Social networking sites may be giving the new generation a platform to speak their mind and may be developing a new trend among the teenagers; however, there have also been instances of child abuse which has put the use of this medium by underage children under a cloud. According to the center for missing and exploited children, more than 2600 cases of child abuse have been reported where adults have tried to exploit the children sexually through networking sites like MySpace.
Rules Should Be Enforced To Safeguard Interest Of Users
There have also been other cases where children have used these sites to give vent to their feelings of negativity. In one case, the school administration expelled a gay student from school after school officials saw him in a drag on social networking site Facebook. In another case, in Kansas, police arrested five students for posting a blog on MySpace in which one of the boys disclosed plans to attack another boy’s school in a commando raid. Similar incident in a California school suspended twenty students for taking part in a group on MySpace for threatening to kill another student. The alarming thing is that the number of such incidents is on the rise.
While one has to take concrete steps to counter the negative aspects of social networking through sites, one cannot neglect the fantastic medium of expression it has put in the hands of the young generation. If the young generation uses this medium in a constructive way then it can have far reaching effects on the societies to come in the future. Students can clarify their doubts through their seniors, professionals can gain through their experiences to move ahead on the corporate ladder, new hobbies can be developed, new friends can be made, products can exchange hands without middlemen; the list is endless. The biggest benefit is that all this happens while you are sitting in the comfort of your home.
According to David Bell, an expert on marketing, it is important to maintain the identity of social networking sites. The social networking sites must focus on a selected audience so that proper checks can be placed to check improper use. Moreover, the membership should also be limited to the members of the group alone. Like for example, a students’ social networking site should have only students as its members. Another important thing is to keep the interest of the members alive by providing upgrades in functionality such as better quality of sound and faster speed. In such a scenario, proper checks can be placed and filters arranged to keep the negativity reported down and track the warning signals before they become a menace to the society.
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P2P (Peer-to-Peer) file sharing software may be the number one problem for music artists, movie producers, book writers and even game creators. They are losing billions in revenue because of these software programs freely downloaded in the internet. While some P2P networks will require payments for premium users, you can still download a file from popular P2P networks without any problem.
So why are these P2P software programs any problem to these artists and creators? Simple: P2P software enables their users to download potentially copyrighted commercial games, music, movies and books freely. When Napster came out more than 10 years ago, it was mostly music that was freely distributed. Now everything and any information can be shared, which include newly released games, the latest blockbuster movies, and even the latest magazines. Since they are free, those affected industries are not earning anything at all. Imagine if one popular musician’s song was downloaded in Limewire (a popular P2P software) 2,000,000 times, it already cost the industry two million dollars if the song is sold in iTunes for $.99 per song. That’s just for one artist and one song only. Multiply the number by the hundreds and the industry loses billions of dollars yearly.
BitTorrent, which is the most popular P2P software on the Internet, works this way: a person uploads a torrent file and seeds them online. The term seeding is like hosting the file so that people can download the file if they like it. In turn those that downloaded the file will “seed” to other persons after they have downloaded it. After two or three days, if the movie is really popular, the seeders will be thousands and the downloaders will also be at the same number. The cycle will only end if the popularity of the file, movie or music will slowly end. Another form of P2P software will just give you the ability to upload and download various files, without any notion of seeders or leechers. Leechers are those that download the file without seeding any information themselves. The performance of P2P sharing is largely due to the fact that every file is splitted into multiple segments and is shared among peers segmented. Splitting means even though you have not finished downloading a whole file, the file is split into various parts, and so you can seed some parts of the file you’ve downloaded. Instead of being a leecher, you now become a seeder that contributes shared resources for other peers on the network.
These P2P software programs may have their advantages. Large files that are needed by many users legitimately, such as Linux distributions or MS Windows updates can be uploaded via a P2P program, seeded and downloaded by users in a scalable way. However, an obvious disadvantage is for the industry that entertains and educates us for a living.
On your end, you have to be careful in using this type of P2P software. If you’re not careful with the programs you downloaded from P2P networks, you’ll end up with having malware or virus installed on your computer. Even some of the files are loaded with spyware or adware to annoy you incessantly. So if you want to use P2P software, make sure you use them for the good and be careful with the free stuff. It looks nice but it might be the end of your computer.
