Growth of ’social networks’: To be or not to be?

Posted by miuki as Perspectives

In the recent days we tend to hear ALOT about ‘social networking sites‘.

Hmmm… So…

What exactly is a social network?

According to Wikipedia:

A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes.

Features that are usually available (and most widely made used of) are, member profiles and, of course, free chat rooms.

I mean… The purpose of such sites are basically to find old friends you lost, make new ones, and of course, well… Discuss stuff?

Anyhow.

As this ‘trend‘ evolves, more and more of such sites are pop-ing up almost anywhere and everywhere online. For sites that aren’t as big as Friendster, Facebook or even WireClub, they usually take the more ‘specific‘ approach. In other words, they catered more towards specific interest groups to attract specific audience.

As a gamer, I tend to look towards the ‘gaming‘ options, which of course lead me to…

Second Life Profiles - Meet the real people in second life!

(Since I play SL and all.)

In case you guys/gals don’t know what that is…

Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc (commonly referred to as Linden Lab), which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007.

(I’m not sure how many of you guys ‘play‘ SL, but for those that do, drop me a message or something my in-game nick is Princessa Little.)

Going off my point (if I had one to begin with).

Thing is… I’m not sure about you guys, but gaming itself has proven to be addictive. Do you think such ‘sites‘ will create a negative effect on the generation we live in nowadays?