A Study of Adult and Teen Differential Opinion Regarding Online Social Networking - Dissertation Example

By definition, social networking sites are virtual places where people from different places but have similar or same interests can communicate, share ideas, and generally meet new people (Thayer and Ray, 2006). It is commonly free and it provides individuals with a platform to build their own profiles and connect with other members on the network (Lenhart & Madden, 2007). Orkut, Face book and Twitter are only a few examples. Orkut is community-based and less personal, while Face book, Twitter and My Space are more personalized kind of social networking platforms.

  The common characteristics of all social networks are the provision rather the requirement of making a profile that usually demands some personal information including contact information. According to CNN or Cable News Network (2006), Facebook and My Space are two of the most popular social networking sites among high school and college students. According to this documentary, My Space has over 20 million registered users while Facebook have been recording as much as 9.5 million registered users as of September 2006 and it has been increasing by as much as 230,000 registrations in a day.

Dumon (2008) reported that in May 2008 Facebook was able to have a higher visitor rates as compared to MySpace. The factors why it’s very popular among high school and college students are mainly its ability to offer various means of communicating with other people. Users can post information about themselves or ideas, pictures, send messages, get instant messages, and even upcoming events, which makes communicating very flexible. Dumon (2008) also stated that Facebook is very successful as compared to other social networking sites because the users are being connected using different categories like city, workplace, school, region, and via this connection they can interact.