Online Social Networking

Social networking gives individuals the opportunity to meet new people, reconnect with old friends, and establish business contacts. There have been online social networking services popping up the past few years. The two that are the most popular are Myspace and Facebook. I think a lot of good can come out of social networking. Social networking sites give young musicians and artists a chance to post some samples of their work to gain more exposure in a sort of cheap advertising campaign.

Recently I read an iteresting article that talked about Myspace and Facebook and the types of people that join each network. Although I am not that familiar with Facebook the article seemed to make sense to me. According to the article, "The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes and other 'good' kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. MySpace is still home for "kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school." By listening to the buzz around my classroom as to which students use Myspace, and which students do not, I have to agree with this statement about the choice of a social network being a social issue. I find that most of my honors' students do not use Myspace; however, I do not know if they choose Facebook instead.

I think it is really interesting that these two social network services can be debated just as someone might debate Mets and Yankees. If further research proves that this article is correct then I would argue that we have online social cliques as opposed to a social network.

Levy, Steven (2007). Social Networking And Class Warfare. , Newsweek, Vol. 150, 6