automaticable

In this new age of social networking and being able to find just about ANYTHING on the internet (Thanks Al Gore!) it seems like your typical websites like Myspace and Facebook are where you can basically find anyone and their mom, literally.  I have experience with both websites and have watched both grow and deteriorate over time.  I’ve still noticed that I spend the majority of my time on websites like these, and it got me to thinking, “What is it about these websites that make me so attracted to them?”

So after doing some little investigating myself, I’ve realized that the majority of the individuals that use websites like these are the ones that are still in some sort of education system, but are generally above the age of 13 (mainly due to many sites’ user age agreement).

Now with Myspace it started out as a “place for everyone” and because of that it’s become over-populated with anything from Jr. High students talking about how Johnny loves Suzie, but Suzie wants to get with Jack, to comedians, local and professional musicians looking for more fans, all the way up to big corporate businesses trying to promote a new product to the masses in a certain demographic.  Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad thing, because you can find literally any product, company, or person on one website, which is amazing.  The thing I don’t like about the site is that because you can find just about anyone or anything on there, the site is VERY cluttered with people, lots of fake accounts and spammers trying to steal your identity and put a virus on your computer.  But you’ll get this with any social network or site that you sign up for, so make sure to take a glance at the privacy settings immediately after you sign up, or after any major change in the website.  I also don’t like how much control a person has over the layout of their own personal page.  It’s nice to have some individuality and everything, but when I’m blinded by the obscure color schemes, and all the “glitter text” splashed all over the page, as well as eight different songs from different bands playing all at the same time, I think it’s officially time to say “that’s too much.”  Now onto Facebook…

Facebook was one of a kind when it first came out.  In its beginning stages, it was an exclusive social networking site for only college students, and you had to have a valid university e-mail address to sign up.  This exclusivity really appealed to the Generation X because we’re very technologically savvy and to have a place that is basically filled with everyone from that generation is exactly what we were looking for, but didn’t know it.  It wasn’t before long that the creators of Facebook saw that their numbers were growing rapidly and decided to open up Facebook just a little bit more, but still make it an exclusive network by making it just high school students who had to be invited onto the website, and then still having college students.  There was a very large uproar when this happened because with this happening, we (the original college students that started using Facebook) knew that it was only a matter of time before they opened up the entire network to anyone, and it would become much like Myspace.

This did of course end up happening and Facebook was no longer the exclusive site for just the educational masses.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still the high school and college aspects of the site, but you don’t need to be invited, or have a valid university e-mail to sign up anymore, but you do need those to join a specific high school or college network.  Since they opened up the website, they’ve added a few features like a “News Feed” that tells you everything that your friends are doing from a status update like “Mindy wants to strip down naked and parade around town” or “Cecilia is bleh homework” to knowing about someone’s relationship status changing from single to complicated.  With all the new changes, there were always uproars from people about the change, and new groups entitled “Bring Back The Old Facebook!!!11!!oneone” but eventually people just got used to the change, and now with the news feed, people have grown to find a new passion in Facebook called “creeping.” Creeping is where someone notices something on their news feed about someone, becomes curious, and views that person’s page and does anything and everything in their power to find out what is going on, without having to actually ask the person in question directly.  I could go on and on about the different changes I have seen and pros and cons, but in the end, sites change, people cope, and the world lives on.

These might seem like scary places and something you might not want to get into, but these aren’t the only social networking sites out there.  There are also many other social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, which are great for building a professional network of people to help get your name and resume out to different people and jobs, much like Monster, or other resume sites.  I hope these little tidbits about each website help you decide whether the social networking craze is a place for you.

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