Virtual Friends
The tentacles of ‘social networking' are unavoidable if you have an email address.
Myspace
Even the cave dwellers among you have heard of Myspace. It is one of the most popular websites in the world and has 80 per cent of the social networking “eyeballs”. A large industry has grown up around the website, as it allows for quick and easy posting of songs, pictures and videos. The ease with which you can see or hear an “artists” work means that every guitar strummer, student filmmaker, paint dauber and graphic artist in the world now has a Myspace page. - all 186 million of them (and counting). Social networking depends on linking you to your friends. Village is not the only one frustrated by the difficulty in finding these people on Myspace. Unfortunately, Myspammers do not seem to have any such problems, so junk mail is now becoming a problem. Also, personalisation of your individual site is very simple, resulting in some hideous pages, with moving pictures on brothel-style wallpaper, accompanied by dire soundtracks.
Bebo
No such problem finding friends on Bebo. If anything, Bebo can result in you engaging in awkward conversations with people you have not seen since primary school, who are not your friends, and who never really were. It is simply easier to find people on this network, as, according to an informed source, “everyone is on Bebo”. Bebo is the third most popular networking site in the world, as well as the third fastest growing. It claims that it is the most popular website in Ireland. It has a reputation for being mostly used by adolescent girls to chatter endlessly about all manner of topics, but despite this (or because of it) has managed to capture around 40 million souls. It is a fun website, with little of the pretension of Myspace, but can be too cutesy to handle.
The selling point of this site is its network of groups. Its rivals have similar features, but Facebook pioneered the system and is the most advanced, especially in American high schools and universities. It does not allow much customisation, unlike Myspace or Bebo, resulting in guffaws from new users who claim a Facebook page resembles a spreadsheet. In its simplicity lies its attraction, making it the second most popular networking site. It has more photos than Flickr, which is used specifically for that purpose, reaching 8.5m photos uploaded daily. Following the sale of Myspace to Newscorp, Facebook sale rumours abound, with speculation that it could go for upwards of $1bn. As with Bebo, this site is harmless fun, allowing you to poke your friends, or give them a gift – only a dollar for a virtual giraffe!