The Social Web

Since the early beginnings of the internet, the social web has become an environment that has been enhanced greatly, and offers many more ways to interact, share information and have fun. Social web sites are shared by millions of people, but they have many pros and cons. No matter what reason you have for using social websites, put your safety first. With this essay we will discuss the beginning of the social web craze, social media websites, and the pros and cons of social websites.

The social web is sites where the user gets to interact with other users on the site. Today some of the most popular social media sites are sites such as, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, and Twitter. These are just a few examples of sites that let people enjoy the many features and experiences that are to be enjoyed on the social web environment. However, social media started a long time before these sites were created.

IRC is where chat and the idea of the social web began. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. IRC was the first way to chat and interact online. IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in 1988; by 1991 it had gone public. IRC is not as simple as the way we chat today. For example, if you want to send a message to a certain person in chat now it only requires a couple simple clicks of your mouse. With IRC chat you would type this code, / msg the nick of user you are contacting and then your message. It would look like this /msg countrygirl Hi how are you? If you want more information about the user you would type /whois countrygirl. (Anas Alam Faizli.1998) As you can see IRC is more time consuming then today's popular chat programs and requires remembering codes.

Websites in the early 1990's, that focused on bringing people together, so they could interact with each other in chat rooms, and also encouraged users to share personal information through personal web became popular quickly. A couple examples of sites like this were at sites like, Geocities, which was founded in 1994, and Tripod that started in 1995.

Six Degrees was launched in 1997 and it was the first site to be like the modern social sites we use now. Six Degrees allowed people to create pages and become friends with other people using the site. The site was shut down in 2001.

Each social web site has its own main reason for the creation of the site. A couple things that they all have in common are

1) Users are able to connect with others

2) Users usually connect with many people; some are not personal family and friends.

Let's first discuss some of the different social websites that are popular today and the reasons they are used. The social web has evolved immensely since the time of the IRC chat rooms.

MySpace was started in 2003. It quickly became the number one social media website. Many people still use MySpace however, in April 2008; MySpace lost its number one spot to Facebook. Some people say this is because MySpace "sought to amass an audience around entertainment content. Facebook maintains its focus on features that enhance the social-networking experience, such as the "News Feed" that matches the immediacy of Twitter's staccato updates." (D. Sarno, D. Chmielewski, 2009)

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. In the past seven years Facebook has become the number one social media website with MySpace coming in second. Facebook has 600 million+ monthly active users. (Carlson, N, 2011) Facebook is where people go to post news and happenings about themselves. They are able to connect with friends and family, locate long lost friends and also follow celebrities and musicians they like. Company's and brands also use Facebook to connect with people who use their services or products. Hospitals are starting to utilize the benefits of having a Facebook page but children's hospitals appear to be clear leaders in the use of Facebook. (ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry, 2011) Even Ashford University has a Facebook page. Facebook users are not only able to connect with friends and family and make new friends. They are also able to play a considerable amount of games. What makes game playing so fun at Facebook, is that users can invite their friends and family to join in on the fun by playing the games they enjoy, and helping them get to higher levels in the games.

Celebrities, musicians, and brands use the social web with sites like Facebook to interact with fans. They are able to keep them up to date on the happenings in their career and form a bond with their supporters. When singer/songwriter Jeff Timmons was asked about his opinion of using social media he stated "I think it helps artists in many ways from touring, to getting opinions about the material, to sales, and etc." (Wright. C, 2010)

Twitter was launched in 2006 and enables users to send and read text-based posts composed of up to 140 characters, called tweets. Tweeters have become quite talented at relaying messages in short tweets. Twitter currently sees about 65 million total Tweets a day. (Garrett S, 2010) Users are able to post tweets via cell phones, iPods, iPads, computers, and book readers that have internet capabilities.

Twitter is another way for everyone to keep in contact with each other. Friends, families and even musicians can post a tweet to interact with others interested in what they have to say. American Idol Taylor Hicks uses Twitter to connect with fans. Often times having what he and fans call twitter parties. When asked what he thought about social media he stated "I think the use of FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter, and all of those, basically allow a fan to receive information much more quickly than before. " (Wright. C, 2010)

LinkedIn is for professionals to be able to contact each other, and it can be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities. Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates. In 2009 there were 50 million users worldwide and growing that figure at roughly one new member per second. (Weiner, J, 2009) Since that report LinkedIn now has 100 million members in over 200 countries and territories. (Business & Finance Week, April, 2011) At LinkedIn job searchers can post their resumes, look for jobs and those looking to hire someone can use LinkedIn to find that next great employer. LinkedIn is a must for everyone looking for a job, an employer or just wanting to get more connections to help them further their professional goals.

Fantourage is a new social media website with a twist. At Fantourage users become fans of musicians, celebrities, or brands that they like. The artists and companies offer rewards to the top fans for being active on the site and helping them become more popular.

Founder John Davie summed up the purpose of Fantourage best. It is about allowing the celebrities to reach out to their most diehard fans, and also gain new fans, and allowing the fans to compete in a fun way to become a Top fan. (Wright. C, 2010) Fantourage launched in March of 2010 and has already given out over three-hundred rewards to fans. Fans have won things like free Star Bucks coffee, a Hot Tub from the Hot Tub Time Machine page, tickets and a meet and greet to a Taylor Hicks concert plus much more. With celebrities and company's offering rewards to devoted fans the site could see an explosion or popularity in the near future.

