For almost a year now, I've been trying to share useful information with people who enjoy social networking online. Generations to come will be able to benefit from the skills we all possess - the ability to create and maintain networks online.

Social Networking - Background

Generation Y started social networking sites, and we've all witnessed the growth of these sites. Sites like these are producing a large amount of money from advertising revenue. Why? Because it just makes sense. Why does a business or company choose to advertise on billboard signs and commercials? Because the more exposure they get to the general population, the better. It's the same idea with websites. If there are millions of people using a site, advertisers jump at the chance to have exposure in a large market of a targeted population.

The future of social networking?

I believe that the people who are creating and maintaining relationships on these sites can and will benefit financially in the future. Imagine a site where the creator shares this advertising revenue with its active members who are helping to grow the network. Now imagine what young people could do with extra money that is being generated from such efforts. We could actually help change the landscape of our world by having the ability to donate, or by having more time to give to our families and/or those in need. The millions of dollars that are being made from advertising revenue on sites like myspace or facebook could actually be shared amongst a large population of social networkers with a cause - and only those that are serious and devoted would share a substantial portion of this revenue.

Learn more about this movement here, and let me know what you think.

Everyone seems to be logging on, from the old to the young, the rich to the poor.  Sit in any public library and you'll see that a lot of the internet users are feverishly typing away on Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, OKCupid or Hi5.  And that's just a few of the big names.

Scientists have coined a new term for the distress caused by being deprived internet access - discomgoogolation. 

So what is it about these sites that are so addictive? 

Anyone can log on and feel instantly connected to a group of people, no matter what time of day it is or where they are in the world.  It leads to a feeling of being part of a community.  There are message boards for fan clubs, common interests and favourite TV shows or books. 

It is also easy to stay in touch with old friends who do not live in the immediate area.  But why is it better than simple old email?  Well, the key is this - user profiles for most of the social networking sites contain a wealth of information about any given individual.  Their status can be updated as and when, so you know exactly when somebody is having a bad day, has passed their driving test or has found a new partner.  Humans are inherently curious.  So much easier to simply read this information rather than having to email and ask them how they are, isn't it?

You don't have to make the effort to look good for a messaging marathon or real-time conversation either.  After all, the recipient of your posted messages has no idea whether you're having a bad hair day, have no makeup on, or are even sitting there in your pyjamas!

In short, you can make less of an effort to maintain friends.  This holds particularly true if you meet somebody new and want to stay in touch, but aren't yet at the "Come over for coffee!" stage.  It's less stressful, less humiliating and there are less awkward silences than in a face-to-face meeting.

But social networking sites are not just about old friends.  It's easy to find new ones with similar interests.    There are dating applications too, so you can widen your pool of potential admirers.  And if somebody doesn't post back to you? Well, so what?  Plenty more fish in the sea.

Lastly, these sites contain an abundance of different online games to be played, quizzes to be taken and photos of friends past and present, to be viewed.  Can you think of a better excuse to procrastinate for a while, when you should be working in your boring, mundane job?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to check my facebook...

But there is something more and it goes back to our instincts. Let me explain.

Ever since before we could walk upright, humans have lived in tribes or groups. We have always needed to bond with other members of our species because that is how we developed into being the dominant animal on the planet. We hunted and gathered together, we reared our young together and we survived because of it.

Over time, we have moved from the trees, to living in caves and then to developing agrarian methods of food production. This again is something we did together. We built towns and villages and, over time, developed new methods of living but the constant has always been social interaction with others of our species. This has served to propagate the species and bring diversity into our gene pool. It allowed the strong to find food whilst the weaker members of society were protected from normal predators.

Technology developed with our increasing intelligence and we used this to protect and enhance our “tribes” - this is why we have wars because we want our tribe to be the dominant one.

This situation evolved over time until the 1980's when there was a sudden shift in the psyche of humans, especially in the west. It didn't happen overnight in terms of a single human being's existence but in the scheme of our evolutionary development it was in the blink of an eye. We became oriented around greed and selfishness.

I would say that this was due to the influence of two people, namely Ronald Reagan as President of the United States of America and Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. These two people, between them, told us that there was no such thing as “community” and that everyone was responsible for themselves. As this notion took hold, so a culture of greed and selfishness became ingrained upon the peoples of the world, particularly in the “developed” nations.

At the same time, technology has allowed us to become insular within our lives. Theoretically it is possible to live, to earn, to shop and to go about your life without leaving your house. You can work from home, you can shop for everything you need from home and you can communicate with your friends and family from home. There is no need to actually go into the real world at all.

So what has this got to do with social networking sites? An awful lot, actually.

Because we have lost our sense of community we are denying something that is within our own nature - to work together for the benefit our “tribe”. So in order to fulfil the void that is left, we use Facebook and MySpace and other sites to give us a sense of belonging and a sense of sharing.