If you’re using your instant messaging software installed on your computer, there are new developments going on online that you may be interested in. The, so called, online instant messengers are slowly gaining popularity, and these are perfect for people who have various instant messaging accounts.
The trouble with existing messenger software programs is that you need to configure them one by one before it will work to your own advantage. Sometimes you just wanted your messages to stay in one place and will only be available if you check them. No more pop-up messages to ruin things, especially when you’re playing online. So check out these online messaging tools and see if they suit your need. These tools are quite useful and you’ll find yourself creating an account or trying it out before the end of this article.
IloveIM.com – This is probably the youngest of the online instant messaging software right now. You can log in to use yahoo, msn, Google talk and AOL. Once you are logged in to a specific system, another page will pop out with all the contacts in your IM. As of this writing, you need to sign in to all your instant messaging accounts one by one to access them all.
Ebuddy.com – This nifty service is getting better every time. Like most of the online messaging services, it can cater to MSN, Yahoo, AOL and Google. Instead of logging in to the messaging system one by one, you can actually create an account and with just one user name and password, you can access them all. Even though the “one account for all” is still on beta version, I’m sure it will work just fine. One thing that makes ebuddy.com stand out is you can actually use this online tool in your mobile devices. Just go to Mob.ebuddy.com from your mobile browser and you are good to go.
Meebo.com – Probably the best online tool for instant messaging. The website has developed so many features that instant messaging is only one of the services that they offer. Meebo.com can log you on to the common instant messaging services but it also offers ICQ and Jabber. You can create just one account and from there you’ll be able to see all your contacts that you included in your account all in one page. You can see all those who are online and from your Meebo account, easily get in touch with them. You can also take a look at their profile right at the webpage. You can also create groups to connect to others with the same interest as you.
Just some safety tips that you need to consider before you go on a full chat mode in these sites. Avoid giving out your credit card number and other personal information in these sites. Since this is a third party tool, there may be others that we don’t know monitoring your online activity right now. Not that we don’t trust these sites but some use these sites to get the information they want from the users.
So enjoy talking to your friends and be safe online with these great tools that you can use.
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Some people want to travel around the world visiting great spots while staying in the finest hotels, dining in the best restaurants and visiting places with the help of paid tourist guides. After all, we really don’t know anyone in the place and for security reasons we might find ourselves in a very awkward situations in another country if we don’t get to the secured areas. After all it’s vacation right? That means all we need to do is just sit down and relax while the rest of the world get’s up and do their daily chores everyday.
There are some however, who take traveling to the next level. If you’re single or just traveling alone and love to create contacts through MySpace or other social networking websites, then head on to couchsurfing.com. Couchsurfing.com officially coined the idea of couch surfing. No, it’s not a literal couch or anything that you do on it. We all regard couch as one of the basic things that you find at home. From that concept couch surfing means you’re going from home to home not only in the country but in the whole world! By creating contacts, you can invite or be invited to go to a place. Once there, the host will show you to their favorite spots or places they want to hang up. You can even join events….it’s like visiting an old pal but you’re just there for the first time.
The website was created by Casey Fenton in June of 2003. The website started to create buzz because of the newest concept that it offers. Instead of having friends online that you drop a message every day or two, why not visit them instead. That idea clicked and there are people started traveling places to meet people. However, out of the blue an announcement from the owner of the site came: couchsurfing.com is closing down! The main reason is a serious crash in the server and almost all information was lost. But no one, especially those personally connected to be site will take this sitting down. Thousands of e-mail pleading the owner not to close down the site and there are even donations to keep the website running. The website eventually went down in June 2006 but was immediately revived in July 7, 2006. The company is now a non-profit organization and it has currently three employees including the owner.
You would be surprised on how the active members travel around the world meeting people. There are even those that traveled for more than a year and all they do is meet people. For security reasons, anyone who wants to go out and visit someone has to be vouched. Anyone that was vouched could then in turn vouch someone else. Another option is to give out your credit card just for verification of address. Other than that, there’s no other requirement to be with another pal. Just bring your ticket and off you go for a very long vacation with your friends.
