Social Networking: A Prevalent Phenomenon

"Social networking is in its infancy and I'm guessing it will become as widespread as email," - Richard Kimb

By definition a social network is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities.
The above said statement by Mr. Richard Kimb has been rightly quoted, what Mr. Richard believes in is surely on its way to reality. According to SocialTwist.com, Internet sharing trends have shifted heavily toward social networking. A statistical report highlighting Social Networking Trends by Bob Hazlett has showcased very astonishing results. According to him, Facebook has more than 60 million active users worldwide, with their numbers doubling every six months. Myspace on the other hand has more than 110 million monthly active users around the globe. Twitter has become the most effective tool for click-through. All these statistics have a story to tell; social networking which began as a humble approach in the late 90s has been metamorphosed into something extraordinary. In simple layman's language, it has become a medium for expressing human emotions.

This service is designed to be very user friendly and simple in layout. It generally requests the user to create a profile of them and mention their details and socially shareable information as per their personal interest. Once the profile has been created people can connect with other users of the website. Many social connecting websites are available in the cyber space, but the most prominent ones are Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Hi5 and Bebo to name a few. In this modern age sharp edged competition has kept these e-networks on their toes, in the attempt to attract maximum traffic these websites often come up with innovative ideas for which they are handsomely rewarded. For example, Facebook started allowing users share information present anywhere on the internet via the website's "Share" feature, this made the website engaging and subsequently lead to its percentage increase of market share, especially in India. A host of other activities like playing games, chatting with friends, exchanging mails, watching videos, reading articles, etcetera can be done when on a social networking website.

The rise of cyberspace networking has influenced the functioning of various sectors around us. Nowadays, people use social networks to enhance their business and brand value. Online tutors are available nowadays which make use of these networking sites to interact with their pupils efficiently. The list is endless, but as goes the saying "Each coin has two sides", this medium has its share of flaws too. Since social networking has become prominent there has been a tremendous rise in the rates of cyber thefts reported. Also a steep increase has been reported in cases of internet addiction disorder (IAD). Social Networking true to the sense has dissolved geographical limitations and has definitely made relationships closer but it resulted in certain bad experiences too. This medium has tremendous potential but only if used wisely.

Social networking also went one step ahead with people using websites to manage their bookmarks which are similar to favorite pages which was managed in the web browser till date.

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