Social networking is the new fad of this generation which brings together people of all countries, communities and ages on certain internet sites to interact and share information using a share of various multimedia like pictures, videos and the simplest, words.

Some facts to share about social media:

• The beginning of social networking, though not clearly defined can be traced back to 1997 when the web had a million sites. This is when AOL let its users chat and blogging began. SigDegrees.com also let people create their profiles and add friends.

• The first social networking site, started in 1999 in Britain, was ‘œFriends United’ with the aim of reuniting old school friends.

• Social networking can help people find friends, jobs and even partners. All social network have opportunities and work on a similar concept of ‘œpaying it forward’ where once you are friends with someone you know, you can connect with everyone they know and onwards.

• Some things to remember about social networking are that once something is online, it can never be deleted. Even if it is not visible there are ways of finding it. This is all the more important for this generation which could find that they answering some awkward questions about a weird picture posted a few years ago.

• With the advent of the internet cum cyber-crimes, it becomes easy to track or stalk a person because of the abundance of information available about them online. Identity theft also becomes a major source of concern with so much data being available online which includes all sorts of personal data and pictures of a person.

• Cat fishing is another type of crime where a person pretends to be somebody else or exaggerates information about them. Cat fishing can be harmless or can be targeted at a person to cause harm or embarrassment.

• There are many ways of staying safe online. All sites have made their security rules stricter and you can choose to have as private a page as possible or as public as you want it to be. You can decide to keep certain information private or not enter it online at all. Only put up stuff you are okay for public to read including friends, family and prospective employers.

• Some examples of social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, Myspace, WordPress, and Flickr etc. It would be difficult to pinpoint one social media site which has remained constant through time as they grow and recede in popularity.

• Right now, Facebook is the most popular social networking website, followed by Twitter. Facebook has gone past MySpace to become Numero-Uno in 2008. As of 2013, Facebook has 1.11 billion registered users.

• Twitter comes in at second position when it comes to social networking websites. It has 500 million registered users of which 200 million are active.

Social Networking is an ever growing reminder that the world becomes a smaller place with cultural differences rapidly decreasing as this generation all take to liking the same things. It is now easier to share all sorts of media ‘“ books, TV shows, movies, music etc. across countries. Scientists doing research across the world can share their results and work together to bring about a better future. Racism decreases as people learn more about each other. Used in the correct way, social networking can bring huge changes to humanity.