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The advent of Web 2.0 has paved the way of different types of user uploaded content. There are now blogs that work like a diary or even for business purposes, and there are also podcasts where users place their views online not in words but in voice. Vidcast is also a form of podcasting but instead of voice, it’s now like a show that’s being uploaded to popular content based websites such as youtube.com. There are even sites that offer free live webcasts. Anyone can now go online and rant for free, no one will stop them. All they need is a computer mic, webcam and headset’s and they are good to go.
Now a small but continuously growing trend in the world of “casting,” just this year, the term pagecasting has been getting a lot of buzz from techies.
Pagecasting has been around for years but it’s more on a personal note. If you have an account in Yahoo!, you may have crossed with their service called My Yahoo!. This page stores everything that you’re interested in. You will be able to see the latest news, the latest comic strips and even the latest e-mails. Pagecasting is essentially like this, with minor modifications.
You can say that a page cast is more like a web portal. Everything that you need to know is there. Instead of going to all the websites, you can just place them all in one place. However, the main difference between pagecasting and web portal is the ability to be shared with the public. Pagecasting will not only be limited to what you know, but you want to share it with the public. iGoogle and my.yahoo.com’s account can be considered like a pagecast but it’s only a portal as it cannot be shared with the public.
But one site has taken the challenge that will enable users to share what they want with the public. Pageflakes.com is a fairly new website that as of this writing has at least 150k active users. This website has taken the term pagecasting seriously and has given all the users the ability to pagecast their favorite sites.
If you have a pagecasting site, you should be able to tell the people what you think, what you love, what you listen to, what you read, and everything. You page can be enhanced with thousands and thousands of widgets but as the website calls it, “flakes.” You can enhance your page with the latest news, weather updates, podcasts, videos and even blogs. You can RSS your favorite site, or even copy a simple code to be launched in their very own account.
So far, pagcasting is not as popular as other “casting” services. However, it will surely be a hit as thousands are signing up every minute, showing curiosity and eventually dedication. Give it a year or two and everyone will literally have their own pagecasting site. Even though you don’t write anything, but you can always share what you know and love with the rest of the online audience.
We all know about MySpace.com, Friendster.com and MSN Live Spaces as some of the best or maybe the most well known social networking websites. These sites have millions of hits everyday and are growing their population steadily. But you should know that there are other “quality” social networking websites that are not getting as much spotlight. Still, they are gaining popularity, especially with something different to offer compared to other sites where you just blog, post picture, videos and comments to friends. Read on and see what they really have to offer.
Stickam.com – one of my favorites. This website works like other social networking websites, offering standard stuff like pictures, videos music and things like that. However, what makes this site very special is the video streaming – with voice! Don’t just connect to your friends through pictures and videos but connect to them live! Independent online shows use this website as a means of letting their fans watch them online without any fuss. You can also host yourself a ton of activities online. What makes this video streaming special is that others can actually join and watch without even signing in. You can also use this medium to talk to your friends and see them through the webcam. A great site for those who can be online all the time.
43 Things – a great place to connect to people based on what you like or your hobbies. Upon signing up, you are required to least your favorite 43 things. I really don’t know why 43 is the required number but it works. You can place the things that you like and from the list, you can connect to other people based on the things that you like. A magic for those who want to know more about their hobbies and compare what you know from other hobbyists like you from around the world.
Flixster.com – A definite for those who love movies. With any kind of movie you like, Flixster.com will connect you to thousands even millions of information of the movies that you love online. This is also a fun site as you’ll get to answer the some movie questions created by the members of Flixster.com. You can also create some questions of your own and invite your friends, member or non-member to answer your questions. You can even sign-up only for the questions and answer until you can take it no more…which is probably never.
Advogato.org – At first glance, you may think Advogato.com is not a social networking website. With a member of less that a hundred thousand, it probably is. But if you are a software developer wanting to connect to thousands out there, this site is for you. Advogato.org connects you to some of the finest open source developers. Everyday, you’ll see updates of the development of some of the softwares they are working on. In your end you can either sign up to help or sign up to start something and you will be assisted by other developers.
Whatever your hobby and liking, there is a social networking site just for you.
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