Social Networking Sites

Facebook is currently the most popular and largest social networking site. Some of its features include allowing you to add friends, instant message, provide status updates which allow the user to tell their friends what they are up to, have a “wall” which allows a user’s friends to post comments and messages to their friend, create events, upload photos and videos, and use various applications. I believe that the reason this site is the most popular is because it of its simple and easy to use design layout. For someone who is unfamiliar with social networking sites they will probably have the easiest time learning Facebook compared to the other social networks I will discuss. 

MySpace is a slightly older site than Facebook. On MySpace users are allowed to have a homepage, friends, and can have status updates similar to Facebook and various applications like web based games. The main difference between MySpace and Facebook is its music features; MySpace allows users to create playlists and also suggests music you may like based on what you listen to. MySpace used to have a confusing layout that looked less neat than Facebook. Since then MySpace has changed their layout and more or less copied many popular features on Facebook such as the previously mentioned web based games.  It’s hard to say whether or not people will go back to MySpace or not but it seems doubtful. Most of us associate MySpace with a younger user base than Facebook because it’s the social network we used during high school or even younger times.  

Twitter is a social networking site that allows its users to post short messages (only 140 characters) called “tweets”. Usually when someone tweets it is about what is currently happening to them. Twitter doesn’t focus on a traditional friends list like MySpace or Facebook but instead allows users to follow other people. When Twitter first came out it was mostly used by celebrities but since then it is catching on among a lot of people. Like Facebook, Twitter’s layout is simplistic and fairly easy to understand.

Lastly, LinkedIn is a social networking site that is business oriented.  Its features include allowing its user’s to make a profile which typically acts as a resume listing previous and current job experience, your company, and your industry. LinkedIn allows its user to create a network that consists of “connections” which include people you know and expand to the people they know. With the growing popularity of social networking companies are actually making use of LinkedIn and it is becoming a viable option for someone looking for a job.