Web/Tech: Social Networking is in Vogue

Shashi Tharoor landed into trouble just because of a message posted on Twitter in which he sarcastically responded to a question that he would travel “cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!” he had to clarify that it meant no disrespect to economy travelers but to airlines for herding people in like cattle and holy cows are not individuals but principles that nobody dares to challenge.

Social networking, is a societal structure created by the individuals out of dependency upon each other through relations with friends and family, financial exchange, dislikes and relations based on knowledge, belief and prestige. It ranges from family to nations.

People take a lead in calling the shots to solve problems, run organizations and the extent to which people succeed in achieving their goals. Previously it was used only to imply to the complex set of relationships in society from interpersonal to international. It has become suggestion-turned analysis-turned ideal approach. These ties introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members. Online social networking is most popular.

A social networking website is an online community for social networking. The first official social networking web site is Classmates.com introduced in 1995. Bigadda.com is one of the most widely used Indian multi-user blog sites which can be made searchable on the net and spiced up by graphics available. It claims for the “addas” to be created by the users to express opinions, share photos and music and provide other online applications. At orkut and Facebook.com users can add friends, send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.

Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region. has more than 350 million active users worldwide. Flickr is used for photo sharing, commenting, photography related networking. Hi5 has 60 million active members. Ibibo.com (iBuild iBond) is talent based social networking site that allows to promote one’s self and discover new talent. Mouthshut.com is a consumer review site on the internet with user generated content space. Twitter is famous for micro-blogging known as tweets. Youtube helps to share videos and MySpace, music as well.

Social networking sites have brought revolution in many fields. One of the posts on twitter says “People miss the ‘social’ in social networking. My biz is growing a – lot – on Twitter with or no advertising because I – connect – with people”.

It has affected lifestyles by the use of acronyms such as scrapping, blogging, buzzing, teasers and tweets which are used very frequently. Instead of asking numbers and e-mail id, people enquire “Are you on facebook?” It is also a way to make money out of advertising on blogs, podcasts, videos, personal web page and other forms of user generated content.market a business. That is why, 93 percent of the 28 million Indians online belong to the age group of 18-45 years who are maximum buyers. Inspite of the fact that social networking sites have not fully invaded the advertising world because here consumer is king and they fluctuate from one site to another.

They consist of 44% of India’s internet traffic. People often say that the gain of online social networking is the loss of education. But if the other side is seen, they provide technology skills as the top lesson, creativity, openness to new or diverse views and communication skills.

Increasing popularity of social networking websites have made them vulnerable to data theft and viruses. It is necessary to fix these bugs. Also there is more quantity than quality. Then some people claim to be someone they are not, known as online predators. Such sites are threat to privacy, child safety and copyright infringement.

Have a look at this news:”Words can’t describe me”, is how Adnan Patrawala, 16 yr old teenager from Mumbai, India had described himself on his Orkut profile. However, his kidnappers and murderers got to know a little more of him and ensnared him into a trap which ultimately led to the death of the young boy.

This is the extreme of the social impact. Dangers are present online but they are in the real world too. Just as people proceed in life following safety measures, they need to do the same while online. Being aware of the cyber surroundings, online social networking can be safely enjoyed. It will take many phone conversations to know someone but clear judgment can be taken only after meeting in person. So just use some common sense and listen to your conscience.