Monthly Archives: December 2011

5 Things You Should Know About Social Media

By Suzanne Sparks | Published December 28, 2011

Human beings are, by and large, social creatures who enjoy communicating with other people. The advent of social media has made it possible for anyone who has access to the Internet to communicate instantly with people in any part of the world. Social media networks allow users to share information, pictures, music and videos; to chat online; to download games and applications; and to market their products and services.

What Is Meant by Social Media?

Social Media

Any website that allows people to interact with the site and/or with other people can be classed under the heading of social media. Social media also permits the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Types of social media include blog sites; Internet forums; podcasts; virtual gaming websites; social networking sites, such as Facebook and Bebo; microblog sites, including Twitter; and content communities, such as YouTube and Wikipedia.

How Social Media Developed

Social media has been around for much longer than people imagine. The first electronic bulletin board system (BBS) appeared in the late 1970s, allowing PC users to access discussion boards via a dial-up telephone modem. The earliest commercial online services included CompuServe, Prodigy and AOL. The World Wide Web became publicly available on August 6th, 1991, and by the mid-90s Internet service providers began to spring up around the U.S. Internet forum services like GeoCities became popular, leading to the creation of the first social networking site, SixDegrees, in 1997. In the same year, AOL launched its instant messenger service. Friendster, created in 2002, gained more than three million users in its first month, but was overtaken by MySpace in 2003. Facebook appeared in 2004 and Twitter in 2006.

Dangers of Social Media

Although social media has many benefits, it also carry inherent dangers. Personal information can be easily accessed, leading to crimes like identity fraud and stalking. It is even dangerous to post a message that you are going on vacation, since this is a virtual invitation to come rob your home. Indiscreet communications by armed services personnel can endanger national security, and social networking channels have allegedly been used for coordinating terrorism and spreading sedition.

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Smart Tips for Sharing Holiday Photos

By Suzanne Sparks | Published December 21, 2011
Santa Taking Photos
by Alexandra Chang, Macworld.com Dec 21, 2011 6:30 am

By now you’ve probably attended a couple holiday get togethers—maybe even hosted one yourself—and have had plenty of photo opportunities by the tree, at dinner with friends and family, or out in the winter landscape. And once the holidays hit, that means even more memorable shots of the kids opening presents and dad devouring latkes. Instead of storing those photos within the confines of your camera’s memory card, you’ll probably want to share them with family and friends.

Check out the rest of this helpful article… Smart Tips for Sharing Holiday Photos

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The Sea of Potential Clients on the Internet has Grown!

By Suzanne Sparks | Published December 2, 2011
People On The Internet
By Samantha Murphy, Mashable Fri December 2, 2011

(Mashable) — Americans are going online to pass the time more than they were just a few years ago, according to a new study.

A report from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that about 53% of young adults ages 18 to 29 go online on any given day for no particular reason except for a diversion or just for fun. About 81% of people in this demographic said they have done so at least occasionally. The study — conducted among 2,260 adults ages 18 and over on landlines and cellphones — has a margin of error of 3.7%.

But it’s not just young web users that turn to the Internet during their down time — about 58% of all adults or 74% of online adults said they use the Internet this way, up from 45% of adults who said they did so in a Pew survey conducted in 2006. Pew noted that the growth of people using the Internet as a “destination for fun” coincides with the rise of broadband connections, social networking and video.

The trend also suggests that the Web is becoming a competitor to other kinds of other leisure activities.

“These findings are one of our main signs about how deeply Internet use has woven itself into the rhythms of people’s lives,” lead author Lee Rainie told Mashable.

“When they have some down time, more and more of them are finding the Internet a fun, diverting place to spend their leisure moments. It’s not necessarily surprising to see that this is a favorite pastime of young adults. It is a bit surprising to see that the incidence of this use has grown in every age demographic. The Internet is not just the playground of the young.”

The study did not ask respondents specifically how they are spending their time online for fun.

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