For people suffering from life altering diseases, PatientsLikeMe offers its members the chance to connect with others dealing with similar issues and research patient data related to their condition. For alcoholics and addicts, SoberCircle gives people in recovery the ability to communicate with one another and strengthen their recovery through the encouragement of others who can relate to their situation. DailyStrength is also a website that offers support groups for a wide array of topics and conditions, including the support topics offered by PatientsLikeMe and SoberCircle.

Some social networks aim to encourage healthy lifestyles in their users. SparkPeople offers community and social networking tools for peer support during weight loss. Fitocracy is focused on exercise, enabling users to share their own workouts and comment on those of other users.

[edit] Social and political applicationsSocial networking sites have recently showed a value in social and political movements.[98] In the Egyptian revolution, Facebook and Twitter both played a pivotal role in keeping people connected to the revolt. Egyptian activists have credited social networking sites with providing a platform for planning protest and sharing news from Tahrir Square in real time. By presenting a platform for thousands of people to instantaneously share videos of mainly events featuring brutality, social networking proves to be a vital tool in revolutions.[99]

[edit] Open source softwareThere are a number of projects that aim to develop free and open source software to use for social networking services. The projects include Anahita Social Networking Engine,[100] Diaspora, Appleseed Project,[101] OneSocialWeb[102] and StatusNet. These technologies are often referred to as Social engine or Social networking engine software.

[edit] Market shareAccording to ComScore, up to end of November 2011:[103]

Worldwide Unique Visitors Percentage

Facebook.com 792,999,000 55.1 %

Twitter.com 167,903,000 11.7 %

LinkedIn.com 94,823,000 6.6 %

Google+ 250,000,000 17.7 %

MySpace 61,037,000 4.2 %

Others 255,539,000 17.8 %

Total 1,438,877,000 100 %

[edit] World UsageAccording to ComScore[104], as of December 2011, Israel leads the world in the time spent in social networks online, followed closely by Argentina.

[edit] In the mediaIn December 2010, Time Magazine named Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as person of the year.

Released in 2010, The Social Network is a film dramatizing the origin of Facebook.

[Xiao Xuan] When you are doing a face to face chatting, you can get to know the real personality of the person you are chatting with. But when you are chatting online, the new friend you are chatting with, can lie about their age and gender to chat with you. Adding to that, one can easily misunderstand a person's tone or mood. Also, when chatting face to face, you can express your emotion better. It's great that we can chat with friends even at the other part on Earth but nothing beats the time you spend together with your real friends. Most of the times when you post something online, you don't really think before you post, which will easily cause misunderstanding. If someone doens't include emotion icons, you might misunderstand the person's intention and thus starting arguments easily. Making friends online is new but can be 'dangerous'. Face to face is the safest and that's the easiest way to get to know each other and be friends.

It is not true that social networking sites that making friends is easy. Just by talking to someone we cannot make freinds. You need to talk to the person face to face without really being freind with the person

It is hard to make real and sincere friends in social networking. Yes, we may make many friends in social networking, but those are friends who cannot be trusted, who cannot give you any moral support, those are friends who cannot be with you in reality. Friend who do not know you well enough to be called as 'friend'. Did we really even talked to those friends in real life? The answer, obviously, is no. 'A study of the sites revealed that while many users have hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances on their accounts, their core group of close friends is still unchanged at around five people. However, weak ties among people around the globe are rising exponentially,' said Will Reader, an evolutionary psychologist at Sheffield Hallam University, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science."Face-to-face contact is a requirement for intimate friendships," he told the conference. "There are many emotional cues that people give face to face, such as smiling and laughing, which are impossible to fake, whereas online it is easy to say, 'You are wonderful,'. Social networking sites are, however, for a group of people known as friend collectors, who add little-known acquaintances just for the sake of having a large number of contacts on their profile. These kind of people, even if they have millions of friends, their friends aren't called true "friends"

(FINAL)It is hard to make real and sincere friends in social networking. Yes, we may came to know many people via social networking, but those are people who cannot be trusted, who cannot give you any moral support, who cannot be with you in reality, those are people who do not know you well enough to be called as 'friend'. Did we really even talked to those friends in real life? The answer, obviously, is no. 'A study of the sites revealed that while many users have hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances on their accounts, their core group of close friends is still unchanged at around five people. However, weak ties among people around the globe are rising exponentially,' said Will Reader, an evolutionary psychologist at Sheffield University, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science."Face-to-face contact is a requirement for intimate friendships," he told the conference. "There are many emotional cues that people give face to face, such as smiling and laughing, which are impossible to fake, whereas it is easy to say, 'You are wonderful,'. Social networking sites are, however, for a group of people known as friend collectors, who add little-known acquaintances just for the sake of having a large number of contacts on their profile. It seems like it is easier to make 'friends' via social networking, doesn't it? Well, I would say it is completely wrong concept because we are not making friends in the networking sites in the first place. Friends are people whom we can trust, who are able to understand us well and able to with our thoughts and feelings. So, can these people actually really understand us, or even know us in the first place? Well, no. So then, what makes us think that it is easier to make friends in social networking when we are not even making friends? To make real friends in social networking is a real hard issue because we have to actually try to understand the other person's emotions and feelings and just by the words typed out by the alone, when the words might not even be true. Even if we do managed to understand the person, provided what the person typed are all genuine, it might be less likely that the person will actually understand us back. This kind of relationship is not friendship. It is just a little bit more than strangers. In real life, it is easier to communicate and understand each other's thoughts and feelings because the facial expressions and actions are less likely to be fake because it is hard to hide the true intentions and feelings when meeting face to face. Thus, it is harder to make friends in social networking sites than face to face.

