The two most accessed sites in the whole world are social networking tools. The top spot is held by Facebook –million user social networking tool that has almost everyone everywhere on it, and Twitter, a micro blogging tool that lets people easily update and tell everyone anything they want to say.
Together, Facebook and Twitter have increased the sheer number of times people use their mobile phones for online functions. These two networks alone are responsible for spreading the news about the previous major earthquakes and for raising emergency relief funds.
At the same time, these tools have been used unscrupulous individuals to phish for user account names and passwords, to besmirch reputations and to begin their own petty squabbles. These are very powerful tools, potent in whatever hand chooses to wield them.
Then there are the users, the core of the power of the online social networking world. While Facebook and Twitter may not last forever, the immense number of users for both sites has certainly placed both in the annals of human history.
For many, social networking tools are a way to keep in touch and contact friends and family. For others, it is a breeding ground for malice and mischief. These are the concerns that many developers and engineers are constantly working on.
Protecting privacy has always been a major concern –as seen with the problems that Plagued Google Buzz. Aside from privacy, maintaining truth is even more difficult. On a specific scale, it is already difficult to accomplish, Wikileaks has had to shut down for a year in order to get things right. In a broader perspective, information on social networking sites will take decades to sort out.
For more about truth on the internet and other opinions, go to Times Online UK.
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