Take a look at Facebook. There are a huge number of groups on there, some of them just devoted to making as many “friends” as possible. I joined some of these groups and randomly requested people to be my “friend” just to see if they would. In less than a week, I had over one hundred new “friends”.

I took this experiment one stage further and started looking at groups that I would never consider joining but nonetheless randomly requested members of those groups to become my “friends”. At the time of writing this, two weeks into my little experiment, I have over five hundred “friends”. The strange thing is, I have actually only met or had any real interaction with about sixty of them (people that I have actually met either on a personal or professional basis).

The thing about these social networking sites is that they can be used by the unscrupulous for many ways. There have been a number of recent cases where Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have been used for bullying, harassment and intimidation. A lady had a fake profile put on Facebook which claimed she was a prostitute and it even gave her mobile number and there was a man who suffered distress when a former friend created a false profile and suggested that he was a homosexual.

Even worse, there has been at least one instance where a child has taken their own life because of bullying on a social networking site. That was perhaps the darkest day for our wonderful new technology.

But it isn't only bullying. These sites have huge potential for fraudsters to prey on people when they are at their most vulnerable. Again, going back to Facebook, there is a little thing on there where you can say what your status is. Recently, when my mother passed away, I stated on my profile that I was sad because I burying her.

Whilst this brought genuine condolences from people that I knew, it struck me afterwards that had I begun my experiment before my mother's passing and had posted the same message, would I have someone of less than honest character act as a friend in order to defraud me of any inheritance.

At times of bereavement, and at other times of personal stress, people become vulnerable and accept guidance, assistance and condolence without thought. We've all heard stories of people befriending widows and widowers just to get their money - I am sure there are cyber scams of this type but that we haven't heard of them yet.

It is our need to be part of a community, any community, that drives our vulnerability in this sense. Because so few us no longer take an active part in the physical community in which we live we have extended our needs to our technology.

Of course there is the fact that advertisers have caught on to the idea that social networking is a powerful marketing tool. All of these social networking sites carry advertisements for something or other and they know that they can be a part of our on-line “community”. They are our friends and our cyber-neighbours. And the social networking site operator makes a fortune from charging them to display their messages.

But don't get me wrong. I am not saying that social networking sites are in any way bad or to blame for our own vulnerabilities. We bear sole responsibility for those ourselves.

I personally like Facebook and log into every day, sometimes two or three times. I'm also registered with MySpace and Bebo. They are extremely useful sites and most helpful when I want to keep in touch with people. They have also helped me re-connect with friends that I had lost contact with years ago.

All I am saying is beware. Don't let your need to be part of a community drive you to use these sites as a shop window for your private life. Be careful what you say and where you say it but enjoy your social experience.

IM (MSN, Yahoo, AOL)

Isn't Instant Messaging great? In seconds you can talk to all your friends with a few clicks and some simple typing, and you don't have to go through all the hassle of using the phone or tediously sending e-mails. But how can you be sure they're all your friends?

Check Your Buddy List

How many people on there do you know? How many people do you not know? Do you trust the people you don't know? Why not? How can you be sure that anyone who you don't know isn't a paedophile? One sure-fire way of doing this is making them go on webcam, if they make an excuse such as “Oh sorry it's broken” or “I've lost it” then don't believe it instantly. Also, webcam images can actually be faked, so what you're seeing might not be what is actually there. You could ask your friend (someone who you trust and know in real life) if they know who the person is. Of course, I'm not saying you shouldn't have friends who you don't know in real life, but you should be more wary around them and if you feel uncomfortable with them, block/delete them.

“ASL”?

The term “ASL” stands for “Age, Sex, Location” and is often used when trying to get to know someone. My advice is to never give this information out. Just ask yourself, why are they asking? If they're a paedophile then this is going to be practically everything they want to know. “Are you a child? Are you the opposite gender of me? Where can I find you?” You just shouldn't give it out, it's not safe.

“Zomg dere's a piccy of u naked @ http://somewebsite.com/"

If someone says this to you, then it's most probably a virus. Viruses can take control of a computer and make it send unwanted messages, such as the above. These will usually include a link or be followed by an attempted file transfer. You can usually tell that these are viruses if the URL of the website doesn't end in .jpg, .png, .gif or any other known picture format or if the file they're trying to send is a .rar or .zip or even .exe. There are many variations of this so just watch out, just to make sure you could call your friend to see if they're being serious or not.

Big Conversations

Be careful with these, it's possible to have a conversation between several people at once, and anyone in the conversation can add anyone they want who is on their contact list. This means that people who you don't know may be listening in on what you say. So, either be very careful about what you say, or just leave the conversation. If you wouldn't shout it out in a crowded room filled with people you don't know then don't say it on here.