Issues[edit] PrivacyPrivacy concerns with social networking services have been raised growing concerns amongst users on the dangers of giving out too much personal information and the threat of sexual predators. Users of these services also need to be aware of data theft or viruses. However, large services, such as MySpace and Netlog, often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents.[citation needed]

In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personal information in the hands of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a profile to be produced on an individual's behavior on which decisions, detrimental to an individual, may be taken.

Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of data—information that was altered or removed by the user may in fact be retained and/or passed to third parties. This danger was highlighted when the controversial social networking site Quechup harvested e-mail addresses from users' e-mail accounts for use in a spamming operation.[41]

In medical and scientific research, asking subjects for information about their behaviors is normally strictly scrutinized by institutional review boards, for example, to ensure that adolescents and their parents have informed consent. It is not clear whether the same rules apply to researchers who collect data from social networking sites. These sites often contain a great deal of data that is hard to obtain via traditional means. Even though the data are public, republishing it in a research paper might be considered invasion of privacy.[42]

Privacy on social networking sites can be undermined by many factors. For example, users may disclose personal information, sites may not take adequate steps to protect user privacy, and third parties frequently use information posted on social networks for a variety of purposes. "For the Net generation, social networking sites have become the preferred forum for social interactions, from posturing and role playing to simply sounding off. However, because such forums are relatively easy to access, posted content can be reviewed by anyone with an interest in the users' personal information".[43][44][45]

Following plans by the UK government to monitor traffic on social networks[46] schemes similar to E-mail jamming have been proposed for networks such as Twitter and Facebook. These would involve "friending" and "following" large numbers of random people to thwart attempts at network analysis.

[edit] Data miningThrough data mining, companies are able to improve their sales and profitability. With this data, companies create customer profiles that contain customer demographics and online behavior. A recent strategy has been the purchase and production of “network analysis software”. This software is able to sort out through the influx of social networking data for any specific company.[47] Facebook has been especially important to marketing strategists. Facebook’s controversial and new “Social Ads” program gives companies access to the millions of profiles in order to tailor their ads to a Facebook user’s own interests and hobbies. However, rather than sell actual user information, Facebook sells tracked “social actions”. That is, they track the websites a user uses outside of Facebook through a program called Facebook Beacon.[48]

[edit] Notifications on websitesThere has been a trend for social networking sites to send out only 'positive' notifications to users. For example sites such as Bebo, Facebook, and Myspace will not send notifications to users when they are removed from a person's friends list. Likewise, Bebo will send out a notification if a user is moved to the top of another user's friends list but no notification is sent if they are moved down the list.

This allows users to purge undesirables from their list extremely easily and often without confrontation since a user will rarely notice if one person disappears from their friends list. It also enforces the general positive atmosphere of the website without drawing attention to unpleasant happenings such as friends falling out, rejection and failed relationships.

[edit] Access to informationMany social networking services, such as Facebook, provide the user with a choice of who can view their profile. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from accessing their information.[49] Parents who want to access their child's MySpace or Facebook account have become a big problem for teenagers who do not want their profile seen by their parents. By making their profile private, teens can select who may see their page, allowing only people added as "friends" to view their profile and preventing unwanted viewing of the profile by parents. Most teens are constantly trying to create a structural barrier between their private life and their parents.[50]

To edit information on a certain social networking service account, the social networking sites require you to login or provide a password. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from adding, changing, or removing personal information, pictures, and/or other data.

See also: Unauthorized access in online social networks

[edit] Potential for misuseThe relative freedom afforded by social networking services has caused concern regarding the potential of its misuse by individual patrons. In October 2006, a fake Myspace profile created in the name of Josh Evans by Lori Janine Drew led to the suicide of Megan Meier.[51][not in citation given][52] The event incited global concern regarding the use of social networking services for bullying purposes.

In July 2008, a Briton, Grant Raphael, was ordered to pay a total of GBP £22,000 (about USD $44,000) for libel and breach of privacy. Raphael had posted a fake page on Facebook purporting to be that of a former schoolfriend Matthew Firsht, with whom Raphael had fallen out in 2000. The page falsely claimed that Firsht was homosexual and that he was dishonest.[citation needed]

At the same time, genuine use of social networking services has been treated with suspicion on the ground of the services' misuse. In September 2008, the profile of Australian Facebook user Elmo Keep was banned by the site's administrators on the grounds that it violated the site's terms of use. Keep is one of several users of Facebook who were banned from the site on the presumption that their names aren't real, as they bear resemblance to the names of characters like Sesame Street's Elmo.[53]

[edit] Risk for child safetyCitizens and governments have been concerned with misuse by child and teenagers of social networking services, in particular in relation to online sexual predators. A certain number of actions have been engaged by governments to better understand the problem and find some solutions.[specify] A 2008 panel concluded that technological fixes such as age verification and scans are relatively ineffective means of apprehending online predators.[54] In May 2010, a child pornography social networking site with hundreds of members was dismantled by law enforcement. It was deemed "the largest crimes against children case brought anywhere by anyone."[55] Social Networking can also be a risk to child safety in another way; parents can get addicted to games hosted by websites such as Facebook and neglect their children, sometimes causing a child to die from starvation.[56]

[edit] TrollingMain article: Troll (Internet)

A common misuse of social networking sites such as Facebook is that it is occasionally used to emotionally abuse individuals. Such actions are often referred to as trolling. It is not rare for confrontations in the real world to be translated online.[citation needed] Trolling can occur in many different forms, such as (but not limited to) defacement of deceased person(s) tribute pages, name calling, playing online pranks on volatile individuals and controversial comments with the intention to cause anger and cause arguments. Trolling is not to be confused with cyber-bullying.

