Social Networking Sites

Where did Social Networking Sites come from?

Social Networking sites began with sites such as; Theglobe.com, 1995,

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 sharing information about one another. It was in the late

1990s, people were able to allow users express lists of "friends" and search for

other users with similar interests. By 2005, the increase of social networking

sites were high, with; SixDegrees.com, 1997, Makeoutclub, 2000, Hub Culture

and Friendster in 2002, MySpace and LinkedIn, 2003, and eventually Bebo. By

2005 MySpace was the most popular Networking Service. This was until early

2009 when Facebook was the most used website in the world. They were

created mainly for dating sites, getting people to meet new people, with its

technologies improvements over the years; it has become a daily use by

everyone. Because of the improvements made to Networking sites every

day, this is what has made the websites so unsafe.

How do Social Networking sites help?

Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are used by the public

all over the world. It is a way of staying connected to family who have

moved away, sharing photos and interacting with friends. These are good

reasons why people should be using these sites, and usually gets lost in the

use. People tend to use Facebook and Twitter to their advantage. But this

hasn’t stopped the makers of these interacting sites, they have abled people

to block and report other people who they don’t know. This keeps Facebook,

MySpace and Twitter safe. The settings on the site can be adjusted so that

you can reveal your photos, information and status’ to only friends. The

responsibility for using these websites is up to each individual person who uses

it. They know and understand the settings, how to do it and the

consequences that will happen when not careful. People tend to put the

blame all on the Networking services, whereas, they chose to sign up for it

and not being careful. Parents should give their children, mainly teens,

privacy, to an extent. Make sure that they have their settings on private and

that they’re using it for the right reasons, this will keep teens safe and

entertained. You can’t keep young adults from these sites because they are

everywhere, on phones and iPods. When used correctly, Social Networking

services are helpful, connecting and interacting.

What are the dangers of Social Networking Sites?

With networking services the obvious problem that scares parents, is the

unknown “friend” that their children would add, talk to and meet. This is very

dangers for young adults because of the easy access to strangers. It is easy

for people to create a fake profile. There are pictures to access on Google

and to pretend to be a teen. On Facebook there is a new way of finding a

connection, “friends of friends”, if a teenager sees that someone adds them,

who has “mutual friends” they will think they know them. This is a danger in

the Social Network site. Even though people can unfriend, block and report

people, this doesn’t occur to most young adults.

Other than this issue, there is the worry of cyber bullying. However, this isn’t

just from Social Networking services, this can happen on mobile phones or in

person. On the other hand, Facebook, Twitter, don’t have a better effect on

the situation. It increases it. For example, Amanda Todd, made one mistake

and was then bullied over Facebook, groups were made about her, which

she couldn’t stop, even if she left the website, it would still be there, that is the

problem with these sites, if it is someone else that posts something, it isn’t in

your hands to stop. This can be dangerous, harming and scary.

Is there danger for the companies?

With the problems from the websites, will people carry on using them? If

people stopped, how much money will be lost? This is a worry for the

company who run Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. From how many people

use the sites everyday, how many advertisements are used and games, the

business would lose a lot of money. With all this interaction, there is no reason

why people wouldn’t come off the sites. However, it can get boring, adults

wouldn’t tend to go on games, join groups or read advertisements. Even

teenagers would get bored at one point because a lot of trouble is started

mostly from Facebook and Twitter. Even celebrities get into trouble with the

things that are posted. When will people stop? If the public did decide to

abandon Social Networking sites, what will come next? Something is being

added to the internet every year. There is nothing stopping people from

coming off Social websites, so this could be a threat to companies. Also,

nothing is stopping it from being banned; this could be because of the

danger to, too many people.

Statistics

78% say that using social networks s is just as important as networking in

person.

42% of businesses reported that a quarter of their new customers came

through social-media sites.

In India, 32% of online adults have been victims of social or mobile

cybercrime in the past year.

75% of young people -- without a roof over their heads -- remain

connected through social networks.

26% of the population, will access social networks from their phones this

year.

Facebook is #1 in 126 out of the 137 countries that were analysed.

Statistics are a good way of checking if any progress is being made within the

cyber world. Making sure children are being safe on the internet. Giving out a

survey every so often will be a good way to keep track of children’s activities

when they surf the web. This can be done by grouping the children into age

groups so that when calculating results, you know which age group needs

the most attention.