Will you be my friend?
Since we were apes, we have always had a strong desire to belong to social groups and to network (communicate) with others. Throughout our existence we have grouped ourselves into specific groups and communities with other, like-mined, people for support and to share experiences.
The Internet has allowed social networking activities to evolve on a scale that even 20 years ago was unimaginable. Social network service providers, like Facebook, allow new groups to form and evolve on a global scale within minutes. You can now join special interest groups that share experiences on growing, say, minature tomatoes or a general group that links school-friends or family members.
Other popular sites that you may have heard about include MySpace, Bebo, Flickr, YouTube, Friends Reunited and, more recently, Twitter. All these cater for slightly different groups, ages and needs but they all have one thing in common; they provide a service that allows anyone to keep in touch with, and grow, their own network of friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances.
Although the main growth in the use of these sites is by the young who generally accept, and are very comfortable with, these technologies, there is a growing acceptance by the older generation who have been introduced to the technology through Friends Reunited (now with an estimated 21million members!).
People tend join social networking sites for all kind of reasons:
As personal time becomes even more scarce, they are a great way to keep in touch with your friends, especially as friend-networks are now geographically diverse. The days are long gone when the friends you grew up with still live in the same village as you - even I have childhood friends that are now spread-out all over the world. Social Network sites make keeping in touch really easy and fun.
Many businesses use social networking sites to keep in touch with their employees, suppliers, sub-contractors and even customers.
Teenagers use a multitude of new media technologies, including social networking sites, to keep in touch with their friends. Bebo and MySpace are favourites with this age group and features that include photo-albums and polls make these sites interactive, great fun and very addictive.
As well as the social aspects of these sites, they also provide more serious applications; special interest groups and politicians use them to spread the word, gain support and get feedback on their opinions and policies and businesses are using them as powerful marketing tools – although beware, as negative views spread more quickly than positive ones!
Another type of social network site that has grown massively since their advent is the online dating community. Virtual dating with the goal of finding your perfect partner has evolved from being a sleazy pastime to a serious business. An estimated 1 in 12 newlyweds in the UK initially met online and the fastest growing sector is those aged 50 and up. We usually only hear of the more unusual stories but there are thousands of new relationships starting every day around the world thanks to social networking sites. With the Internet changing so much of our lives, why should the human heart be exempt?
Looking forward, the ever reducing cost of getting online with mobile devices, the explosion in availability of rich content such as music and video, coupled with our ever increasing fascination with technology, will make social networking sites an ever more important point of contact with our chosen social group; with whom we will be able to share experiences, like watch a film, as well as just keeping in touch.
Has the way we make and retain friends changed forever? Hopefully not, but keeping in touch with them certainly has.
(article originally written for out-and-out-living magazine, June 2008)Labels: social networks
Since we were apes, we have always had a strong desire to belong to social groups and to network (communicate) with others. Throughout our existence we have grouped ourselves into specific groups and communities with other, like-mined, people for support and to share experiences.
The Internet has allowed social networking activities to evolve on a scale that even 20 years ago was unimaginable. Social network service providers, like Facebook, allow new groups to form and evolve on a global scale within minutes. You can now join special interest groups that share experiences on growing, say, minature tomatoes or a general group that links school-friends or family members.
Other popular sites that you may have heard about include MySpace, Bebo, Flickr, YouTube, Friends Reunited and, more recently, Twitter. All these cater for slightly different groups, ages and needs but they all have one thing in common; they provide a service that allows anyone to keep in touch with, and grow, their own network of friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances.
Although the main growth in the use of these sites is by the young who generally accept, and are very comfortable with, these technologies, there is a growing acceptance by the older generation who have been introduced to the technology through Friends Reunited (now with an estimated 21million members!).
People tend join social networking sites for all kind of reasons:
As personal time becomes even more scarce, they are a great way to keep in touch with your friends, especially as friend-networks are now geographically diverse. The days are long gone when the friends you grew up with still live in the same village as you - even I have childhood friends that are now spread-out all over the world. Social Network sites make keeping in touch really easy and fun.
Many businesses use social networking sites to keep in touch with their employees, suppliers, sub-contractors and even customers.
Teenagers use a multitude of new media technologies, including social networking sites, to keep in touch with their friends. Bebo and MySpace are favourites with this age group and features that include photo-albums and polls make these sites interactive, great fun and very addictive.
As well as the social aspects of these sites, they also provide more serious applications; special interest groups and politicians use them to spread the word, gain support and get feedback on their opinions and policies and businesses are using them as powerful marketing tools – although beware, as negative views spread more quickly than positive ones!
Another type of social network site that has grown massively since their advent is the online dating community. Virtual dating with the goal of finding your perfect partner has evolved from being a sleazy pastime to a serious business. An estimated 1 in 12 newlyweds in the UK initially met online and the fastest growing sector is those aged 50 and up. We usually only hear of the more unusual stories but there are thousands of new relationships starting every day around the world thanks to social networking sites. With the Internet changing so much of our lives, why should the human heart be exempt?
Looking forward, the ever reducing cost of getting online with mobile devices, the explosion in availability of rich content such as music and video, coupled with our ever increasing fascination with technology, will make social networking sites an ever more important point of contact with our chosen social group; with whom we will be able to share experiences, like watch a film, as well as just keeping in touch.
Has the way we make and retain friends changed forever? Hopefully not, but keeping in touch with them certainly has.
(article originally written for out-and-out-living magazine, June 2008)
Labels: social networks
posted by Andy @ 18:27
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