[edit] Online bullyingOnline bullying, also called cyber-bullying, is a relatively common occurrence and it can often result in emotional trauma for the victim. Depending on the networking outlet, up to 39% of users admit to being “cyber-bullied”.[57] Danah Boyd, a researcher of social networks quotes a teenager in her article, Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites. The teenager expresses frustration towards networking sites like MySpace because it causes drama and too much emotional stress.[58] There are not many limitations as to what individuals can post when online. Individuals are given the power to post offensive remarks or pictures that could potentially cause a great amount of emotional pain for another individual.

[edit] Interpersonal communicationInterpersonal communication has been a growing issue as more and more people have turned to social networking as a means of communication. "Benniger (1987) describes how mass media has gradually replaced interpersonal communication as a socializing force. Further, social networking sites have become popular sites for youth culture to explore themselves, relationships, and share cultural artifacts".[59] Many teens and social networking users may be harming their interpersonal communication by using sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Stated by Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University Neuroscientist, "My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment."[60] The convenience that social network sites give users to communicate with one another can also damage their interpersonal communication. Sherry Turkle, the founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, stated, “Networked, we are together, but so lessened are our expectations of each other that we feel utterly alone. And there is the risk that we come to see others as objects to be accessed--and only for the parts we find useful, comforting, or amusing.”[61] Furthermore, social network sites can create insincere friendships, Turkle also noted, “They nurture friendships on social-networking sites and then wonder if they are among friends. They become confused about companionship.”[62]

[edit] Psychological effects of social networkingAs social networking sites have risen in popularity over the past years, people have been spending an excessive amount of time on the Internet in general and social networking sites in specific. This has led researchers to debate the establishment of Internet addiction as an actual clinical disorder.[63] Social networking can also affect the extent to which a person feels lonely. In a Newsweek article, Johannah Cornblatt explains “Social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace may provide people with a false sense of connection that ultimately increases loneliness in people who feel alone.” John T. Cacioppo, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago, claims that social networking can foster feelings of sensitivity to disconnection, which can lead to loneliness.[64] However some scholars have expressed that concerns about social networking are often exaggerated and poorly researched .[65]

[edit] Patents

Number of US social network patent applications published per year and patents issued per yearThere has been rapid growth in the number of US patent applications that cover new technologies related to social networking. The number of published applications has been growing rapidly since 2003. There are now over 3500 published applications. As many as 7000 applications may be currently on file including those that haven't been published yet.[66] Only about 400[67] of these applications have issued as patents, however, due largely to the multi-year backlog in examination of business method patents and the difficulty in getting these patent applications allowed.[68]

It has been reported that social networking patents are important for the establishment of new start-up companies.[69] It has also been reported, however, that social networking patents inhibit innovation.[70] On June 15, 2010, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded Amazon.com a patent for a "Social Networking System" based on its ownership of PlanetAll.[71] The patent describes a Social Networking System as

A networked computer system provides various services for assisting users in locating, and establishing contact relationships with, other users. For example, in one embodiment, users can identify other users based on their affiliations with particular schools or other organizations. The system also provides a mechanism for a user to selectively establish contact relationships or connections with other users, and to grant permissions for such other users to view personal information of the user. The system may also include features for enabling users to identify contacts of their respective contacts. In addition, the system may automatically notify users of personal information updates made by their respective contacts.[72]

The patent has garnered attention due to its similarity to the popular social networking site Facebook.[73]

[edit] Worker's rightsWhat types of speech workers are protected from being fired for on social networking websites has been an issue for American companies with over 100 complaints as of 2011 on this topic having been made to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).[74] The National Labor Relations Act protects workers from being fired for "protected concerted activity," which prevents workers from being fired for collective action, while allowing companies the right to fire workers for individual actions they take against the company.[74] Companies are concerned with the potential damage comments online can do to public image due to their visibility and accessibility, but despite over 100 cases being presented thus far to NLRB only 1 has led to a formal ruling, leaving uncertainty as to the boundaries of what types of speech the NLRB will ultimately put in place.[74]

[edit] Decentralized architectureMost of the existing SNS sites use one or multiple dedicated data centers to serve its all users. Such infrastructure-based systems faces over-provisioning during non-peak hours, while may encounter service outage during peak hours, due to the highly dynamic of SNS users' activities. There are several proposals, leveraging a decentralized architecture to ensure the scalability of SNS sites with low infrastructure cost. These proposals include Fethr[75] uaOSN [76], and Cuckoo [77].

[edit] InvestigationsMain article: Use of social network websites in investigations

Social networking services are increasingly being used in legal and criminal investigations. Information posted on sites such as MySpace and Facebook has been used by police (forensic profiling), probation, and university officials to prosecute users of said sites. In some situations, content posted on MySpace has been used in court.[78]

Facebook is increasingly being used by school administrations and law enforcement agencies as a source of evidence against student users. This site being the number one online destination for college students, allows users to create profile pages with personal details. These pages can be viewed by other registered users from the same school, which often include resident assistants and campus police who have signed up for the service.[79] One UK police force has sifted pictures from Facebook and arrested some people who had been photographed in a public place holding a weapon such as a knife (having a weapon in a public place is illegal).[80]

[edit] Application domains[edit] Government applicationsSocial networking is more recently being used by various government agencies. Social networking tools serve as a quick and easy way for the government to get the opinion of the public and to keep the public updated on their activity. The Centers for Disease Control demonstrated the importance of vaccinations on the popular children's site Whyville and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a virtual island on Second Life where people can explore underground caves or explore the effects of global warming.[81] Likewise, NASA has taken advantage of a few social networking tools, including Twitter and Flickr. They are using these tools to aid the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, whose goal it is to ensure that the nation is on a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest aspirations in space.[82]

[edit] Business applicationsThe use of social networking services in an enterprise context presents the potential of having a major impact on the world of business and work (Fraser & Dutta 2008).

Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contact bases. These networks often act as a customer relationship management tool for companies selling products and services. Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of banners and text ads. Since businesses operate globally, social networks can make it easier to keep in touch with contacts around the world.

Two examples of social networking being used for business purposes are LinkedIn.com and Youngblackprofessionals.org. LinkedIn aims to interconnect professionals. LinkedIn has over 100 million users in over 200 countries.[83] Youngblackprofessionals.org or YBP aims to do the same thing, but is targeted toward professional minorities. .[84]

Another is the use of physical spaces available to members of a social network such as Hub Culture, an invitation-only social network for entrepreneurs, and other business influentials, with Pavilions in major cities such as London, UK. Having a physical presence allows members to network in the real world, as well as the virtual, adding extra business value.

Applications for social networking sites have extended toward businesses and brands are creating their own, high functioning sites, a sector known as brand networking. It is the idea that a brand can build its consumer relationship by connecting their consumers to the brand image on a platform that provides them relative content, elements of participation, and a ranking or score system. Brand networking is a new way to capitalize on social trends as a marketing tool.

[edit] Dating applicationsSee also: Online dating service

Many social networks provide an online environment for people to communicate and exchange personal information for dating purposes. Intentions can vary from looking for a one time date, short-term relationships, and long-term relationships.[85]

Most of these social networks, just like online dating services, require users to give out certain pieces of information. This usually includes a user's age, gender, location, interests, and perhaps a picture. Releasing very personal information is usually discouraged for safety reasons.[86] This allows other users to search or be searched by some sort of criteria, but at the same time people can maintain a degree of anonymity similar to most online dating services. Online dating sites are similar to social networks in the sense that users create profiles to meet and communicate with others, but their activities on such sites are for the sole purpose of finding a person of interest to date. Social networks do not necessarily have to be for dating; many users simply use it for keeping in touch with friends, and colleagues.[87]

However, an important difference between social networks and online dating services is the fact that online dating sites usually require a fee, where social networks are free.[88] This difference is one of the reasons the online dating industry is seeing a massive decrease in revenue due to many users opting to use social networking services instead. Many popular online dating services such as Match.com, Yahoo Personals, and eHarmony.com are seeing a decrease in users, where social networks like MySpace and Facebook are experiencing an increase in users.[89]

The number of Internet users in the U.S. that visit online dating sites has fallen from a peak of 21% in 2003 to 10% in 2006.[90] Whether its the cost of the services, the variety of users with different intentions, or any other reason, it is undeniable that social networking sites are quickly becoming the new way to find dates online.

[edit] Educational applicationsThe National School Boards Association reports that almost 60 percent of students who use social networking talk about education topics online, and more than 50 percent talk specifically about schoolwork. Yet the vast majority of school districts have stringent rules against nearly all forms of social networking during the school day — even though students and parents report few problem behaviors online.

Social networks focused on supporting relationships between teachers and their students are now used for learning, educator professional development, and content sharing. Ning for teachers, TermWiki, Learn Central,[91] TeachStreet and other sites are being built to foster relationships that include educational blogs, eportfolios, formal and ad hoc communities, as well as communication such as chats, discussion threads, and synchronous forums. These sites also have content sharing and rating features.

Social networks are also emerging as online yearbooks, both public and private. One such service is MyYearbook, which allows anyone from the general public to register and connect. A new trend emerging is private label yearbooks accessible only by students, parents, and teachers of a particular school, similar to Facebook's beginning within Harvard.[citation needed]

[edit] Finance applicationsThe use of virtual currency systems inside social networks create new opportunities for global finance. Hub Culture operates a virtual currency Ven used for global transactions among members, product sales[92] and financial trades in commodities and carbon credits.[93][94] In May 2010, Carbon pricing contracts were introduced to the weighted basket of currencies and commodities that determine the floating exchange value of Ven. The introduction of carbon to the calculation price of the currency made Ven

the first and only currency that is linked to the environment

Popular websites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, Blogspot, and Xanga make it easy to build a web of friends and acquaintances, and share with them your photos, whereabouts, contact information, and interests.

But be thoughtful about what you post; don’t put your safety or your future at risk.

Never forget: the words and images you post on the Internet may be available for years, and your profile may be viewed by future employers and school admissions officials, as well as identity thieves, spammers, and stalkers.

Social networking sites explained

Sometimes called “friend-of-a-friend” sites, social networking websites build upon the concept of traditional social networks in the “real world,” connecting users to familiar and new people through mutual acquaintances and common interests.

The very nature of such sites encourages users to provide a certain amount of personal information. But when deciding how much information to reveal, people may not exercise the same amount of caution on a Website as they would when meeting someone in person. This happens because:

•the Internet provides a sense of anonymity;

•the lack of physical interaction provides a false sense of security; and

•they tailor the information for their friends to read, forgetting that others may see it.

Sharing too much information on social networking sites can be problematic in two ways: first, it can reveal something about you that you’d rather your current or future employer or school administrator not know, and second, it can put your personal safety at risk.

Making your online profile work for you instead of against you

Recent media coverage has highlighted a new, fast-growing trend among corporate recruiters and school admissions officials: more than just Googling candidates, many are now monitoring social networking sites, too. Recent studies have shown that 1 in 10 admissions officers checks for candidates on social networking sites and 38 percent of the time, this leads to rejections. These numbers are likely to continue to climb in coming years.

So what’s the best course of action? Use your online profile to your advantage!

Treat it like a free place to promote yourself personally and professionally while staying connected with both nearby and far-flung friends, relatives, colleagues, and acquaintances. When applying to schools or conducting a job search, this is particularly true.