UStream is a system of various channels providing a stage for users to share events online through live video streaming. UStream was started in March 2007. What makes UStream cool is that users are able to create videos in a live format and people are able to view the video and chat in real time to the person in the video. For example, singer Taylor Hicks uses the format of UStream to conduct live video chats with fans. There are many reasons why someone might desire to use UStream. Such as, family members can video chat with family members that are far from them, companies can conduct video meetings, and artists can chat with their fan base. There are many great possibilities with the UStream capabilities.

The social web is an exciting and interesting part of the internet world. The internet and the social web also provide a great way to get the word out about things that need notice. However, as with all things in life, where there is good there also is some not so good aspects to the social web.

The social web has become a great place to spread the word about important subjects. Through the social web people can get information about, and help charities, help find missing children, and so many different causes can be aided though the social web. Bebo's Be Cause page is one such social website where users can go to discover and connect with organizations and people who wish to engage in discussions, raise awareness and campaign about a number of issues. Some of these issues include:

1) Climate change, deforestation, carbon footprints
2) Political issues
3) The promotion of human rights
4) Fighting injustices
5) Reducing poverty through promoting fair trade. (Bebo, 2010)

Facebook is another great way for people to get the word out about anything that needs the help of millions of people to accomplish its goal. For example Facebook users use Facebook to post information about missing people. By doing this there is the hope to access millions of internet users to help find the missing people that go missing every year.

While the social web is an amazing avenue to promote worthy causes, and to have fun, and connect with long lost friends and family, there are aspects to it that we must be cautious of. When we post on the internet and social web sites we think we can set our privacy as we see fit, and only the information we want will be discovered by others, but this is not the case.

In 1999, Scott McNeely, the CEO of Sun Microsystems said "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." While this statement sounds harsh it is basically true. Through the use of the internet anyone can find out our address, phone number, place of employment, etc with just a few simple clicks of the mouse via the internet. Users of social media sites often post when they are going on vacation, This let's a criminal know the house will be vacant and they will be able to go the persons home and take whatever they like. Children are most vulnerable online because they do not realize the dangers lurking on the sites they visit such as MySpace and Facebook and Via social web sites. Users' post pictures of themselves. People think that only the people who are their friends will see the pictures and information they post however, this is not true. The internet can be compared to a family tree. This is because there our branches everywhere in all directions. A user posts a picture on Facebook, their friend tags them which in turn lets all of their friends, friends see their picture. Then maybe one of their friends decides to tag you as well. Then one of their friends also sees your picture. This can go on and on. Someone can grab that picture and post it to a website and write something vulgar about the person. This can just keep going on and on. Maybe you have since deleted that picture from when you first posted it, but it is not gone. Everyone who tagged it has it and anyone else who decided to take it as their own.

This can happen with any text posted as well. Once it is on the internet there is no taking it back. Your privacy is gone and anyone could have that information. When it comes to personal information and pictures the best policy someone can follow is, if you don't want strangers to see it do not post it on a website. If you do then yes what Scott McNeely said is true so there is no other choice but to get over it.

One might think that stalking is something that someone would not have to worry about when it comes to the internet, because it is a virtual world. Stalking can happen via online avenues as well as in the physical world. Below are just a few examples of stalking via the online environment or by finding a victim to stalk though a social web site.

1) A Key West, Florida man was arrested for stalking people at several universities through Facebook. (Blum. J., 2010)

2) A Michigan man was arrested for sending unwanted e-mails to a 29 year old woman and following her on My Space, for more than a year before showing up with flowers at her doorstep on Nov. 5. (Associated Press, 2010)

3) A teen was arrested April 1, 2011 for harassing a girl on Facebook. The teen was sending vulgar and hateful messages to the girl. (Armstrong, J, 2011)

Users of the social web must be diligent in taking safeguards to protect their privacy as much as possible to avoid internet crimes. Follow the steps below to protect your privacy. Social websites are an excellent way to have fun and make connections, but do what you can to protect the privacy that is important to you and the safety of children.

1. Don't tell people you'll be out of the house.

2. Hide your birth date.

3. Remove location tags from photos.

5. Avoid e-mailing sensitive information.

6. Change passwords often.

7. Limit your profile. Do not put a lot of personal information.

8) Do not post your address or phone number on public sites.

9) Monitor your children's internet usage. (Tatin Yang. April, 2010)

Use the social websites that abound all over the World Wide Web, and have fun connecting, and sharing. Just be careful with what you share. Put your safety first.

Sources:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jun/17/business/fi-ct-myspace17
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/04/01/north-andover-teen-arrested-for-cyber-bullying-classmate

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40929239/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

http://blog.twitter.com/2010/06/big-goals-big-game-big-records.html .

http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/10/14/linkedin-50-million-professionals-worldwide/

http://blog.linkedin.com/2009/10/14/linkedin-50-million-professionals-worldwide/
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5510114/interview_with_john_davie_pg2.html?cat=15http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2596849/music_internet_and_fan_promotion_pg3.html?cat=2