Dave's Take on Social Networking Sites

Almost everyone is there from friends, cousins, girlfriends, boyfriends, parents, grandparents, nieces, nephews, classmates, and people you haven't seen in years. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about, it's the infamous social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook that's keeping everyone on their computers for -at least- a minimum of two hours.

Similar social networking sites are driven to reach the success of MySpace and Facebook -in relevance to the number of traffic and users- partly because these sites can be very profitable at a very low cost.

MySpace, for example, generates millions in revenues from banners and other forms of advertisements that target youthful users. In addition, Facebook, geared to college students, is also cashing in from ads that students can purchase for whatever means they find it effective.

These social sites reinforces the whole idea of cyberspace being a real place. But for those who didn't grow up with internet will find this whole thing hard to believe.

For teens, these sites are becoming the digital equivalent to hanging-out at the mall, where they can also load -often HOT- pictures, and update their profiles according to their likes and dislikes.

Their page becomes their personality.

But how much influence do these sites have on teens? Depending on how you see it, it can have both positive and negative influence on them.

Positive:

• Minimizes gallivanting. Teens would rather be online and browse thru social networking sights instead of going out
• Getting reacquainted with old friends
• They become creative and computer savvy especially MySpace users

Negative:

• Spending too much time on it can be counter productive
• Younger users become less active and sits infront of their computers instead
• Curiousity can lead to danger. Meeting predators online

Social networking sites were not available yet when I was in high school, and even if it was, I don't think I would have one because I'm just not computer savvy enough. MySpace for example allows users to personalize their page. But in order to make it your own, you need to know how to configure html codes, but I hear that you can get templates from sites, which makes it easier for users.

Many teens nowadays are addicted to MySpace and if that were the case for me, then that would only add to the distractions I received in high school.

Even kids as young as 5 years old have MySpace, and I wonder who's teaching them how to use it and for what purpose? Well, I guess for the same reason as the other 47 million people that use it. This is one of the reasons why kids are less active now compared to kids then who didn't have access to computers. We can see why there’s so many overweight children… and I know this is a whole different topic but I just have to mention it.

I personally love Facebook. It’s very safe and user friendly. You can have the option of setting your account on private. Plus you can also control who can have access to certain things on your profile by setting up your privacy account accordingly. Predators will always be around so advice you to keep your account on private.

If you have a Facebook account, you may add DriversEd.com on your facebook group under DriversEd.com Students and Alumni. Tell your friends!!

We're also finding a way to utilize Facebook to help DriversEd.com reach all the freshmen and sophomore students in all approved states. So look out for us and add us!

Take the good with the bad but make sure to stay safe so keep on social networking!

Written by Dave Arizabal