Title: Bonus Lesson: Social Networks
Course: Advanced Composition for the Digital Age SP14 > Section: Unit 4: Social Issues & The Media

This resource provides a definition and explanation of Social Networks. You may already be a member of some of them.

What is a Social Network?

Social Networks today go far beyond your immediate family and group of friends that you would occasionally see or talk to on the phone. Today there are dozens of ways to increase your network of acquaintances to include people from all over the world. You've heard of many of them already.

Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn are some of the most popular, but many sites have now integrated social networking into what used to be pages for storage or file sharing. There are networks for sharing internet bookmarks and discussion boards for people to come together surrounding a central idea or topic. The lines between social networks and what used to be ordinary web pages have become blurred with many sites now integrating social networking into their pages where the users are allowed to organize, comment, share and connect. You may not know it, but when you signed up for your Gmail or Google Account, you also now have access to Google's social network called Orkut. It's not very popular in the U.S. but it is widely used in other countries. It works and looks very much like Facebook. Since their addition of Google+, which you also now have an account for we might see Orkut go the way of Google Wave (that is to say, go away).

For more information on what makes a social network click here.

Consider which types of social networks would be valuable for you to join. Remember, Privacy Settings are important as future schools and employers now search for applications online. They review social network content to see what kinds of activities and behaviors the applicant engages in. If you haven't already, it's time to start cultivating your online identity. You'd be surprised what people might be able to find out about you as you spend more time online. Because there are organizations that archive web pages, it may be that even if you delete something that someone might be able to find an archived version of it someday.

Be Careful!