So, if you mentioned on your resume that you volunteer in your community, can speak another language, or travel for work or pleasure—then “round out” your claim by backing it up online. Share photos of your recent trip, or of you doing community service work. Similarly, if you have expertise in a certain subject area, create an online “portfolio” of sorts: post links to items you’ve written or developed or artwork you’ve created. This way, if they search for you online and find you—and again, statistics show that increasingly that’s exactly what’s happening—what they discover will actually bolster your application!

Just a quick background check...

By the same token, Web pages containing risqué photos and provocative comments about drinking, recreational drug use, and hookups can make applicants look immature and lacking in professional judgment. And most take what is posted very seriously, as it reveals the applicant’s level of common sense and gives insight into their personality.

Many people share such things because they mistakenly believe their page will have relative privacy—particularly on Facebook, a site that, at one time, had specific requirements to register and was not open to the general public. (That has changed in recent years, and Facebook is now open to non-University students.) But viewing personal profiles on Facebook can still be restricted to friends and others on the user’s campus, leading many students to assume that their posts are relatively private.

Reports have even surfaced recently of school administrators and police monitoring social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to identify illegal activities, such as underage drinking, hazing, and other inappropriate conduct.

So, when deciding whether to post a racy picture, snide remark, or gruesome detail about last night’s party, the guiding principle should be the “grandmother test:” if you wouldn’t want her to see it, then don’t share it. Content that might be amusing and harmless to you and your friends may not be seen in the same light by an admissions officer, school official, or future employer. Instead, share the types of things that would make your grandmother proud of you. Those are the things you won’t regret posting later.

Remember, what happens on the Web stays on the Web. So use your online profile to reflect well...instead of poorly...on yourself.

Social networking sites can make life easier for spammers and stalkers

Another potential downside of social networking sites is that they allow others to know a person’s contact information, interests, habits, and whereabouts. Consequences of sharing this information can range from the relatively harmless but annoying—such as an increase in spam—to the potentially deadly—such as stalking.

While the vast majority of people using social networking sites do not pose a threat, malicious people may be drawn to them because of the accessibility and amount of personal information available on them.

Criminals can use information provided about a person’s birthday, location, routine, hobbies, and interests to impersonate a trusted friend or convince the unsuspecting that they have the authority to access personal or financial data. They can even use such info to guess your account passwords—which is why you should never have a password that uses the name of your pet, favorite band, hobby, birthday, or something else easily known about you. And stalkers will really appreciate your help if you post your daily routine and whereabouts online!

So, when deciding whether to post something, remember that the more information malicious people have about you, the easier it is for them to take advantage of you.

The risks to children and teens

Children and young teens are especially susceptible to the threats that social networking sites present. Although many of these sites have age restrictions, there is no real way to enforce these requirements, and children may misrepresent their ages so that they can join.

Predators may target children, teens, and other unsuspecting persons online—sometimes posing to be someone else—and then slowly“groom” them, forming relationships with them and then eventually convincing them to meet in person.

Parents should be sure they teach children about Internet safety, stay aware of kids’ online habits, and utilize all tools and resources available to them to help them monitor minors’ Internet use. Guiding children to appropriate websites and training teens to recognize inappropriate content and unsolicited contact will also help. Taking such steps will help children and teens become safe and responsible computer users.

Ways to protect yourself on social networking sites

•Limit who can see what you post. If you don’t want random users to see your contact information, you can limit the publication of that data. Just change your settings. You can also block users from having any contact with you should the need arise.

◦One simple and quick setting (on Facebook) you can change to increase privacy is to restrict the viewing of your profile only to users at your own college or to only your “friend” list. Most social networking sites offer similar ways to restrict access to personal information, but in all cases, the principle is the same: don’t advertise to the world what you’re doing or where you live.

◦But don’t forget that even if you limit who can see what you post, there are ways others can get around it to view your profile anyway.

•Limit what you post. Don’t share things that would make you vulnerable to unwanted contact (such as sharing your email address, physical address, or phone number) or to stalking (such as information about your schedule or routine).

◦Also, if your friends or connections post such information about you, make sure the combined information on their pages is not more than you would be comfortable with strangers knowing.

Remember, you can’t take it back!

Finally, it’s important to recognize that once you publish something online, it is available to other people and to search engines. You can’t retract it.

Even if you go back and remove the information from a site, it’s always possible that someone has already seen it. And they may have saved a copy.

In addition, some search engines “cache” copies of Web pages so that they open faster; these cached copies may be available a long time after a Web page has been deleted or altered. Some Web browsers, also, maintain a cache of the Web pages a user has visited, so the original version of your posting may be stored in someone else’s machine.

The bottom line? Once something is out there, there’s no guarantee you can take it back.

So, the advice mentioned above bears repeating: use your online profile as a free place to promote yourself professionally and academically. If you keep that approach in mind, you won’t post anything you’d regret later, and you’ll enjoy the benefits of staying connected with friends and acquaintances, while protecting yourself and even bolstering your resume.

Marielle M. Solano (30) 2E1

This statement is untrue.

Although meeting up with friends may sometimes be overrated, it is still important if both sides want to ensure that their friendship is strong and firm, and will not break due to petty things that are easily solvable. Chatting with someone online and sharing about each other can be informative, but a strong sense of trust cannot be firmed if both sides know that the other party could be lying through their teeth while typing, for it is extremely easy to do so when you can choose your letters carefully and even replace words to make yourself sound as impressionable as possible. For example, a whole non-existent event or situation can be formed easily because a person can think through it carefully and tediously as they don't have to reply immediately. Sending, "I went to Universal Stuidos Singapore yesterday!" itself could be a lie. This is why writers of books do not speak their thoughts down, but write them, because there is room for mistakes that can be edited, corrected, and made to sound as perfect as possible. Therefore, the first reason why making friends in social networking sites is more difficult than doing so face to face is because information shared online is less trustworthy than words spoken to each other.

