Social Networking Boom

What is Social Networking?

If you're on of those people who hasn't done a lot of exploration on the Internet, you might not know what all the fuss about the social networking boom is. Basically, social networking is the computerized version of mingling at a party.

The computer system is set up in such as way that you can connect with other people who you already know in the real world or with whom you share similar interests. When you're hooked up as "friends," you can see their other friends (and those people's friends) and they can see your friends.

Browsing through these connections, you might find other people you want to correspond with because you share a common passion, grew up in the same hometown, because the person works at a company or in an industry you're interested in, or even because you might like to date that person, among other reasons.

Social networking allows connections between people who might never have met in the "real" world.

About the Social Networking Boom

Social networking has been around in various incarnations for years, but it's only been in the 21 century that the social networking boom has taken off. In May 2006, just as an example, Nielsen/Net Ratings said that the top 10 social networking sites in April 2006 had collectively grown 47 percent over the previous year, to an audience of nearly 69 million people.

The most popular social networking sites were MySpace, Blogger, Classmates.com, YouTube and MSN Groups. Since that survey was published, new opportunities for social networking have exploded, from Facebook and Friendster, as well as the rise of social bookmarking sites like Digg, not to mention to huge increase in niche social networks, allowing women, business owners, avid readers and crafters a place to share their passion with like-minded people.

Getting Started With Social Networking

If you're someone who hasn't done a lot of (or maybe any) social networking in the past, it can be pretty easy to get overwhelmed. If you look at Wikipedia's ever-expanding list of social networking sites, you'll get a good idea of the wide variety of networks out there.

There's a social network for British clubbers, for instance, as well as one for young South Koreans, people who love soccer, American high school students, doctors and many other niches.

Looking through this list you may find several sites that you are interested in checking out. If possible, look around a little bit before signing up, or at least read all the information the site provides about its services and the kinds of people who are on the site.

You don't want to end up registering for a bunch of social networking sites that you aren't active on, if for no other reason than most of those sites will send you regular e-mails you aren't interested in.

If you're not sure you're going to like or have time for social networking, you might want to start with one of the smaller niche sites rather than immediately signing up for a MySpace account. The reason for this is that the smaller networks can be a little friendlier (and less intimidating) and if the topic of the network is something you're really interested in it's more likely that you'll visit and contribute often.

Social Network Safety

Adults and young people alike should be aware of safety issues that can come with social networking. Not everyone online is just looking for friends or someone with whom to share experiences.

Don't share private contact information with people you meet on these sites, and be especially careful if someone from one of these sites asks to meet you in person. Always meet in a public place, tell people where you're going and, if you can, take someone else with you when you go. Not everyone on the Internet is a bad person, of course, but you really can't be too careful.