What is Social Networking?

Traditionally a social networking site can be seen as a website allowing you to socially link to different people based on interests, friends or schools/colleges. Theoretically, the links that social networking uses to connect people are unlimited; where you grew up, your job etc all could be included, however the main two remain – interests and friendship links.

There are many big social networking sites out there, the most prominent being Myspace. Others such as Bebo, Facebook and Virb have all come out, each with a massive success to their name. Social networking websites tend to provide very similar tools/features; profile creation, blogs, image galleries, comments about other people – some even delving into live chat rooms. Despite the main different faces which social networking websites appear, they are all about bringing people together and encouraging communication.

Social networking allows you to interact with different users, who all follow the same links as you. For example, if many people all went to one school, they may create a “school group” on a social networking site. Members of this group would be able to communicate with one another.

Essentially social networking is all about communicating with different people, based on key links. However, to keep fresh and interesting social networking websites have broadened their horizons, linking people together, even if they don’t know each other. A classic example of this would be music. Social networking websites allow users to interact, depending on their tastes in music or their favourite bands. Even though they have never met, members would now be socially linked.

Social networking has become massive and the chances are you already belong to at least one social networking site. As society grows, these websites will grow with it. A new media craze, social networking has already made a big impact on the way we live our lives.