Social Networking

An example of the share buttons common to many
social web pages. Source: Wikipedia.org

Online Social Networking is a great tool which has its signatures all over the places- from handpalm to high skylines. Eduacation, Business, Medical, Politics almost every sector has online social networking- sharing views friendly, professionally, or even the most informal. Some social networks are popular worldwide, some regional. But all have one common feature 'sharing'.

Badoo, Bebo, Classmates , Cyworld, Decayenne, Draugiem.lv, Facebook, Google+, Hi5, Hyves, iWiW, LinkedIn, Mixi, Multiply, Nasza-Klasa, Nexopia, Orkut, renren, Skyrock, StudiVZ, Tagged, Tuenti, Twitter, VKontakte, Wretch, XING  ... ....

Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities and high schools, it is most popular online. This is because
like most high schools, colleges, or workplaces, the Internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences about any number of topics from golfing and gardening to developing friendships and professional alliances (whatissocialnetworking.com, 2009).

The research on online social networks examines the formation and maintenance of online networks that support existing and new social ties (Wasserman and Faust, 1994;Wellman and Berkowitz, 1997).The unit of analysis is the interaction or relation between people, measured in terms of ties held by individuals maintaining a relation, types of exchanges, frequency of contact, strength of ties, intimacy, qualitative elements of relations, size of networks, global or local span of networks and numerous other variables (Haythornthwaite, 2000, 2001, 2002a, 2002b, 2005; Haythornthwaite and Wellman, 1998; Haythornthwaite et al., 1995). Studies focusing on Netville, a wired suburb of Toronto, revealed that online interaction frequently supplemented or served as an alternative to face-to-face interaction in ways that had positive effects on social capital (Hampton, 2002; Hampton and Wellman, 2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2003;Wellman et al., 2001).

A social networking site can be a good way to make connections with people with similar interests and goals. They can be a way to connect with or "meet" people that a student may not have had the opportunity to before—including other students, staff, faculty and even alumni. Thanks to social networking sites, meeting someone in person has become a thing of the past. "Poking" has become the new handshake. Making friends and renewing old ones is easy. Thus, meeting people and staying connected with classmates and friends is a major benefit of social networking sites. (Online Social Networking Dangers and Benefits ).

As a coin has two sides, social networking is not free from dangers. Identity theft is one of the most dangerous impacts of social networking. Sharing too much important information to public can lead to serious harm to inviduals. That's why decent social networking service provide more security to protect users information. Issues relating to stalking, identity theft, sexual predators and employment consistently arise, as well as the ethics regarding data storage and the management and sharing of such data. A security issue occurs when a hacker gains unauthorized access to a site's protected coding or written language. Privacy issues don't necessarily have to involve security breaches. The potential harm to an individual user really boils down to how much a user engages in a social networking site, as well as the amount of the information they're willing to share. A user with more viewers or apart of groups is a lot more likely to be harmed by a breach than someone who barely uses the site. (Wikipedia.org)