Imagine this scenario: two friends walking down the path together, enjoying an ice cream each. They are excitedly talking about what just happened in school. They joke about the ridiculousness of the situation and laugh at it. It is such a lovely scene, isn't it? Compared to sitting in front of a computer and typing furiously away, it definitely is. The monotonous idea of the activity of sitting in a lonely room apparently having a fun time chatting with a best friend who is probably having as much fun as the person himself absolutely cannot beat the emotions, laughs and fun shared when the person is actually with his best friend. There are just some things that cannot be said through the internet. So, the second and last reason why making friends in social networking sites is less easy than doing so face to face is because being all alone in a room is much less boring than being out with friends.

Therefore, I disagree with the statement: "It is easier to make friends in social networking sites than face to face."

in social net working sites, it will be difficult to make true friends. Although on social networking sites we can make friends quickly by just typing and clicking, we won't know if he or she is writing the truth or false statement. We also won't know how he or she behaves. Making friends face to face will allow you to understand the friend better, knowing if he or she behaves rowdily or badly will help you to choose the friend correctly.For example, the friend that you meet in social networking sites can be telling a lot of good things about them self but you won't know how he or she really is until you meet him face to face. The friend that you make on social networking sites could be taking drugs but you won't know as he or she won/t be telling you about what he or she does.From http://www.buzzle.com/articles/is-making-friends-online-good-or-bad.html"•What is the guarantee that the person you have been chatting with has the same ideologies and beliefs in his/her life? Through text chatting or even audio/video chat you cannot determine anything about the person."

Thus, I think that making friends face to face is better.

For shy people yes, but on normal occasions no. For making a friend you need to know the person very well such as which background they come from and where they are from. Without personal trust you should not add friends as thier body language tells a lot about their character and you can contradict from this whether you want to be friends with them.

I have to basically disagree with this.A social networking site can be defined as an online service that is based around the building and reflecting of social relations among individuals with common interests or social ties (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Social networking sites such as Friendster, Linkedin, Spoke, Face book, MySpace and Twitter all vary slightly, yet the one main feature they have is that they enable users to create a profile within the website to represent themselves and allows uses to interact through email, instant messaging and other integrated communication channels within the site (Papacharissi, 2009). The popularity and growth of social networking sites over the past five years has been colossal, as many people from all over the world join up to this social phenomenon for varied reasons. Today, there are more than 500 million active users on face book and users spend over 700 billion minutes per month on this social networking site (Facebook, 2011). As the technology of Web 2.0 improves and advances, social networking sites have an even bigger impact on society and human relationships, both positive and negative. This paper argues that social networking sites have a negative influence on children, teenagers and adults, increase the ease and prominence of cyber bullying, increase personal insecurities and feed addictions and weaken strong personal ties. This paper also argues that social networks create distraction and decrease productivity and profits within the workplace and can also can jeopardise a company’s reputation. Social networks also increase the ease of identity theft and bring to light other privacy issues as well as lead to an overall decrease in our face to face social skills and confidence.

All of my friends on facebook currently are people who I have known in real life. Therefore, I feel that it would be more difficult to make friends in social networking sites.

Futhermore, the people who have thousands of friends do not spend time building relationships, but spend time aquiring new "friends".

In my own opinion, i think that it is easier to make friends face to face instead of making friends in social networking sites.

I have to agree that making friends through social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter are easier and more convenient. However, the "friends" you chat with on Facebook or Twitter can't be a true friend. Firstly, you don't know what they are up to, what they are thinking. Who knows they are there to hurt you, harrass you, threaten you or whatsoever. This is also known as Cyber-bullying. Furthermore, social networkign sites do not allow us to feel close to someone when doing an activity. Julia T.wood describes that closeness through doing as a way to create and express closeness by sharing activities.

Therefore, to conclude, i disagree that it is easier to make friends in social networking sites than face to face to a large extent.

The indirect relationships on social networking sites display disconnect and are meaningless in making friends.

I've only ever even met a handful of people through networking sites, and I haven't gone so far as to call any of them "friends" until after we met in person and actually got to know one another.

Not for me. I make friends much easier face to face. If I'm at a social gathering with some people I do not know, I generally walk away with a couple new friends. While I have made friends online as well, I'm sure one might see why I would be hesitant.

Many use the seemingly internet anonymity to recreate themselves and building up a web of lies. It's hard to create friendships when you don't know anything except what they tell you. Face to face friendships, while that type of lying is still possible, it's much harder when you can see them everyday and meet others in their life.

And as a bit of a joke, sites like Facebook, tend to get you annoyed at your friends. There's a joke on Pinterest that I've seen on other sites (just replace the site names) that says: "Facebook makes you hate people you already know while Pinterest makes you love people you've never met."

First of all we need to define "friends". To be really be friends with someone, you need to know the person very well. Just because they are your friends on social networking sites does not mean that you will be friends in real life. What your online friends write about themselves and their interest on online social networking may not be their true interest. For example your online friends says that he likes to play soccer. YOU are the person friend because you also like to play soccer but when you really meet you realize that the person likes badminton not soccer. If so you will not be friends with the person any more. Hence I think that it is not easier to make friend online. IN Facebook all the friends I have are all whom I am friends in real life. I have not made friend via social networking site .

Warning: YOU CAN'T MAKE REAL FREINDS ONLINE

James Randerson, science correspondent

The Guardian, Tuesday 11 September 2007

Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace do not help you make more genuine close friends, according to a survey by researchers who studied how the websites are changing the nature of friendship networks. Although social networking on the internet helps people to collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the researchers believe that face to face contact is nearly always necessary to form truly close friendships.

