The biggest flaw I have found, other than the awkward chat room, is that if a user claims a stumble and did not stumble the site, you have lost a point and must click "+ Point" to get it back, or contact admin, but I have also heard that sometimes people stumble sites and for some reason it is "invisible" you have to check their SU Profile to see if they really did stumble or not. You can always just assume they did and give the point. Another flaw is you might stumble something and never be awarded the point, if that person has become inactive. Still this is no big concern as it didn't cost you anything to stumble their site, and having more sites on your blog is a great way to get more fans.

You can find StumbleUpon Exhchange here.

You can get extra points by inviting friends to join, but to be fair I did not include my profile here for that purpose. If you sign up, I do not get any points.

Digg

This website is a place where you can share any content with other people on the web. If you like a particular blog post, web page, news item, photo, or video, you can submit it to Digg where your content has the chance to be seen by other Digg users. The people who see your submission will be able to rate your content. If they like it, they will "digg it", and if they don't like it, they will choose to "bury" it. You can do the same for the links submitted by others. Website links which get the most "diggs" (or positive votes) will be posted on the front page of Digg.com, where millions of users can see it!

Some tips on how to use Digg properly:

1. Don't just blindly add friends. Choose Digg users who frequently post links that match your interests. You may also add people who particularly like your submissions. The more friends, the merrier!
2. Don't just post your own website links. The Digg community sees this as a selfish act and may cause other users to bury your submission easily. Rather, look for highly interesting news items all over the web and be kind enough to share it to the Digg community! If you really want to promote your OWN blog posts and website links, then have a friend submit it to Digg for you.
3. Enjoy the Digg experience by posting comments on other people's content and honetly speaking your mind! If you think a particular website deserves to get into the Digg frontpage, then vote for it, and shout it to your friends. If you think a certain webpage contains trash, then bury it and state your reasons for doing so. This will ensure that other people will receive only good content and steer clear of the bad ones. You are the judge!

StumbleUpon

When you open a StumbleUpon (SU) account, you will be prompted to install the SU toolbar. After you install it, you may now start "stumbling", or in other words, surf and discover websites that match your interests! This is a very good way to enjoy the internet. Each time you click the Stumble button on your SU toolbar, you will be taken to a random webpage that matches your interests and is recommended by other SU users as well. Once you see a particular webpage, you have an option to give it a "thumbs up" (if you like it) or a "thumbs down" (if you don't like it). Webpages which get more thumbs ups and reviews will have a chance to be seen by thousands of other like minded individuals!

Some tips on how to use StumbleUpon properly:

1. Don't focus on bringing traffic to your own website links, just enjoy the site! Use the SU toolbar and you'll be surprised to discover awesome webpages submitted by other users. It can really be a fun and educational experience.
2. If you want to share your own website links to the community, then simply send it to your friends by using the SU toolbar (there's a 'send to' option). Let others submit, judge and rate your own webpages.
3. Reach out to other SU users and make friends with them. Don't spam the system! Others simply send a friend request to hundreds of people at once. Nope. Rather, befriend the people who visit your page, who comment on your stumbled pages, and those whose interests matched your own (you can determine this by looking at the StumbleUpon compatibility tool).
4. Only submit high quality sites and get rid of the trashy ones. Period.

That's it. You will discover most of the other great features as you gain more experience with these two websites. Happy Digging and Stumbling!

However, many of my guy friends aren't so lucky. It is hard to find a good woman. Actually, I take that back. It easy to find a good woman, but it is hard to convince that woman to go out with you. I have this friend Chris, one of the greatest guys I know, who recently got out of the military and currently attending Columbia University. He hasn't had the best of luck with the ladies. He has gotten to the point to where he has taken to the Internet to look for a soul mate. Chris found a website that looked appealing and asked me to help him make his video date introduction video. I think we cast him in a pretty good light, would you date him? Let me know. This is Chris #643

Just as there are different types of social networking groups, the age of the networker varies from the youngest to the oldest. Businesses can work on projects on line and charities can raise money and organize there plan by the internet. Social networking has been the evolution of an unmet need and the tool to meet that need. The largest and successful social networking sites grow through viral network marketing. In simple, the word of mouth, but sent virally to thousands with a few clicks on the keyboard. Products are made number one over night by some internet buzz, or a program can get blackballed by a few well placed critiques.

Most social networking sites have a focus. It could be photos, school, business, education, chat, blogging, military groups and hobbyist of all kinds. Some of the biggest social networking sites are Myspace, Facebook, Flicker and they have become household names. Sonico, a Spanish social networking group is one the biggest, however not widely known, with over 8 million registered users. The cultural implication of social networking is becoming apparent. Another cultural netmarketing group is BlackPlanet.com and dedicated to African Americans.

