02.Background-to-social-networking
Socialising over the internet isn’t new (in
fact, there have been online chat tools like IRC - Internet Relay Chat - since
the dawn of the internet), but the notion of building social networks – the
type that Facebook epitomises – certainly is. They help us stay in touch with
friends and family around the world and find new people with common interests
to share information and experiences. But there are good reasons to be wary
too, like exposing details about yourself that could be used for identity theft.
Right now, the largest of the social
networking sites is Facebook (www.facebook.com), which recently passed 500
million registered users, and not just the hip young generation that’s been
growing up with technology either: the fastest growing group is now users over
35. It’s a huge slice of the pie for a site that began only six years ago in
2004 as just an online tool to help students at Harvard university get to know
each other. In 2009 it had a turn over of over $US800 million, and that’s only
set to increase. It’s not without controversy however, from workplace bans to
stop employees wasting time, to privacy issues and questions over the sale of
information (the site was recently lambasted for automatically sharing private
information, some of which is used by partners and advertisers with Facebook).
MySpace (www.myspace.com) tapped into the
market before Facebook in 2003, and for many years led it. It was considered
the leading social networking site from 2006 into 2008. But a revamp of
Facebook helped it surge ahead, overtaking MySpace internationally in monthly
unique visitors by April 2008, as of July 2010, MySpace was ranked 28th in
Internet traffic, well behind Facebook at number two (behind Google).
Video-sharing website YouTube
(www.youtube.com) sits just below Facebook on the rankings. It has ridden a
rising tide of multimedia on the web, from amateur home-videos and movies to
inserts into commercial websites and clips from TV shows. The number of clips
on YouTube runs into hundreds of millions.
But it’s Twitter that has grabbed the
popular imagination in the last year or so. Its ease of use from mobile phones
and some notorious celebrity tweets (Catherine Deveny on Logies night for
example, see Controversies) give it constant publicity, and it’s seen in such
conventional environments as ABC TV’s Q&A program. It was recently used for
a political “debate” between politicians in NSW. That was variously described
as hard to follow and chaotic, but it’s unlikely to be the last such use of it
we’ll see. It’s been used for other serious purposes too, like finding medical
expertise in a hurry or getting news out of countries with repressive regimes.
Mostly, the leading sites are purely
social, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be used for business. A site that has
carved out a distinctive niche for itself in this arena, LinkedIn
(www.linkedin.com), lets users build networks of trusted contacts to find jobs,
recruits or business opportunities including the ability to notify and check
references.
Then there are sites intended to help you keep
up with proliferating information on the web. Known as social bookmarking sites,
they help identify and share the most popular websites and links. The leaders
here are Digg, Reddit and Delicious and their logos appear on news sites such
as the New York Post.
And that’s not all: there are actually
hundreds of social networking sites, ranging from the leaders above to more
specialised and esoteric ones such as Babycenter, Flixster (for movies) and
even Fillos de Galicia for Galicians everywhere. Whatever your interests,
there’s probably a social networking site that’s just right for you.
Controversies
Social networking both
pushes boundaries and makes otherwise idle comments matters of public record. Inevitably,
this rocks the boat between people, organisations and even countries. Here are just
a few examples:
- Comedian Catherine Deveny lost her job as
an Age columnist after her Logies night tweets about celebrities caused
offense.
- In 2007, a party in County Durham, England,
advertised on MySpace by a 17-year-old while her parents were away
attracted 200 teenagers who caused over £20,000 of damage.
- In Melbourne,
a similar incident attracted 500 people, the police dog squad and a
helicopter.
- After several incidents of false profiles
leading other users into danger, MySpace identified and deleted the
profiles of 29,000 registered sex offenders in 2007.