1. Social Networking and Online Communities.
Our lives… Online.
SLIDE 1
You would have to live under a rock to not know about online social networking, let alone be
involved in it in some way. With its positives and negatives, we are still continuing to push our lives
online and take use of the world that is online social networking.
SLIDE 2
On October 4 2012, Facebook announced that it had 1 billion active users each month. This is around
a sixth of the entire world’s population that includes babies, the elderly and people without access
to technology. Another way to see its size is by thinking if Facebook was a country it would be the
third largest only behind China and India.
SLIDE 3
On announcement of this feat, Facebook released this video demonstrating the power and vast
connectivity of the global social networking phenomenon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7SjvLceXgU
SLIDE 4
And this is just Facebook! Facebook is the most used online social networking website, but others
are not far behind and continue to grow! The next most popular include Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace,
Google+, DeviantArt, LiveJournal, Tagged, Orkut and Pinterest rounding out the top ten.
SLIDE 5
So who makes up these 1 billion people?
According to the 2012 Social Network Analysis Report by Ignite Social Media, more women use
Facebook, Twitter and Myspace than men, with LinkedIn being fairly even.
And to the surprise of many, the younger audience is always not the largest one! The 45-54 year old
age group was the most popular on Facebook, LinkedIn and Myspace, and was not far behind the 25-
34 year olds on Twitter.
In terms of geography, Turkey is the country with the highest use of Facebook, Venezuela dominates
Twitter, The Netherlands is the highest user of LinkedIn, the highest use of Google+ is in Nepal, and
Puerto Rico is the most popular country for Myspace.
SLIDE 6
So these statistics are a bit all over the place! We as a human beings love social networking, and with
increased accessibility and features, online social networking is loved by all shapes and kinds all over
the world.

2. SLIDE 7
As the use of online social networking is on the rise, the younger generation of people have barely
lived their lives without it, and in terms of social standing, you don’t have a life unless you engage in
an online social network!
“When I ask teenagers why they joined MySpace, the answer is simple: “Cuz that’s where my friends
are.” – Danah Boyd.
SLIDE 8
“I'm in the 7th grade. I'm 13. I'm not a cheerleader. I'm not the president of the student body. Or
captain of the debate team. I'm not the prettiest girl in my class. I'm not the most popular girl in my
class. I'm just a kid. I'm a little shy. And it's really hard in this school to impress people enough to be
your friend if you're not any of those things. But I go on these really great vacations with my parents
between Christmas and New Year's every year. And I take pictures of places we go. And I write
about those places. And I post this on my Xanga. Because I think if kids in school read what I have to
say and how I say it, they'll want to be my friend.” – Vivien, 13, to Parry Aftab during a “Teen Angels”
meeting.
SLIDE 9
This goes to show, that online social networks create a haven for young people, almost a second
home. They can be whoever they want to be online. If they post a comment or a status they realise
they should have posted, they can delete it. They have the choice of who sees their profiles, and
what pictures of theirs are accessible and who they choose to be friends with. Their online profiles
create almost another separate identity for them from the one they live in the real world.
SLIDE 10
As these identities are created online, there can be added pressure for youth to hold a certain
reputation on these websites. In a dog eat dog world, popularity is a highly sought after
accomplishment. For young people, being well-liked is often vital for surviving through school. As our
lives are now online, users thrive on likes, positive comments, pokes and their quantity of friends in
order to boost their social standing.
“This increased awareness of others' minute actions may have interesting implications for the way
we relate to others and understand ourselves.” – Vladimir Barash.
“The breadth and importance of the peer group during early adulthood is magnified by the number
of Facebook friends that students, particularly young women, reported”- Tiffany A. Pempek,
Yevdokiya A. Yermolayeva, Sandra L. Calvert.
SLIDE 10
Life is different online than it is in real life. Hiding behind a computer screen can often enable
confidence in the user, and make them engage with people they ordinarily wouldn’t. Social networks
are even a common place for shy singles to meet each other!

3. “Even when using a very weak definition of “friend” (i.e., anyone who a user has directed a post to at
least twice) we find that Twitter users have a very small number of friends compared to the number
of followers and followees they declare. This implies the existence of two different networks: a very
dense one made up of followers and followees, and a sparser and simpler network of actual friends.”
SLIDE 11
However, this can lead to negative implications. As discussed, people can be who they want to be
online and project a particular image to their peers. So this can often lead to people saying certain
things and behaving in certain ways that they wouldn’t ordinarily in real life.
Words can be a lot easier to say on a keyboard rather than out loud, and with the opportunity to
post under a fake alias, it is a lot easier to be crude without facing any implications.
“Think of the ways we've used technology to make our lives portable. Pervasive. With us all the time.
Now throw someone who doesn't like you into that mix. The reason is unimportant. What matters is
they have a presence in this portable world, as do you. And with that point of connection the
taunting, the insults and the negativity are now portable.” – William Cohen, ABC Technology and
Games.
SLIDE 12
The issue of privacy is also a downside of living our lives on a publicly accessible sphere. There are
only 3.74 degrees of separation between every single user of Facebook worldwide. Despite our vast
differences, we are all linked by this growing phenomenon. This increases the accessibility of our
profiles, even with privacy settings.
“Even social networking websites that do not openly expose their users’ identities may provide
enough information to identify the profile’s owner” – Ralph Gross and Alessandro Acquisti.
SLIDE 13
When we upload content up on to a website that website gains all ownership of that information,
and we leave ourselves susceptible to having this information used against us.
Every profile has certain information that is accessible to anyone.
“By default, everyone on the Facebook appears in searches of everyone else, independent of the
searchers institutional affiliation. In search results the users’ full names (partial searches for e.g. first
names are possible) appear along with the profile image, the academic institution that the user is
attending, and the users’ status there.” - Ralph Gross and Alessandro Acquisti.
SLIDE 14
As so much information is available on social networking websites, this lack of privacy can also be
used as a tool by some to gain certain information.
Employers have been known to look on potential employees pages to find out their professionalism,
past employment, relationships and even what sort of personality they have.

4. As we are so willing to share details about ourselves so publically, social networking also opens up
the likelihood of stalking, where the stalker doesn’t even have to be seen by anyone else to gain this
information.
“Using the information available on profiles on the Facebook a potential adversary (with an account
at the same academic institution) can determine the likely physical location of the user for large
portions of the day.” - Ralph Gross and Alessandro Acquisti.
SLIDE 15
Despite the negatives of social networking, it is gradually becoming the go to place, not only for our
identities as people, but also for everything else surrounding us.
It is becoming a must-have of a Business to operate a professional Facebook page. Due to its vast
pulling power, Facebook is the ultimate tool for businesses; an easy, cheap outlet to advertise, place
promotions, gain attention and most importantly reach a wide audience.
“Facebook offers so many opportunities to reach customers with specialized advertising that almost
every business can benefit from some sort of paid advertising on Facebook, even if it spends only a
few dollars a week” – Darin Hartley.
Along with being a connection, online social networking has also become a re-connection for many.
Allowing old schoolmates, work colleagues, distant family relatives and alike to reach each other
through a simple, instant resource.
Gone are the days of emails and letters. We can now easily contact each other by a simple tweet,
wall post or comment for free and without having to wait to receive these messages.
SLIDE 16
So whether you see the increasing trend of online social networking as a negative or a positive thing,
there is no denying or stopping its might as a global entity. With its increased accessibility, ease of
use, and abilities, our lives are shifting from real to virtual and only time will tell how powerful this
amazing phenomenon will be.