Niche communities are housed in the social network and are used by those that have the most in common. Subgroups and categories related to specific topics develop. Advertisement can be target at the specific topic or product and be exposed to people that are actually interested. There is a generation gap between the college age person with their parents and grandparents. Many older people do not understand or appreciate the power or necessity of the social interaction on the web. This does not detour the millions of networkers. This is a generational issue and the outcome could plot the path for social networking in the future. It is unlikely that the diehard networkers will be swayed buy lack of generation support. Social networking is too big to be suppressed. The internet has changed from a repository of information and data to a vessel for building commerce and relationships. Humans like to feel apart of something, it does not matter if it is across the world or in there own home.

Do you remember being young and wishing you could be invisible? It seemed exciting to be able to sneak around and listen to people’s conversations, peek into other people’s lives and never get caught. The intention was not to cause harm; it was more like being Superman and having special powers. To be invisible was simply a childish fantasy.

Being on the Internet is much like being invisible. You can observe others, read their blogs, look through their family pictures and no one can see you. Seems harmless enough. If people have put their information out there for everyone to see, what is the harm in looking at it? The problems arise when previously “civilized” people take liberties they never would in real life.

In chat groups and social networking sites, people say and do things online that they would never consider in their real lives. If you are rude and abusive in a chat group or on a social networking site, you can simply change your email address and name and get right back online.

Basic grammar, manners and social rules are often discarded. Invisible people don’t have to worry about what they say and do online. You can be braver, feel wiser and smarter and you don’t have to face your audience. If you don’t like a co-worker or school mate, leave an anonymous nasty message on a social networking page or send an email. Websites like Yahoo and Hotmail allow you to have several email addresses and unless you provide them to your recipient, you can be anonymous.

Poor behavior and etiquette are not limited to socializing; it has crept into businesses as well. How many times have you received an email that is simply a few words or a terse comment? Prior to email, a letter, fax or phone call would initiate a request for information. The letter or fax would be properly written (think back to high school typing classes and how much time you spent learning to write a proper letter) and formatted. A phone call is a more personal contact and in business, it was imperative that you were well mannered and clear and concise in your requests.

We need to return to the basic rules of behavior and etiquette. Being online does not give you license to be rude, abusive or harassing to others. Treat the opportunity to communicate with people all over the world as a gift, an opportunity to learn about the world around you and uphold the basic tenets of a “polite” society. In turn, you can make new and interesting friends and learn about things you never thought possible. Be a good example for others and perhaps over time, we can turn the Internet into a place where being safe from rudeness and harassment is not just a dream.

Here's the secret:

You have to hold the alt key and a number at the same time. The number has to be from the number key pad.

• alt + 1 = ☺
• alt + 2 = ☻
• alt + 3 = ♥
• alt + 4 = ♦
• alt + 5 = ♣
• alt + 6 = ♠
• alt + 7 = •
• alt + 8 = ◘
• alt + 9 = ○
• alt + 10 = ◙

I think you get the point. You can press a series of numbers and come up with things like ( alt + 23) ↨ and you can push as many numbers as you'd like and they will come up with some symbol.

Now that you know the secret spice up your blog, you can even use them on Triond to spice up your profile information!

 

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.

The site has a friendly and clean user interface that is easy to navigate. Users can upload photos or videos and write notes, as well as comment on their friends' content. They can add or remove friends and join user groups on a variety of topics. There are many fun applications to choose from and interesting groups to join.

Users over the age of sixteen can generally take care of themselves within the online community. Although abuse isn't too much of a problem, facebook offers a "report" link if a user runs into indecent material or receives insulting or offensive messages from another user. Users in their late teens or older can distinguish between which applications are suitable for them, and which aren't.

The site states that to be eligible to join the Facebook society, one must be older than thirteen years. Although the site does not allow pornographic pictures, there are some groups, applications and quizzes that don't seem suitable for younger members of the site, containing sexual, promiscuous content and obscene language.

It seems Facebook doesn't have many options in order to control either this material or the age of the site's users.

If the site bumps up the age restriction to sixteen, underage users will just lie about their age. Asking mature users to provide proof of their age in order to view this material is unethical; as such documents are private and should be protected. Banning elicit content from the site will create a public outcry, as little of it is actually pornographic in nature and therefore shouldn't be offensive to other adults.

It seems again, responsibility now falls to the parent. But what is a parent to do? Hack into their child's account and block all of the applications that are sexually oriented? This would be an invasion of the child's privacy and just downright rude.

Should a parent block Facebook ?

Facebook allows people to express themselves, to make new friends and to have discussions with others all around the world. Blocking facebook would be like telling your kid to not talk to anyone at school.

The only solution that seems viable is that the creators of facebook build a firewall that is free to download and easy to put in place, to block any applications, groups and quizzes that may be unsuitable to younger members.

The crude content would not be visible to younger members, and searches would not result in anything showing up for those who have the firewall in place. It may even gain popularity among adults who are not interested in stumbling upon or being invited to groups and applications that contain naughty material.

