Social Networking in Cyberspace Part-1

I grew up in the computer age of the 1970’s, when mainframes ruled the world. Unknown to all of us, government scientists had created the first revision of the web back in the late 1960’s, where by they could transmit their findings globally, without having to use the snail mail method from the early 1960’s. Moving forward to the early 1980’s the World Wide Web was still an unknown virtual network, and only the elite civilians, and then known as Hackers/Phreakers stumbled upon it all by accident. Corporations were just starting to utilize this environment, but baby steps were the only option at the time. From the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s while the world wide web was still in use, the main form of communications between folks was a system called Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), where people could post a message on a virtual pinboard, and somebody could respond, very similar to a Dear Abby column, but a bit more real-time then the printed news paper, which had a 24 hour delay before a response was issued. In the 1980’s the Social Networking circles lived and breathed within the BBS worlds, virtual communities started to form. The seeds of today were all sown in the echoes of the BBS’es.

In the late 1980’s to the beginnings of the early 1990’s the BBS’es were getting long in the tooth, and customers were leaving for the waters of sites such as American On Line, Prodigy, CompuServe, where faster more real-time social networking was happening. From those waters, ideas were forming, and the wheel was being reinvented. In 1994 Geocities hit the cyber-scene and a year later Tripod.com immerged. What made these sites such a hit, they were bringing back the old real-time chat rooms of the BBS days into the modern age. Each person had their own profile, a virtual Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.) about themselves, and you could put whatever you wanted. During this decade of cyberspace, the main theme was people were re-inventing themselves into what they wanted, alter egos, and virtual echoes of themselves. This was an escape hatch for people who were “shut-in”, or “latchkey kids” that grew up, it was a virtual escape. People, who worked the regular 9-5 shifts, could not wait to go home, to their own personal computers, and “get on line” to their alter ego accounts. By 1995 everyone had a Yahoo.com account, were on line playing virtual games, chatting, and the social networking world really started to gel.

It’s the year 2000, we’re in the golden age of cyberspace, and the World Wide Web is now the super highway of information. Thoughts and ideas are being shared faster then a trained librarian of a university reference library could ever dream of. We were also in the full swing of the growing bubble of the Dot-Com era. Websites were in full bloom, thoughts and ideas were made into website, business plans, but the bubble popped in 2001, and everything was turned sideways. The only cyber-concept that was still very much alive was the social networking sites.

In 2002, a unique site launched called Friendster.com. This was the re-birth of “people” on line. People leaving their alter ego’s behind, and from the fantasyland of cyber space, we the people, emerged back into our own virtual second skin and the outcome was a digital version of you – ON LINE. In 2004, Myspace.com and Linkedin.com was born, and the cyber-landscape of social networking changed again. Myspace.com was the premiere social networking, and in 2004, they were getting more hits to their site then Google.com. Google.com was a privately held company in 1998, but was shares were made to the public in 2004. A feature of Myspace.com that was very popular would show you in a visual way, the seven degrees of separation between you, your friends, and your friends’ friends. The expression “wow sure is a small world” was almost a trademark statement, when you found people through the Myspace.com social networking. Old friends, lost loves, and relatives long forgotten were all reunited thru the Myspace.com system.

Its now the fall of 2006, and Facebook.com has come into their own. If you had a valid email address, were above the age of 13, you too could have your own virtual community. Facebook.com quickly grew and eventually overtook the popularity of Myspace.com. Also a baby of 2006 is Twitter. Twitter works off of the Short Message Services (SMS) – like what you can do between cell phones. From the Twitter account, you can track groups of authors, instead of individuals. What I like to consider short bursts of information, Twitter is a great service to be part of. Like everything on the World Wide Web, some of it you want, some of it you don’t, information is information, and Twitter has made it fashionable to quickly post to your blogs, websites and all the social networks that you belong to.

Its now 2010, we’re at the end of the last octet of this decade, with the birth of a new one less then 10 months away and the Social Networks are in full swing. Wikipedia.com has a list of all the social networking sites, rough numbers of who’s where, and the requirements incase you wish to see what your options are.

In Part-2, I’ll be covering the on-line game presence, and how the social networking has affected their interfaces, gaming experiences, what’s really going on in cyberspace for on-line games and the viral marketing that’s attached.