There is certainly nothing new about social networking. It’s being going on since the beginning of man. It would take many forms, sitting around a fire, gathering at a feast, it could be families getting together or members of other villages.
As societies developed, social organizations came into being, with various clubs, church groups, and civic organizations. My own personal networking would be my membership in a veteran’s organization, meeting friends and coworkers at a café for breakfast, coffee shops or occasionally at the local bar.
So social networking has always been around in some form. Now with technology as advanced as it is, social networking has taken on a whole new structure. The computer and internet has brought people together like never before. We can connect with others with our smart phones, tablets and computers from anywhere we might be.
My first introduction to social networking through technology was MySpace (does that even still exist?). It was something my niece would get on after school each day. I never really paid any attention to it, just that she’d be on it for hours with her friends each day. This apparently was just something for the young teenagers. I would just continue working with the CAD program on the other computer while she did her MySpace thing.
I later heard about Facebook when some family members started hounding me to get an account so we could stay in touch. Well, I finally caved after a lot of resisting. So what did I first see? Everyone was playing games! That’s all there was and now they were after me to play games with them. Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with games, it’s just not my cup of tea. Slowly there started to be some interaction with some real posts…but the games still plagued the news feed. I learned to stop them for awhile, but now they’re coming back again, if only they could be stopped for good. My experience with Facebook has been limited, with a few pages that I’ve subscribed to and posting and poking. All this interaction is only between existing friends and family. And of course the occasional tirade by some (family members) who just can’t agree with anything some of us have to say. So the Facebook networking still continues although it is very limited to just a few friends and family members. I’ve tried in vain to get my own children involved so we could interact, but that will never happen so I don’t push for that anymore.
There is also Twitter, one that I never got into. Some I know tweet about every little thing that goes on throughout the day. There are many who do use it productively in their every day business. Since I don’t use it and am not familiar with all the in’s and out’s of Twitter, I won’t comment on it any further. We’ll leave that up to those who use it and know it well.
Now there’s a new one, Google+. You might say it’s still in it’s infancy (being around less than a year) but growing up fast! I joined Google+ once it went public, thinking it was maybe a Facebook clone, but with out all the clutter. Oh, but I was wrong! Google+ has broken down all the barriers of social networking through the internet! Since joining Google+, here’s what I’ve found.
The obvious was that lack of all the clutter. I really liked the idea of the circles. You can organize all your people you have in your circles in a way that is meaningful to you. Create a new circle, give it a name and put the people you want in that circle. Each person you have in your circles can even be in more than one. It’s a great idea for complete control of where your people are and who you share things with. And as far as sharing goes, it’s easy to share with just who you want.
And there are the Hangouts. I only recently joined a Hangout and it was an awesome experience! You can hangout with up to 10 people at a time. Then what Google did was to give us the ability to share a document during the hangout. Now you can do even more! You’ll really need to check this feature out.
And now you might say, but all my friends are on Facebook and there not going there so I won’t either. Well, when I started on Google+ my friends wouldn’t join either. Some did and never used it, but others just refused. So if they don’t go, and you want people in your circles to interact with, there is an answer.
Public Circles. Yes there is such a thing. There are thousands of public circles that you can add, and many of these people will add you back. Now you have a start to make new friends with Google+. Now here’s the really neat part, you’ll meet people from all around the world! Oh, but now you say, “I don’t know their language”. Well, there’s an answer to that too, Google Translate.
A simple right click on the page and choose Translate to English and viola! you have it in English.
I could go on with much more, but I’ll let you explore for yourself.
The bottom line…if you wish to socialize on the internet, there are many options available to you. I only talked about a few here, but there are many more. So choose one or two or maybe even three. They are all different and all serve a different purpose. Get active and go out there and make some new friends or just stay in touch with the ones you have. One more thing I’d like to note. This is particularly helpful to those who may be physically or emotionally disabled to where they can’t get out every day to be with people. I personally am glad for it myself. Since I’ve been dependent on a wheelchair I can’t get around like I used to but I can still stay in touch people and make new friends everyday!
-Ed
