Check out Social Networking Sites

Back somewhere after the beginning of the 21st century I had signed into a social networking site called Whimit. This was primarily for the Russian speaking culture with the majority of its free members being from Brooklyn and New York. It quickly grew in size and popularity. This was my first taste of viewing profiles with peoples pictures and being able to interact with public and private messaging within the site. It was a nice tool to communicate with friends as well as meet new people. It also provided a forum area where people could discuss any ideas and topics that were on their mind ranging from politics, sex, to any infinite possibilities. I retain many friends today that I met originally on that site. I was even able to benefit from it as a dating tool and reach out beyond my neighborhood and common hang out spots. I met one of my Ex-girlfriends off of the site that lived in Philly. There would have been no other way our lives would have ever crossed if not in that manner. So early on I discovered the usability of this site.

The owners of this site eventually created MEETSPOT which expanded its horizons to provide the same popular service and functionality to all cultures. This also became quite popular. Some spinoffs eventually evolved whether not from this sites originality or quite possibly others that were following the craze, such as Fly Guy Crew and Myspace. It took me awhile but eventually got on board with Myspace and found the capability of adding your own flavor with music and background designs quite interesting and saw the potential it raised with allowing personal expression. They also seemed to have struck gold with their Bulletin functionality which seems to be the originating idea behind Facebooks status updates that get broadcast to all buddies and as well as the idea behind Tweeting.

Myspace allowed for some people to remain somewhat anonymous with nicknames, same as Whimit, Meetspot and FlyGuyCrew. It presented a very laid back sort of youthful manner. Then Facebook comes in with people actually using Government names. Well not all as some continue to revert to trying to hide their true identities. Facebook itself came out to the public as a tool for college students to communicate. It has grown immensely since its launch. It brings more of a mature atmosphere and allowed not only college students but the older more scared 30+ scene to get involved into something that was deemed as a kids virtual playground. Myspace now still continues to be a great asset to the younger generation while Facebook has taken over the real world with kids, adults and even some signs of the older generation. Another site that I have partaken in is Linked in which is a professional social networking site and allows to keep a working log of references and working associates. I also personally enjoy their groups and discussion groups very much.

The great thing with these tools is free communication without the maintenance of an email account, group cooperation since you can have communication with several people and of course the most popular is picture sharing. They have brought a new twist to the stale email chit chatter and seemingly unneeded calls and texts that all were used to keep the masses intertwined. Facebook also smartly incorporated Instant Messaging into the mix as they take a piece from AOL and Yahoo and realize immediate touch and conversation will always be a major factor of the internet. All these tools are a great sign of the direction that social networking and technology itself is going.