Social Networking

The internet. It’s a pretty big thing. Whether you use FireFox or the plain old Internet Explorer you still may visit some of the biggest networking sites in the world, like MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook. Like Aim, or a regular old chat box on a random site (which is so five minutes ago, right?), MySpace, Twitter and Facebook are the same, except they bring you into the worlds twenty-first century of technology.

MySpace, with there motto of “a place for friends”, and maybe is one of the most popular websites out there. Whenever someone says “MySpace” the swapping of usernames and the chatter of what you do on MySpace might come up. MySpace, according to MostPopularWebsites.net is the 9th most popular website of the 50 sites on the list. Why? Well, maybe because on MySpace, you can connect with people around the world, with people maybe in your town or maybe people across the globe.

On MySpace you’re anyone you want to be. You can decorate your profile to match your personality and find friends that like the same kind of music or shows you do. You can even tell everyone what you’re up to at that moment. Just thinking about MySpace makes you want to sign up if you haven’t already, right? Well, MySpace isn’t all that great. You might be able to chat and maybe seem anonymous when you put your profile on private, but there are some very smart people out there that can go right through that and see everything about you, from the clothes you where from the pictures you post of the town you live in. With sites like MySpace you have to remember that even if you are anonymous, you aren’t, hackers can probably find all the information you signed up with. Nothing on your computer is private, that’s why you type in “www” before you type in Myspace.com, it means “world wide web”, and anyone can see it. That includes rapists, druggies, murderers and a bunch of other people. Maybe even your neighborhood hobo has a MySpace.

Twitter, if you haven’t heard of it then you haven’t been outside lately to hear the birds start singing about the side project brought up in March of 2006. Twitter, is basically a blog, except it’s faster, shorter, and “Twitter” is a better name then some name like “The I Love Edward Cullen Blog.” You “Tweet”, or when you’re “Twittering” you’re making one of the thousands of updates on your Twitter. Even though you can’t talk directly to others, to can direct your tweets to other people. And you can show the world your pictures through your tweets, or even websites and poems about Edward Cullen. The good part about Twitter is that it’s simple, free, safe, and an all around better way to tell the world what your doing without getting into what kind of brand named shoes you're wearing, or what street you're on in your town, but even though you only have 200 character space in your update, it doesn’t mean it’s all safe. But right now, Twitter has to be one of the safest websites, because you don’t provide too much information when registering, if someone wanted to hack your account, the most they’ll find out is your first name, email and maybe birthday. I’d have to say, that even if it’s three-years-old, and still in the making, it’s one of the safest, finest network to be apart of.

Lastly, there’s Facebook. Ranking as one of the largest websites on the internet, Facebook is a social-networking website, where people can connect with other people in their city, school, business and region and personalize their profiles to give the world a piece of them. Even though it’s been banned in some countries, and some work places ban and discourage the use of Facebook, there is still over 200 million active users world wide. On Facebook you can post pictures, post comments on your friend’s profiles, update your “status” bar, or virtually poke your friend or give them a virtual gift. Even if the poking to your friend’s ticklish spot seems fun, Facebook is a lot like MySpace. Inappropriate pictures, messages or anything like that can be found even if deleted. And your future employers can type in your name into the computer and pull up your MySpace or Facebook right away, and see these pictures, which will cause them not to hire you.

Once again, nothing is private, and anything you delete can be found. Just try deleting a post on your blog, then waking up to see it back, you’re past haunting you, like a tornado chasing you around like you’re a criminal if your stuck in the middle of one. Just like that, and your future is ruined. Or it could be the other way around, and you won’t have any future to ruin. Putting out to much information for people to know isn’t what you want to know. Especially if you’re a teenager. Do you seriously want to be tracked by some man/woman because you weren’t thinking? It’s not worth cutting your life short because of one mistake. It’s like if you do drugs or smoke, with just one time, you ruin your whole life.

So, the next time you log into ANY networking website, just remember the positives, which would be to chat to your friends, poke your friend virtually, or send quick blog updates, and the negatives, which would be being stalked by a middle-aged man/woman, or having your dream job taken away from you. Sometimes we think things are okay, but we don’t give it any thought. If we gave everyone one more minute of thought, then we could decrease the number of kidnappings, or rapings, or murders in America or the whole wide world. Just one more minute.