Social networking & communication

In the past few years social networking has expanded massively, with over 80% of internet users having used a social network, the most popular social networks are currently: Facebook and Twitter, companies such as Google have recognised the huge popularity of social networks and have created their own; Google+. The reason that social networks have become so popular is because social networking allows you to keep in touch with family and friends by sharing images, chatting to them, or posting updates, this is very useful if your friends or family live far away or in another country, it makes talking and sharing photos and videos extremely easy, it's also free and so it's replaced the phone due to the high cost of calling abroad.

 A social networking site can be a good way to make connections with people with similar interests and goals. They can be a way to connect with people that a person may not have had the opportunity to before, as with most social networking sites you are able to show people your interests and this makes it very easy to find others that share your interests, thus creating a good way to meet people that you will most likely get along with.

Social networking sites come with the downside that a lot of websites have, scammers and people with malicious intent, these can be people who trick the user into downloading e.g. a plug in for the social network which is really just malware.

Also identity theft can be easily done by gathering information as it is displayed to the public via their profile 

This graph shows just how popular social networking, and especially Facebook have become over the few years of its release.

 

Social networking is easily done now because of smart phones, smart phones are able to support most social networking sites at a good speed, and so people are able to talk to people and chat to them when they are out, so people can talk to others dispite their location, something that you could only really do with phones, which costs quite a bit of money if you're having a lengthy call, which is another reason social networking dominates communication amoung many people, they are able to talk for as long as they want without any costs.