Natalie Beech
English 1101
Social Networking
Social Networking is the subject that interested me the most out of units one, two, and three. Social networking in our generation is the new way of life. It is a way to build friendships, businesses, advertising, entertainment, news, reach out to new areas of ideas, and anything else you might want to google. I find it fascinating also because I am a very social person.
The earliest social networking website started in the form of generalized online communication such as the WELL (1985), Theglobe.com (1994), Geocites (1994), and the Tripod.com (1995. These sights brought people together to interact with each other through chat rooms. They share personal information and ideas around topics via personal homepage publishing tools which was a precursor to the blogging phenomenon. This was a much slower process compared to today's network as you can imagine.
After Friendster was released in 2002, some eUniverse employees came together and decided to copy the more popular features of the website. The first version of MySpace was ready for launch ten days after they decided to do this. The MySpace start-up team had everything under control when they first launched. The MySpace project was overseen by Brad Greenspan, who was eUniverse’s founder and CEO. He managed Chris De Wolfe, who was MySpace’s managing CEO, Josh Berman, Tom Anderson, who was president, and a team of programmers provided by eUniverse.
Myspace was launched in 2004 within the college community by a student named Brad Greenspan. This became a phenomenon among the college students and exploded into the next phase of social networking into the non US college community. I found MySpace was very fun. Myspace was actually started by eUniverse holding a contest for the most people that one website could sign up. It succeeded and one of the managing CEO's of Myspace Chris DeWolf wanted to start charging for the use of the network. Brad Greenspan was adamant about not charging which lead to the very success it is today. It sold for over 500 million dollars after Fox purchased it. MySpace nowadays is a social networking website. People sign up for an account and create their own personal profile. There is a user-submitted network of friends, blogs, photographs, music, and videos. Its main audience is teenagers and young adults. By 2005 MySpace became the largest social network developed.
When Facebook started, that was the absolute best communication site on the internet in my opinion. Even my mother could use it. It was easy to manipulate, no charge, you could talk with friends, play games, and visit on chat at the same time. This has become my favorite online when I am on the computer. It is the definition of Social Networking. Facebook was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Mark Zuckerberg, Edwardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. It serves the world wide. The revenue is US $3.71 billion dollars as of 2011. There are over 845 million active Facebook accounts. 41% of the USA has a Facebook account.
Facebook serves purposes that were probably never expected. Such as my sister in law found her half brother on Facebook. They met up for the first time. It was a very nice reunion. My mother found her long lost friend she hadn't seen for years because they both had a Facebook account. They now write to each other on a regular basis.
My husband and I recently held an event for skateboarding. The event was to help raise money for a skateboarder who had unfortunately been in an accident taking his life. The time we had to raise this money was very limited and we needed to find a way to expedite the circulation of information. We called the newspaper to ask them to run an article on the event. They said they had already read about it on Facebook and would be happy to interview us for the promotion. We raised money to help pay for the skateboarding ledge in his name. We were able to reach individuals throughout Idaho at a minimal cost, a massive cloak of invitations, and more than a dozen businesses gave donations for the auctions. It was highly successful only because we were able to use Facebook as a communication to all of the skateboarders.
Another very popular type of social networking is Craigslist. We also have eBay, but Craigslist seems to be more popular because there is no charge to the people, but a place where you can sell your household items, school books, or anything else you might need to sell to the public in your general vicinity. Even the dating industry can be advertised through Craigslist.
Dating online has risen. There are a few problems with dating online. A movie was made about the Craigslist Killer which was a warning to all people to be more careful about who they write to and allow on their facebook or who they email. Everyone must remember there are always preditors out in the world. Facebook, Craigslist, etc. is no different. The dating industry has become a $1.8 billion dollar industry. I personally don't find this industry attractive, but many people do. It is becoming more popuar with the statistics reporting most online relationships don't last as long as the per say old fashioned way of dating.
Social Technology
YouTube is also a recent social phenomena. It has given the Millenium generation the name as the "Look At Me Generation". There are so any YouTube videos it would be impossible to watch all of them. YouTube has brought about a new way of teaching and learning on the internet. People have become famous from posting their own video. Justin Bieber became famous from his YouTube post http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J65DfgpoGg. It has given many people opportunities to be known for their talents. Personally I can get on youtube to learn how to do a variety of things from putting on my make-up correctly to watching how to make a balloon animal by a professional balloon artist.
