What is Social Networking?
Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups or the interaction/communication of people online. People use social networking, such as Facebook, to keep in touch with old friends, and sites such as Tumblr or Pinterest to find common interests as well as to make new friends. The topics and interests discussed are as varied as the people of the world.(Edit: Kendra Beauregard) Over the past few years, social networking has grown greatly, especially among older users. Issues of social Networking include location disclosure, social profiling, cyberstalking, and government use of social network websites in investigations without the safeguard of a search warrant. As more and more people are becoming a part of social network websites, new issues are being created. Social media is supposed to be used for people's enjoyment by interacting with friends and creating new ones, but recently social networks have become a part of a lot of controversy about the internet and this generation as a whole. Social Networking is relevant to this course because an issue that occurs often with people who use Facebook for example, put too much personal information on the web which can sometimes come back to hurt them. Another issue with social media is that people become famous for all the wrong reasons, an example of this is Vine sensation Terio. Terio is an overweight black child who is now famous just for dancing and playing basketball with his cousin on Vine. If you were to follow Terio on Instagram you would see that he is never in school but instead travels around the country promoting himself.
(Edit: Kendra Beauregard)
The growth of social media as an influencing factor in our lives is truly overwhelming.
Did you know that 91% of American adults who are online use social media? There are now over 800 million Facebook users in the world, with more than 200 million joining in 2011 alone. Nearly 25% of the total time spent online is on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, etc.
Examples of Social Networks
There are a number of different examples of Social Networking sites
[Justin]
News
People who use social networks should be careful as to what they post because there have been multiple cases of people being arrested or robbed because of an unnecessary Facebook post.
Here is an example of a man unintentionally turning himself in because of a Facebook:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2014/03/brooklyn_man_posts_gun_selfie_to_facebook_gets_arrested_for_bank_robbery.html
Here is an example of a house being robbed because of a Facebook post:
http://www.sileo.com/facebook-status-update-leads-to-robbery/
Fun Fact: Facebook bought Whatsapp for 19$ billion:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/19/technology/social/facebook-whatsapp/
Humor/Popular Culture
The vine that led to Terio's fame:
More Humor:
Additional Info
Facebook is a very popular social network site. This is an image from 2010 showing the relationship between knowing someone in real life and just having them as a Facebook friend. Take a look at it.
[http://www.howtogeek.com/geekers/up/sshot5035371ab8e01.jpg] (edited by Caitlin Fehr)
This article talks about some of the effects that Facebook has on the brain
[http://www.fastcompany.com/1659062/social-networking-affects-brains-falling-love]
This article talks about not letting technology and social media ruin relationships (Kristen)
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kira-sabin/facebook-status_b_842028.html]
This article from Forbes talks about Social Media and Branding (Brendan Corey)
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/03/17/social-media-and-branding-a-one-on-one-with-a-harvard-business-professor/]
Facebook can be good for promoting great causes and creating awareness: (Sarah Marciniak)
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/living/eating-disorders-social-media-parents/index.html?iref=storysearch
CNN also analyzed the effects of how social media now impacts the job market: (Kevin Harris)
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/09/living/real-simple-social-media-job/
This article offers the benefits of using social media to help relationships (Kelsey Hockenbury)
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/natasha-koifman/social-media-and-relationships_b_4115588.html