Thursday, March 27, 2008

Social Networks--how to stay connected 24/7


Social Networks are nothing new. People have been finding ways to be and stay connected since the dawn of time.Whether we gathered around a campfire, at the matriarch's cave, on the village green, at the harvest field , at the church for communal rituals, or in hordes at the mall, humans have been ingenious in devising ways to share personal information.

The digital natives have created a new form - online social networks for communities of people to share interests and activities.

According to Wikipedia:

Most services are primarily web based and provide a collection of various ways for users to interact, such as chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and so on. Social networking has revolutionized the way we communicate and share information with one another in today's society. Various social networking websites are being used by millions of people everyday on a regular basis and it now seems that social networking is a part of everyday life.

The main types of social networking services are those which contain directories of some categories (such as former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and recommender systems linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace and Facebook being the most widely used in North America,[1] Bebo[2], MySpace, Skyrock Blog , Facebook and Hi5 in parts of Europe,[3], Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America,[4] Friendster, Orkut and CyWorld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.[5] Vkontakte.ru and LiveJournal in Russia.





3 comments:

Linda Morgan said...

Thanks for the wiki link on the appeal of SNS and the use of inappropriate behaviour. Thanks, too, for the refreshing writing style you have - I always look forward to reading your blog!

Cindy said...

At my daughters' high school, they are not allowed to go on Facebook. Is it blocked? NO! Who monitors them I wonder? They do go on until they are told that they aren't supposed to and that is the end of it. Like you said Stephanie, they often find ways around it. A concern I have of saying that they should go on SNS at home where they are monitored by their parents is that some parents are not monitoring them. Unlike you and I and our classmates who have a better understanding of this tool, the majority of parents lack the knowledge and understanding of how it works and security issues. Perhaps if they are Facebooking at school we can then teach them about privacy and what is acceptable and not acceptable to post on their site...just something to consider!

Jennifer Branch-Mueller said...

I have some relationships in TL-DL that are on Facebook. I like to see what is up with them and to know them in their "other" life. I also don't mind students knowing about my life - although some of you kindly were concerned about being a "friend." Interesting discussion, Steph.