Social Networking

Few would argue that Facebook and Twitter are currently two of the most popular Social Networking services on the internet. How many times have you heard the phrases 'Find us on Facebook' or 'Follow us on Twitter'.

It seems that almost everyone on planet Earth has heard of these two giants of the World Wide Web and a large percentage subscribe to the services they provide. Although it may seem that Facebook and Twitter have been in existence since the beginning of time, they are comparative newcomers to our world, with Facebook coming live in 2004 and Twitter embracing our lives since 2006.

So was there life before Facebook and Twitter took to the stage? In a word 'Yes', although it may seem that many may think otherwise. There have been many 'must have' services in the past that have come and some gone or diminished in popularity. Many, over the past few years, have been brought to us via the medium of the world wide web. One of the first, which was not initially on the world wide web was the Usenet newsgroups, a service that is very similar to email, in that you compose your message in much the same way as an email, but it is posted to a group of people that subscribe to a particular forum on a set topic, allowing these other users to comment on your posts.

Do you remember the vast number of people using MSM Messenger, a service that still exists, but not with the same frenzy as in the heyday of the service, which allows users to chat via short messages to each other, talk via use of a microphone or even see and talk with each other via web-cams. You could even send pictures and other files to each other with MSM Messenger. Then we have Friends Reunited, a service were the main aim was to bring together former school class mates, whom had long since left school, lived their lives and yearned to re-establish old school friendships.

There are other Social Networking Service on the world wide web, in fact too many for me to list them all here. We have the moderately simple sites that provide facilities for a questions any and every subject to be asked and other users provide answers, some answers reliable, some otherwise. These are called forums, and are essentially a jazzed up version of the Usenet newsgroups. Then there are on-line dating sites, were you could supposedly meet your perfect match, fall in love and live happily ever after, but you mustn't let the nerves get to you, and not turn up at your dream date.

On-line dating: The perfect match!

We have the video networking site YouTube, were you can find the ridiculous, to the outrageous, to the highly serious, to the informative telling how to plaster a wall or pumping up the tyres on a bicycle. My own YouTube contributions, I guess come under fun or perhaps ridiculous, but certainly not outrageous.

And you course I must mention the bloggers, because right now you are reading an article written by a blogger (me). A blog is an article where anyone and everyone can write about almost any subject they wish and have it published for anyone to read.

As I say there are/were many others, but the current favourites seem to be Facebook and Twitter. Facebook I guess is so popular because it is so many things bundled into one neat package, you have a chatline to your friends, you can post your pictures of the day, or years gone by. Facebook also allows you to play games on-line with other users and generally get involved with other users, and know who is doing what, when they are doing it and with whom they are doing it, that is if you choose to place all this information on your Facebook pages.

A photograph I recently added to my Facebook timeline and album 'Pets', when Sparky came for a visit

Twitter, on the other hand and in my opinion, is a totally unique service that allows users to send short messages of no more than 140 letters. These messages can be read by other users of Twitter that choose to follow your messages, or Twitters or Tweets, as they are known. You in turn can follow other users and read their Tweets. If you're reading this and thinking, as I initially did, that Tweeting would not be for you, there is no harm in giving it a go. Do as I did, subscribe (it's free), and just follow a few people, there are quite a few well known people on there, and they are are not all youngsters. The topics covered in the Tweets can be serious, as in Tweets from local police forces looking for a missing person, to the just plain daft, see example below of my daft Tweets.

A selection of Tweets between my niece Ashley and myself.
As this is a timeline you must read from the bottom and go up the timeline

Moving away from computers, how did we communicate before the days of the social networking capabilities of the world wide web? You could say the telephone, but that is normally only a one-to-one communication method and is not such an easy method with which to provoke an instant conversation. The Citizens Band radio (CB for short) revolution that came to the UK in the late 1970s was something I'm old enough to remember.

The initial use of CB in the UK was illegal, but with the many thousands of people using it the government was eventually persuaded to legalise it's use. Although this legalisation did not fully satisfy many users, as many restrictions with regard to signal power and method of transmission were imposed. CB radio comprised of 40 radio frequencies in one part of the radio spectrum and another 20 channels in another lesser used part of the radio spectrum, these frequencies were referred to as channels. The idea was to initially call out on channel 14 or 19 for someone to talk to, and once communication had been established you move to another clear channel. Other users could then join in the conversation. CB radio stills exists to this day, although its popularity has certainly diminished to that of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Unfortunately, the CB radio equipment I had has long since gone. However, this book on the subject purchased at the time of the CB revolution in the late 1970s was a good read on the subject.
Most likely out of print, but maybe a copy could be picked up on E-bay or at a boot sale

So what for the future, will the next social network revolution move away from the world wide web. I am not going to try and guess what will appear next and stimulate the imagination of the population and compel them away from Facebook and Twitter. There have already been a few not yet fully successful attempts, such as Google+, the re-launch of Friends Reunited and I am sure many others.

I don't pretend this to be an exhaustive insight into the world of social networking, but if your new to this brave new world of social networking then I hope it has shown you a little of what can be achieved. If you'd like to get involved, take things slowly, and don't expect to learn all about the subject straight away. Most of all have fun.

Your comments are always welcome. You can make your comments below or follow me on Twitter. @JeffersOnHere is the place to find me.

Till the next time...