Social Networking In a New World

It wasn't too long ago that social networking meant inviting coworkers or your boss over for a barbecue, or heading out to the golf club to rub shoulders with the who's who.

With Web 2.0, social networking is taking on a very different meaning. People are getting ahead in business and careers through the use of digital social networks.

There are social network sites for all sorts of social groups. Some of these special groups include dog-lovers, avid readers, singles looking for dates, and musicians looking for the big deal.

Recently, teens and young adults have been communicating on networks such as Nexopia and Hi5.

Virtually every big company offers some sort of social networking tool. Yahoo offers Yahoo 360, Google offers Orkut, and there are the two big networks of Facebook and MySpace.

Perhaps the grand master of all social networking groups is Second Life. Second life is becoming a virtual reality world. Libraries, universities and major businesses are setting up shop inside Second Life. At the BCEdONLINE conference in April 2007 an IBM employee told the audience how IBM employees host virtual meetings inside Second Life rather than host teleconferences.

Second Life is different from other social networking utilities. Most digital social networks provide a place to post and respond to friends, to engage in interesting activities, and provides an option for anonymity. One can choose who can see your picture, profile, or other personal information.

Second life on the other hand, protects the user because they use nick names rather than real names. In second life, the representation of the user is also different. The image, referred to as an avatar, is selected from available models. This gives the user a virtual identity. Where most social networks are based upon real identities that are shared amongst trusted friends, Second Life is a purely fantasy-based world. It will be interesting to see which direction the population chooses to go with digital social networking.

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