Reporting

If someone is being sexually “weird” with you or abusing and insulting you then you should report it as soon as possible. To do this just click the button circled in the screenshot below:

And then follow the instructions given. It might also help if you save the offending conversation so that you can use it as evidence.

Social Networking Sites (Bebo, MySpace, Facebook)

Social Networking Sites are great aren't they? They allow you to, um, what do they allow you to do? Oh yeah they let you put up personal information so that you can meet strangers. They let you put up pictures of yourself so that people can see them, and they let you tell other people everything about you. Your profile could be a strangers target.

What Information Should I Give Out?

Well, the safest thing would be to not give out any information. But of course, that takes away the entire purpose of a social profile. Things that shouldn't be too much of a problem are:

• First name
• Country of residence
• Gender

Things which could potentially cause you unwanted abuse are:

• Pictures
• Hobbies
• Full Address
• Last Name
• School you go to
• E-Mail Address
• Mobile Phone Number
• Age
• Sexual Orientation
• Religion

If you have a social profile, look at it. Now. Think to yourself, if you were someone who wanted to stalk/rape/insult you, would you be able to?

Make your Profile Private

This will only take a few seconds but seriously, it'll be worth it. It'll provide so much more security of your online presence. Do it.

Your Friends Profiles

Just because your profile cannot be accessed, some of your friends profiles may be accessible. If you leave a comment on your friends profile such as “Oh yeah Alton Towers is gonna be wicked! Can't wait till next Saturday.” then people will be able to see a picture of you next to the comment and they will be able to locate you, having a time and a place. Just be careful, advise them to make there profiles private too.

Other

Are you a hip and trendy YouTuber? Well if so, do any of your videos have a street sign in them? If so then stalkers might be able to track you down. You might wave it aside as just another piece of useless information, but if someone pieces all the pieces together then they could build up a pretty good portfolio on you.

For further more in-depth information about this here are some pretty useful websites:

Reading Room

Get Safe Online

CEOP

Think U Know

I know, this article may have seemed quite boring to you, but it's important. It's very important that you pay attention to this article, internet crime is on the rise and you need to be secure. Pass this on to your friends too, they need to know (no, this isn't just a way for me to cheekily get more views). The next part of this will be “How Safe Are You On The Internet? Part Two: PC Security” and will be about virus, hackers, firewalls etc. Very interesting.

Thanks for viewing.

1. Helium - No surprises here that I have chosen Helium. I actually only joined in mid March and already I am addicted. I am never done checking my earnings, rating and writing articles or discussing on the forum. Helium really is the place to be. I have not yet attempted any writing contests or writing for publishers but no doubt in due course I will accept these two challenges.
2. Yahoo Mail - The trusted email address where all my latest alerts can be found. This is another site I check several times per day, whether it is looking for emails from friends, mylot discussion alerts, payment alerts and general junk, it is all very important to me.
3. MyLot - This is a site where you are paid to post discussions and responses on a number of topics. You can also add friends and send private messages and comments. In addition you can advertise your blog or website on your profile page. I have made both money and friendships at this forum.
4. Triond - Another writing website where you get paid depending on the number of page views your articles receive. You can add friends here too and post comments below articles as well as send personal messages.
5. Bebo - This is the first social networking site I joined and I have many friends here. It is a great way to stay in touch and you can send public or private messages. There are also many different fun applications on this site.
6. Slicethepie - This is a music site where you can become a scout and get paid to review songs from up and coming artists. Music artists can also submit their songs and they have the chance to win financing of their album through this site. There is a great selection of music and as a scout you can follow the bands all the way through to live showcases and financing, supporting your favourites.
7. GetRef - This is a site I use to get referrals for many of the paid to click sites I currently use. You earn credits here by joining programs and then you spend these credits on referrals for your paid to click programs.
8. Squidoo - I have several lenses on squidoo, and it is a fun past time where you can create these lenses or web pages on any topics you are interested in. I have one on writing and have examples of my helium articles on there. It is a good way to get a little extra traffic to your articles.
9. Ebay - Whatever you are looking for you can be sure to find it on Ebay. It has great bargains and not a day goes by that I do not log on whether it is too buy or sell something.
10. 10bux - This is my favourite paid to click site. You get paid 1 cent for clicking on ads, and you can cash out when you have reached $10. You also earn on your referral clicks. If you have many referrals your earnings can amount to a great deal of dollars.

The network administrator has to enter all website addresses which he/she wishes to block by hand into the firewall. If you go to computersniffer.com you can see a list of so called proxy websites. These are websites which will enable you to still access any blocked website.

However, there is also a potential danger when using proxy websites. You can read about it here.