I have a skateboarding video on youtube where I was dropping in on a skateboard that has 12 wheels and your feet are strapped in. I dropped down a quarter pipe which is a large plank into a foam pit. You are supposed to be able to do or try tricks before landing into the foam pit. Well, I didn't make it into the foam pit and crashed ending up with a concussion. Luckily we were filming this so we could put it on Youtube. I did notice you get a lot of hits if you label your video in a funny and different manner. A name that will interest people. We named mine "Chick gets knocked out going into foam pit". Some think it is funny. The link is http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=va3KaPz5060. Youtube is very addictive and entertaining. You can literally end up watching videos all day.
Celebrities and Political figures are also using Twitter more and more. Twitter goes straight to your phone also. Celebs use this so people will follow them around. Sports teams take advantage of Twitter also as it increases their popularity. Most people think that it is them tweeting, but it is probably their publicists.
The Social Technology used in the schools today are impressive. Children can be tutored, students can get their assignments online, and you can even get your degree online like in our class blog online. Blogger is a personal journal published on the world wide web. As of February 16, 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.
Before technology, writing a letter took special effort. You write the letter, address an envelope, take it to the post office, buy a $.50 stamp, mail it, and then get into your car and drive home. It took at least an hour for me to write to a friend using this process. Now using the internet it goes straight to our phone. There is no waiting really. I don't know what I would do without technology anymore. We rely on it more than any other way of communication today. I can "I Chat" with my friends and family over "Skype". This way I can see them as well as talk to them at the same time. I can message them from far away and they will receive my information in seconds. All of the apps for my phone from mapquest to Angry Birds game keep me busy and provide me with all of the tools I need to communicate with my family, friends, school, and business. I use my phone to do my bills and check my email, look at my Facebook, listen to music, google, watch movies, take pictures, remind me to get my homework done and even supplies me with a flashlight. Another great extension from the internet. It is the main thng I use to communicate.
The amount of time spent communicationg online is hard to add up. I can only say I spend hours using this wonderful tool. The amount of time spent on the world wide web is the majority of the time I spend in overall use. On page 63, the Pew Research did a survey on "How Millinnial Are You"? I found there is more information about what makes the Millennial generation on page 60. They claim we, the millennial generation, uses technology the most of all generations. I agree because we use it to our advantage daily. It is so much easier to get informtion from google than to get it from a book. After all, you can read books on the internet also.
At work I use the internet to communicate with all of the customers. I have created a their webpage and report the specials and news worthy information to all of our customers. Since we started a webpage, customers can now click in to find out the information they are looking for and the sales are going up, up, up. Profits are also going up, up, up.
Recently Facebook has created some opportunities for businesses and others such as non profit groups etc. They have started to charge fees for some personal advertising. This is relatively new and we have to wait to find out if this will make a difference in the popularity or not. Will the site be more successful or less because of the new way of business.
Relying on technology to socialize and do business is a necessity today. If we had a major breakdown with our technology, our life would come to a standstill. At least for a very scary period of time. The money in the banks would be at a halt. Walmart as most stores and corporations would have to use another system to sell their products. We would be in withdrawal from not being able to use our "I phones" and people would actually have to talk to each other face to face. It would slow down our lives considerably. The world would be put on hold and hopefully no one would be able to hack into anything dangerous.
I can only imagine the future with social networking through technology. It has changed our generation so much in such a short period of time. I do have compassion for the older generation that is trying to keep up with this new experience. But I salute the older generation for keeping up. Watching my grandfather of 90 years use a cell phone or computer says everything about the human experience with technology. Just wait to see what it is going to be like in 25 years. Even 10 years is going to be a mind blowing experience. It's crazy how fast it changes.
It is very important to keep up with technology. If you don't embrace it, you will be lost. It is becoming a very important teaching and learning skill in our society. Without it, our fast paced life would still be like an old western; taking 3 days to receive a letter.
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