Social Networking Sites

Social networking websites enhance our way of communicating with others around the world.  The launch of MySpace and Facebook allowed families, friends, and college peers to reconnect.  Socializing took a new form in the following years.  Now we're in a society speaking on social networking jargon, such as "tweets," "statuses," and "snapchat."

Myspace is very similar to Facebook.  I have an account, but never sign in (as Facebook is the preferred tool now).  From what I could remember, I was automatically friends with "Tom" when I signed up, and I was able to format the look (or "skin") of my profile.  Now, profiles are just as monotone as Facebook, you can blog, and stream music.  Looking back on my profile, it was not a stroll into memory lane, but an anxiety of finding inappropriate comments from strangers.  It's funny to see that you can sign into Myspace with your Facebook account.

Facebook is one of the most popular sites used by advertisers, app developers, businesses, family, etc.  It's easy to access and personalize so friends or family can find you, and businesses can see what you've been up to.  Yes, a good place to talk about your best qualities, and allow apps.  I like the Timeline feature, which acts like a biography.  It's also very easy to comment on others' profiles, pictures, and statuses.  Unfortunately, I also stopped signing in.  Yet, I found out about the status of the LIE from my news' network Facebook of the snowstorm.

I'm fairly new with Twitter, although it's been around for awhile now.  It's simple to start following someone and receive a new tweet every one to ten minutes.  It would be difficult to read every tweet if you followed so many people or groups.  I'm not fond with the lack of characters available, so to keep the tweet conversation ongoing, tweets need to be short and simple.  An because they're so short, if I'm following CNN, they can't give the full story, say, about the new Pope.  I would have to look for a link.  But that's the point of tweets, to quickly throw information or advertisements out there (as fast as how communication travels).

Pinterest is a photo-sharing social community that allows people to share photos and "pin"of interests, hobbies, new products, and events.  It is easy to follow others, re-pin, and post your own.  I like the subcategories of specific interests or preferences.  Just like Facebook, Pinterest is a tool for individualism.  When looking through Pinterest trends, many of the pins are photos of clothing, food, traveling.  Rather than commenting or blogging, users are "showing" their experiences and tastes.

The important factor(s) about these social networking websites is/are that they're free to sign up and available via Internet connection.  Phone companies are taking advantage of free access into the Internet on their data plans since people are always on their smartphones, updating or tweeting.