"Although the numbers of friends people have on these sites can be massive, the actual number of close friends is approximately the same in the face to face real world," said psychologist Will Reader, from Sheffield Hallam University.

Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have taken off rapidly in recent years. Facebook was launched initially in 2004 for Harvard University members but has since expanded to more than 34 million users worldwide. MySpace, which was set up in 2003, has more than 200 million users and was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 2005 for $580m (£285m).

Previous research has suggested that a person's conventional friendship group consists of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger numbers of people whom we keep in touch with less regularly.

This figure is so consistent that scientists have suggested it is determined by the cognitive constraints of keeping up with large numbers of people.

But Dr Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do allow people to stretch this figure.

The team asked more than 200 people to fill in questionnaires about their online networking, asking for example how many online friends they had, how many of these were close friends and how many they had met face to face. The team found that although the sites allowed contact with hundreds of acquaintances, as with conventional friendship networks, people tend to have around five close friends.

Ninety per cent of contacts whom the subjects regarded as close friends were people they had met face to face.

"People see face to face contact as being absolutely imperative in forming close friendships," added Dr Reader. He told the British Association Festival of Science in York that social networking sites allow people to broaden their list of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch online is easy. "What social network sites can do is decrease the cost of maintaining and forming these social networks because we can post information to multiple people," he said.

But to develop a real friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy, said Dr Reader. "What we need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to invest in us, is really going to be there for us when we need them ... It's very easy to be deceptive on the internet."

I disagree. 'Friends' that are made through social networking sites are mere acquaintances as the friendship is superficial and it can affect a person's behaviour and socialization by losing the ability to communicate face-to-face with others. Whereas making friends face-to-face forms genuine friendship and is beneficial to our way of life because it maintains a person's sense of identity.

Social networking sites can cause harm to a person’s social ability as these sites makes it easy to avoid physical contact by providing easy and fast communication. Because of the social awkwardness of being in person, having to make eye contact, and manage nervous twitches, is eradicated by the Internet and its ability to de-personalize interactions made with other people, more and more people choose to make ‘friends’, or acquaintances through the internet. Although these social networking sites helps reserved and withdrawn people to make friends or acquaintances easier by ignore social boundaries, making it simpler to say what they want by pretending that whoever they are talking to is just an image or words on a screen, too much reliance on these social networking sites may cause people to be greater self-withdrawn, resulting in serious health issues.

Based on an article expressing the opinion of the psychologist Dr Aric Sigman, a reduction in personal contact could increase the risks of heart disease, stroke and dementia. Also, spending more than three hours a day on social networking sites can produce a higher likelihood of trying cigarettes, binge drinking, and using illegal drugs. People who spent hours in social networking sites showed higher odds for depression, fighting and poor academics among other behaviour concerns. They were also 69% more likely to binge drink than those who spend less time in social networking sites.

In conclusion, it is not easier to make genuine friends in social networking sites than face-to-face.

Marielle M. Solano (30) 2E1

I disagree with this statement because of the following reasons.

Firstly, there is the matter of trust. Making friends onoonon-lineay be easy but there is completely no guarantee that the person is who he/she says he/she is. Chatting with someone oon-line and sharing about each other can be informative, but you know that the other party could be lying through their teeth while typing, for it is extremely easy to do so when you can choose your letters carefully and even replace words to make yourself sound as impressionable as possible. For example, a whole non-existent event or situation can be formed easily because a person can think through it carefully and tediously as they don't have to reply immediately. Sending, "I went to Universal Studios Singapore yesterday!" itself could be a lie. This is why writers of books do not speak their thoughts down, but write them, because there is room for mistakes that can be edited, corrected, and made to sound as perfect as possible. It is also quite dangerous not knowing who you are talking to for sure as the person on the other side may have untoward or harmful intentions towards you, with you being completely oblivious until you suffer the consequences you never knew were coming. After all, how do you solve a problem when you never even knew it was there, waiting to be solved in the first place? This is especially so if you trust the person so much that personal details or information is shared, because this information may be put into the kind of use that will land you in a lot of trouble, such as blackmail, extortion or even kidnapping. Even telling someone what time your child ends school that day may end up extremely badly. For example, a person could say that he/she is from your school when in actuality, he/she is your local gangster, looking for his/her next victim, and innocently asking, “What time do we end school today again? I lost my timetable. :)”. Either that, or a person could say he/she is from a completely different country and chatted with you because he/she found your profile picture cute, therefore making you instantly like him/her, when all he/she wants to do is extort embarrassing details about certain events from you so that he/she can spread it around because he/she is really only a jealous best friend ready to destroy your social life. Therefore, the uncertainty of whether or not the person you are chatting with is trustworthy makes this statement untrue.

Secondly, when conversing with another person, we always say that body language speaks half of the words. Sarcasm, especially, can be easily differentiated from genuineness by judging the tone of the person and how he/she said it. You cannot show this through typing. It is almost impossible, and it leads to awkward situations when you have to ask, “Were you serious about me being funny or were you just being sarcastic?” It is even more embarrassing when the person complimenting you says he/she was being perfectly serious and secretly feels offended that you could doubt his/her generosity. These kinds of situation would never happen were the two parties having an actual conversation in real life and not through the computer. You could be boring a person so much and not even know it, just because that person seems enthusiastic through his/her typing! Thus, to avoid awkward and embarrassing situations like these, you should sit down somewhere nice and talk to a person where you can see his/her body language perfectly fine.