It's a new world, folks. Youngsters of the 21st century have a virtual universe of x-rated content right at their fingertips. If we keep heading in the direction we're going now, we're going to end up with five-year-olds cussing each other and swopping porn.

Those words could not ring more true for the online social network web site called MySpace. The online social network craze came into full swing when a little known website, called MySpace, originally designed to help musicians attract more fans went live. MySpace was transformed from a musician's only website to an unbelievable worldwide phenomenon.

Today, MySpace claims over 10 million registered users with over one million page hits a week. You can use MySpace to meet up with old friends from high school or college, meet new friends, run a networking professional campaign, and yes if you are a musician you can still use MySpace to build your fan base.

However with all of the accolades that MySpace brings to cyberspace, it attracts the unwanted as well. There are those who prey on MySpace users in the chance to obtain personal information about them. Here are some tips you and your kids can use to make MySpace a safer more rewarding experience.

Private

The first thing everyone can do is set your profile to private. If you use MySpace for personal reasons then by all means it should be set to private. Do not let anyone you do not know to look at your profile. Even though you may think the information you post is harmless, you'd be surprised just how clever predators are.

Pictures

Be careful when you post pictures. You are allowed up to 12 free ones. Many MySpace users will post all kinds of photos of themselves and friends. If you have to post a picture, make it just a generic one and then have only friends be able to view any other pictures you may have uploaded.

Location

If you feel the need to enter where you are located such as the city you live in, try and broaden the area. For example, if you live in White Plains, NY, you may just want to enter NY or the Northeast. You get the point.

MySpace has many uses and is a very valuable site. As with anything that is good there is always an element in society that can use what is good for anything that might be bad. As MySpace evolves new tools and screens are added to help with security and protection. It is up to you as the consumer to do everything you can and utilize these free tools that MySpace offers to protect yourself.

I get kinky messages from odd looking middle aged men. Their knowledge of both anatomy and colloquial adjectives is quite enlightening.

However, I take great joy in clicking on the "report message" link and feel a huge amount of satisfaction at knowing that I did my bit to conquer evil in this world.

Social networking sites give the shy an opportunity to socialize without having to make eye contact, and the bold the opportunity to post incriminating photos of their roommate after too many cocktails. Are these good or bad tools for social growth?

The applications that people choose on these sites tell a lot about them. Yet I'm still confused about my thirteen-year-old cousin's choice of “What stripper name are you?” because really, she's far too intelligent to aspire to a career in which she wraps herself around a pole for a living.

In fact, many aspects of social networking sites just aren't suitable for minors. For starters, the sheer addictiveness of these sites is a concern.

Alcohol and cigarettes are addictive. For teenagers they provide a brief high and an elevated social status. These substances carry the weight of side effects and withdrawal symptoms.

Social networking sites provide the same brief high and social status. But what are the withdrawal symptoms?

I know personally that some of the side-effects of using these sites aren't all that good. I don't get much exercise any more, because instead of going for a walk-and-talk with a friend, I lounge on the couch with my laptop and chat with them online.

My grammar has degraded. Chat language can be viewed from two angles. My grandmother's “My word! Is it in secret code? What is happening to the English language?” opinion, or the “i wuv chattin wiv u” opinion of my barely teenage cousin.

It seems, as with all the good things such as booze, nicotine and gambling, a certain limitation of time spent and content viewed on online networking sites is necessary for minors. Physical exercise and human contact is in fact important, as is learning to read and react to body language in social situations.

Most important for teenagers, though, is learning to deal maturely with difficult social situations. Online, dealing with harassment or insults is easy. You report the person and block them. But in real life, you can't just click a button and make the person disappear. People need to learn social boundaries and etiquette, and how to deal with awkward situations face to face.

I could ramble on about parent responsibility and vigilance, but I won't. I'm not a parent, but I know if I had a moody adolescent on my hands, I'd be more than happy to let them sit quietly in front of a computer for a few hours every evening and fool myself into believing that they are learning valuable social and computer literacy skills.

I wouldn't ask questions about what they're doing, because I'd rather not know that they are enjoying the latest “What's your sexual personality?” quiz and chatting with odd looking middle aged men. “HI!? my stripper names bambi!!! wats urs?!”

Because social interaction comes in many forms, and if I had children; I'd rather have my blossoming daughter right where I can see her, instead of out there somewhere doing healthy teenage stuff like kissing boys, sneaking into x-rated horror films, smoking cigarettes and breaking her curfew.

So how sociable are social networking sites like Facebook?

It depends on whether you are susceptible to developing addictive behavior or not, and mature enough to realize that excessive online social networking can lead to antisocial behavior in the physical world.

Choose your friends wisely - they will make or break you. ~ J. Willard Marriott

Choose your Facebook applications wisely -your stripper name may be used against you. ~ Catherine South