Social Networking

Virtually viewing the Real-World in Real-Time: Are we creating a fantasy world with social networking sites?

The emergence of online social networking sites over the past few years is somewhat a phenomenon, in that the way the general population has taken to these types of sites. When web sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Linkin are surfacing yearly, the web has created and is creating a new kind of social presence, a virtual social presence where digital data converts to binary code to represent, or is intended to represent, the analog identity of the user. Can two people that have never met in “real life” become best friends in the virtual world? How do we know that the information a person provides for these social networking sites is the truth? Will that data create an analogical identity that the user was trying to put forth by the information they provide on social networking sites? These are questions that social networking sites will answer in time, but only after some years of its existence will we, as a society, know if, in fact, best friends or true identities can truly be created based on digital data that is stored in a database on a remote server somewhere unbeknownst to the user.

Social Networking web sites, such as Facebook or MySpace, are highly interactive sites which appear as places where the user desperately, for the lack of a better word, are wanting to fit “in” or “connect” with the society today. Desperately may, indeed, sound like a strong word to use and desperate might not be the case, but statistics would show otherwise. The profiles that are created on these social networking sites are growing rapidly every day. People seem more than willing to provide any information necessary to put up a profile which begs the question “Does these sites provide an accurate view or an analogical identity of the person based on digital data”? Maybe people find the need to express themselves to the world somehow, someway, even if doing...