Thirdly, you may think you are “falling in love” with another person just because you chat with him/her every day, and while that feeling is fun, it isn’t particularly healthy. It is extremely easy for you to express and share your feelings with someone online since you can choose the exact words you want and where you want them, easily correcting any mistakes with a simple press of the ‘backspace’ button. People often confuse these expressions as the budding of a new love and they will start to get hopeful. However, if you find out that your “love” actually lives leagues away and will never get the opportunity to meet him/her, or you find out that he/she is already in a relationship, you may get so crushed by this that you go into severe depression for something that never was there before. It’s complete unnecessary trouble, so you might as well go and see for yourself whether or not you love someone, face to face.

If you want to find a true friend, the Internet is definitely not the place you should go to. Although meeting up with friends may sometimes be overrated, it is still important if both sides want to ensure that their friendship is strong and firm, and will not break due to petty things that are easily solvable. Getting a “Best Friend Forever” itself is already difficult when you’re associating with the person in real life every day, so there isn’t much to say about doing so online other than the fact that it will either fail or take an extremely long time. You can only get to know a person to a limited extent when chatting with them online. For example, you may call yourself someone’s best friend after chatting with him/her for, say, six months. However, small yet important details like his/her every day habits such as biting his/her nails or unconsciously touching his/her hair every minute will never be known to you, so the title of “best friend” isn’t really yours to take. So, the last reason why this statement is untrue is because creating a lasting, strong friendship bond is impossible if you only chat with a person online.

In conclusion, making friends face to face is most definitely easier than making friends with a person through a social networking site.

It is not easier, IT'S THE EASIEST. Just click the "add friend" button, isn't it easy? That is just one of the definitions of "easy". It's easy to make friend online but how would you know that they are real friends? There are many cases of people being cheated. The "friend" that you added may have a motive, he/she may try to get close to you and try to gain your trust. However, he/she just wanted to cheat your money. After a few weeks, he/she will say that he/she is ill or he's/she's parents are ill and will try to lend money from you and never return them. This is the pros and cons of the second definition.

-Javier

It's much more easier to make friends in reality then in social networking sites. To start off, I would like to define social networking sites as a social network service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks. And face to face as reality.

Although to some extend I do agree that it is easier to talk online as it is not as awkward to bring up topics there. However, when we do not really know the person well, we would not know what the person might be thinking. They might even have ulterior motives. Statistics from National Cyber Security Alliane (NCSA) - MacAfee Online Safety Study, 2011 have shown that 15% of Americans have never checked their social networking privacy and security account settings. This allows strangers or people who you do not recognize all over the world to get hold of your particulars. This may bring harm to yourself, putting yourself in danger zone. Statistics from Pew Research Center, FOSI, Cable in the Classroom, 2011 also haven shown that 69% of social media-using teens think that peers are mostly kind to each other on social networking sites, however, 88% of teens have seen someone be mean or curel to another person on a social networking site. 12% of teens say they witnessed cruel behavior "frequently" on social networking sites. 15% of social media-using teens say they have been the target of online meanness. 41% of social media-using teens have experienced at least one negative outcome as a result of using a social networking site.

-25% have had an experience that led to a face-to-face argument or confrontation.

-22% have had an experience that ended their friendship with someone.

-13% have had an experience that caused a problem with their parents.

-8% have gotten into a physical fight with someone else because of something that happened on a social networking site.

-6% have gotten in trouble at school because of an experience on a social networking site.

This means that people might think that so-and-so is friendly because he/she seems friendly to you. That person might be mean to people who they know in real life. And this is called cyber bullying.

Also, statistics from Journal of Adolescent Health 27, 2010 have clearly shown that 29% of Internet sex crime relationships were initiated on a social networking site. In 26% of online sex crimes against minors, offenders disseminated information and/or picutres of the victim through the victim's personal social networking site. 33% of of all Internet-initiated sex crimes involved social networking sites. In half of all sex crimes against a minor involving a social networking site, the social networking site was used to initiate the relationship. Cases of Internet sex crimes against children involving social networking sites were more likely to result in a face-to-face meeting. This was true of 81% of Internet-initiated crimes involving a social networking site.

With all these harms that you might face while making friends with someone whom you completely do not know, will you still choose to make friends online? Hence, i strongly feel that this motion should fall!

(EDITED)

In my own opinion, I think that it is easier to make friends face to face than in social networking sites.

Social networking sites allow us to sustain our friendships,being able to express ourselves, and expanding our social circle through common interests.Social networking sites undoubtedly help us communicate and keep in touch online, but they negatively harm the face to face interaction we have with friends. The use of social networking sites facilitates our communication efforts online, but it hinders the communication we have with our friends in face to face conversation.

In addition, the "friends" you chat with on Facebook or Twitter can't be a true friend. You don't know what they are up to, what they are thinking. Who knows they are there to hurt you, harrass you, threaten you or whatsoever. This is also known as Cyber-bullying. It will cause the victims to suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress and may also destroy their self-esteem and confidence.

By interacting with your friends face to face, you will get to see their facial expressions and listen to their tone. If that is the case, you will be able to know if he or she is angry or sad, just by listening to their tone and looking at their facial expressions. Also, you will get to understand them better.

Lastly, social networking sites don't allow us to feel close to someone by doing an activity together. On many social networking sites chatting back and forth and expressing ideas are used as ways to communicate online. If we only utilize these two forms of communication in our face to face interactions, our communication could suffer. Friendships require a lot of a work and the ability to communicate within these friendships. If individuals use social networking sites as their only means to satisfy their belonging needs, then there will be friendship problems.

Becoming too independent on using these sites for satisfying this need will cause individuals to have lack of the communication skills needed to make friends in face to face interactions.

Therefore, to conclude, i disagree that it is easier to make friends in social networking sites than face to face, to a large extent.