Social networking sites help to reconnect friends who may otherwise not communicate between 10-year reunions. They even help exes reunite to become friendly, and they allow kids to communicate with each other about plans, homework and friendships. The possibilities are really endless. With new websites appearing seemingly weekly, there are some social networking websites that have risen to the top and appear to be grounded there.
My Space
MySpace is a website of friend connection. When you add someone, he can choose to either accept or deny your friendship. If he doesn't want to embarrass either of you, he can simply ignore the message and hope the hint is given. However, when someone accepts your friend invitation on MySpace, each of you will appear on the other's friend list. If you are on someone's friend's list, you can see his page.
On your individual MySpace page, you can fill in as much or as little detail as you want. You can give your biography, favorite books, and even your heroes. You can skip any area you want. However, one of the things many find irksome about MySpace is that it displays your age. While you could always lie on the birth year, it publishes the age based on the birthday provided. There's not an option to hide your age. While that is seemingly not a problem, it can be frustrating to some actors or musicians hesitant to share their actual age with people, afraid of a change in public perception.
My Space appeared in a funny part of the 2008 movie "He's Just Not That Into You." It's finding its way in many pop culture references in television and film.
While Facebook has been around a while, it recently has experienced more success. It also listens to members. When members became upset over new terms of use, it modified them to keep people happy. It now also allows you to choose a username. Before your Facebook page was identified by a series of number. Now, you can pick your own Facebook username. You can't, however, change it once it's set.
On Facebook, you can allow numerous applications to acces your information in exchange for being able to do other things on Facebook. You can play classic games like Scrabble, or you can give someone virtual gifts, some of value and some just for fun. Like MySpace, you can request friend connections.
Twitter has arguably attracted more celebrities than the other social media networks. Kirstie Alley, Perez Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Melissa Gilbert, Quinn Cummings, Miley Cyrus, and Kirsten Dunst are among the celebrities that frequently Twitter. With Twitter, you simply answer the question of "What are you doing now?" Its simplicity has attracted many.
With Twitter, you can choose to "follow" someone. They don't have to "follow" you back in order for you to get a feed of their updates. However, they may choose to "follow" you back. Celebrities generally don't follow back fans. However, some--like Maria Shriver--do. You can Twitter friends and celebrities alike.
Live Journal
Live Journal has been a social networking website since 1999. Using the website, you can choose to have either a private or a public journal. You can also choose something in between. You can have "Friends Only" entries, in which only people on your Friends list can see your listings. If you want to read someone's journal, you add them as a "friend" on Live Journal. If you decide that you don't want to do that, you can easily "unfriend" them. The website is known for respecting privacy, and it's a continually popular website.
While it's hard to pick a leading social networking website, they all serve a different purpose. All are good for networking for those who need publicity. Social networking is in its infancy, and it's an easy way to keep in touch with large amounts of people. The new decade is sure to bring a lot of change and advancements to the leading websites--and ones that haven't yet been created.
