The Internet Life

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"Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision, if you will. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is most popular online. This is because unlike 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 cooking, golfing, gardening, developing friendships or professional alliances, finding employment, business-to-business marketing and even groups sharing information about the end of the Mayan calendar and the Great Shift to arrive December 21-2012. The topics and interests are as varied and rich as the story of our world.

When it comes to online social networking, websites are commonly used. These websites are known as social sites. Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users. Depending on the website in question, many of these online community members share common interests in hobbies, religion, or politics. Once you are granted access to a social networking website you can begin to socialize. This socialization may include reading the profile pages of other members and possibly even contacting them. 

The friends that you can make are just one of the many benefits to social networking online. Another one of those benefits includes diversity because the internet gives individuals from all around the world access to social networking sites. This means that although you are in the United States, you could develop an online friendship with someone in Denmark or India. Not only will you make new friends, but you just might learn a thing or two about new cultures or new languages and learning is always a good thing.

As mentioned, social networking often involves grouping specific individuals or organizations together. While there are a number of social networking websites that focus on particular interests, there are others that do not. The websites without a main focus are often referred to as "traditional" social networking websites and usually have open memberships. This means that anyone can become a member, no matter what their hobbies, beliefs, or views are. However, once you are inside this online community, you can begin to create your own network of friends and eliminate members that do not share common interests or goals.

As I'm sure you're aware, there are dangers associated with social networking including data theft and viruses, which are on the rise. The most prevalent danger though often involves online predators or individuals who claim to be someone that they are not. Although danger does exist with networking online, it also exists in the real world, too. Just like you're advised when meeting strangers at clubs and bars, school, or work -- you are also advised to proceed with caution online.

By being aware of your cyber-surroundings and who you are talking to, you should be able to safely enjoy social networking online. It will take many phone conversations to get to know someone, but you really won't be able to make a clear judgment until you can meet each other in person. Just use common sense and listen to your inner voice; it will tell you when something doesn't feel right about the online conversations taking place.

Once you are well informed and comfortable with your findings, you can begin your search from hundreds of networking communities to join. This can easily be done by performing a standard internet search. Your search will likely return a number of results, including MySpace, FriendWise, FriendFinder, Yahoo! 360, Facebook, Orkut, and Classmates."

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I conducted an interview among my friends. Some questions included:

- Why did you decide to get a Facebook and/or Twitter? (Whichever one is relevant)

- Is Social Networking necessary?

- What Social Networks do you take part in?

The reason I asked these questions is because I wanted to know my friends’ input on the topic of Social Networking. I was hoping to gain an insight on others’ opinions other than my own. My friends were the people answering these poll questions. I met them at St. John’s University. Most of them are in the 6-year pharmacy program with me as well. I wanted to get opinions from people similar to me and see how our viewpoints compare.

Some of my friends stated that they wanted to get a Facebook to branch out and make new friends. Also in order to stay connected with their friends in different states and countries. That is the exact reason why I joined Facebook – to stay in contact with family and friends in America and other countries. Some of my friends joined Twitter just because they conformed to society. Everyone had it – so why not? Some of my friends also have twitter in order to follow celebrities.

Through my poll questions, I’ve learned that Social networking is apparently necessary. Most of my friends believe that social networking is very important in order to socialize and present yourself to the world. It is also a means of self-expression. This ties in with another one of my questions of which social networks people take part in. My friends take part in social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Xanga, and Tumblr. These are all great ways to express your emotions and who you are as a person. It’s a great way to show people who you are and what you’re all about – especially for people that have a hard time expressing themselves in person.

From choosing these questions, I learned that most of my friends think the way I do. I was hoping to learn more about social networks and reasons as to why people do it and that’s exactly what I gained from conducting this poll.

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1. Student Doctor Network
1. Student Doctor Network (SDN) is a non-profit educational organization that provides information to past, present, and future students that are thinking about or are already in a field of medicine/health. On the front page it provides weekly posts of current news in the medicine/health field. This site also hosts a blog and a forum in which readers can interact with one another and the writers of the site. This site is related to this blog and me since I am in the Pharmacy Field and this blog is about social networking.
2. Top Ten Reviews
1. Top Ten Reviews is a site where they try out various different services or products and makes reviews on them. Every year they redo their reviews since products and services change on an average of every year. They have a section called web services and under that there is another section called Social Networking Websites. There the try out all the various popular social networks and see what is available at their disposal. They then rate them from 1-10 based on what they think is the best.
3. Traffikd
1. Traffikd is like a mass listing of all the possible social networks that you can join. The have all kinds of networks listed in their directory so you don't have to go looking for them. The have them listed in a manner that it would be easy to look for a network just by looking up categories and it lists all the networks that are under that category.
4. What Is Social Networking
1. What is social networking is a site where the main page provides a long definition about what social networking really is. They also provide you with information about whether or not social networking is for you and which networks you should join. On top of that they also provide various other information about cyber-bulling, networking for work, and various other stuff.
5. Inside CRM
1. Inside CRM is a site that give the latest news that every industry should know and has various other information that can prove to be helpful to any business. This specific link leads to a post that talks about Social Networking sites that every business needs a presence on. It shows how social networking can help a business and also provides which ones can be helpful.
6. TechCrunch
1. TechCrunch is a site that provides various posts on information about various tech like apple, andriod, microsoft, and other companies. This link send you to a post about how you can build your own social network in nine different ways. They go on about how various other social networks can to be and what steps they took before the established themselves. Many people have been inspired to make their own networks thanks to this post.
7. SocialGo
1. SocialGo provides a basis on what you need to make social networks. If you have an idea of what social network you are going to make but you don't have the hardware, you can go to SocialGo for various pricing that fits you needs.
8. Nathan
1. Nathan's main focus on his blog is about technology. He shows how technology has a positive affect on humans in general. He also portrays the direction in which technology is going and what recent inventions are that are mostly used by society. Since social networking is a form of a technological advance, our blogs have a direct relationship with each other.
9. Angela
1. This blog created by Angela is about how the Mass Media affects todays society. Specifically she talks about how it affects todays youth. She shows how celebrities, like actors, musicians, and TV hosts, have an affect on what the popular trend is in society which is picked up by the youth first.
10. Sakib
1. You can't have social networking without connections! Sakib talks about the App Store and the many apps it provides to it's users made by users. I believe the App Store is one of the best creations made in awhile. People are now able to do this that they never thought was possible before within the grasp of their fingertips. There is an app for almost anything these days and many of them make life easier. How this relates to my blog is that there are many apps in the App Store that make going on social networks a lot easier.

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The movie, The Social Network, is a great example of social networking. It depicts the founding of the social networking website, Facebook. This film was directed by David Fincher. This movie discusses many aspects of social networking, such as the creation of a few internet websites, and I will talk about a few that had an impact on me. “FaceMash” was one of the websites. The way it works is that two images of women are shown and male students can pick which woman is more attractive. A student named Mark created this website was put on academic probation because of the way it brought down his school network, and because of the way it was disparaged by the female community. Personally, I think a website such as “FaceMash” is very demeaning and unnecessary. Despite the fact that this website failed and was disowned by the community, in the movie, Mark gained a job as a website programmer due to his capability of simply creating this website. His discovery and exploration into the Internet world helped him to gain this job, so his endeavor wasn’t a total loss.

Another website that was involved in this movie is the creation of “The Facebook.” Regarding this website, lawsuits get involved debating who the real creator was. It was made to let people share social and personal information securely. This is definitely not true nowadays. With my experience of facebook, every wall post, comment, “like”, friend request, event invite, group request, etc. is very public, and almost anyone can find out what you’re doing, as well as when and why you’re doing it as well. Facebook has come to be – for a lack of a better word – stalker central. It is very easy to find out about peoples’ lives. I think it’s great to explore the social networks on the internet, but people should keep in mind that many random people can find out many things that you might not want them to know. In a sense, Facebook should be like a resume. Sharing your personal information is great to socialize and find new friends, but people are always watching. People get busted for pictures that come up on facebook all the time, especially for under-age drinking. Facebook has its good and bad impacts, but people should just be more careful when dealing with such a big and well-known social networking site such as this.

The Social Network Trailer

Clip on Facebook Stalking

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