Want to check out a classmate? Go online

Social networking sites are changing the way the youth form friendships, keep in touch with family and access information. Even companies are believed to check them out before recruiting candidates. Over to Sara Saleh

Status

• 07:34 Sara Saleh logs onto Facebook
• 07:50 Sara Saleh logs off
• 07:57 Sara Saleh logs onto Facebook
• 08:20 Sara Saleh logs off
• 08:28 Sara Saleh logs on

The never-ending cycle continues... you've already seen evidence of your best friend's trip to Europe before you've even brushed your teeth - well of course, the laptop's at the edge of your bed, you need it for, university work.

By the end of the day, you've logged on at least a dozen times, and you've gone through 350 photos of yourself, untagging those you don't like (after endless debates with yourself - doesn't keeping humiliating photos make you appear cool and confident?).

It is the ultimate procrastination method when you should have been writing essays or working at your internship.

There's no telling how many hours of our lives we've spent - and arguably wasted-on social networking sites like Facebook, ConnentU, MySpace, Small World and Beba.

Many think of these websites as a 'personal assistant' - you can catch up on the happenings of the social world without wasting time calling people, having a contrived lunch, or going for reunions with people you haven't seen in years, just to find out the latest gossip.

You can also change your status to let people know how busy you've been, the perfect explanation as to why you've been missing their calls.

The fact that we can leave a birthday message on each other's home page message board, or wall, relieves us of the painful happy birthday singing duty that a telephone call would normally compel of us.

The network effect
Social networking sites are simple to use, and even better, free! Users sign up voluntarily and are then able to exchange information in the form of messages, pictures and videos, allowing the user to create a profile with detailed biographies - including everything from favourite movies to education history to birth dates.

Then users go on to form extended networks of people at the users' school or job or people with similar interests.

Users can also blog and chat to communicate with friends, and the wide new range of applications being developed by some of these sites will permit people to share information in a number of varying and innovative ways.

Thus, sites like Facebook work because these network relationships are in fact real - it is not so much building a community but rather, maintaining one you already have in the real world.

It is a utility product that provides an efficient way of communicating and getting information of your choice out there, as well as receiving it from others.

These sites enable users to correspond with people whose relationship does not really transcend computers, thus saving time that can be used to enrich those relationships with closer friends in the real world.

Yet, despite their popularity, networking sites may seem an artificial way of maintaining relationships, say experts in the field. No longer, must we go out of our way to send that really long, detailed email or make an expensive international phone call to stay in touch - dropping a convenient, single line will do.

But with the phenomenal growth of this revolutionising human communication trend, the global focus is on the direction they're heading, and just how deeply they've extended into the different areas of our lives.

It's a virtual life
Sites like Facebook and MySpace aren't just about creating "teacher appreciation groups", or "After Harry Potter Seven Comes Out I Won't Have Anything to Live For" groups, or even political and religious groups anymore. Matters are starting to become more invasive than that.

In a much publicised incident that happened not long ago, Caroline Giuliani, the 17 year-old-daughter of Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani, was caught on Facebook as a member of the group 'Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack), indicating that she supported the Democrat in his own bid for presidency against that of her father's.

Caroline had then no choice but to leave the group after an inquiry was sent by media all over the country, causing much humiliation for her father.

It is hard to believe that matters can steer out of control so quickly on a user-friendly, supposedly private networking site. But, the reality is that this information is broadly accessible to people in all demographics and places around the world.

A person's virtual identity and choices are set up on such sites, and it is all but too easy for other users to sift through these pages and form impressions about other people.

Thus, sites are acting as an influencing and limiting-factor in the varying spheres of our lives.

The time has come where it is a free- for-all 'judge fest' now that other users have access to an open book (literally) about you, with photos, online profile, and wall posts, all very telling and all with the potential to go dangerously out of your own control when it comes to something as simple as making friends or something as important as landing that job.

Building social networks
Long gone are the days of YouTube where videos meant a venue for talent scouts to spot people with potential.
Now with social networking sites videos can lead to a lot of embarrassment and trouble for a lot of people.
These sites have managed to change the way teenagers form their social attitudes and pick their friends.

Pictures provide instant access into a person's life, and a way for us to make suitable judgements about whether we'd like to befriend a person or not, based on their behaviour in pictures we've seen, the language they use or even the interests they've stated.

Initially, that was the only thing the youth had to worry about, given that sites such as Facebook made it so that only university students could sign up.

But along with the exponential growth that came when Facebook was made available to high schools and companies world wide, was a feeling of insecurity as younger users felt they lost a certain privacy and exclusivity on Facebook.

Then, came a fate worse than that could it be that employers were starting to use these sites and the online personal information users supply as a platform to make recruitment decisions regarding candidates?

According to a report from business social network Viadeo, virtual reputations built up through your online activities, from the videos you post to the graffiti you draw, can have a significant effect when applying for a job.

One in five employers find information about candidates on the internet, and 59 per cent of those said it influenced recruitment decisions and a fourth said that candidates have been rejected based on personal information found online, the research claimed.

Despite, these statistics and that we are the most techno-savvy generation yet, the worrying truth remains that most people are still unaware of the serious ramifications their online reputation can have on their job prospects.

MySpace and Facebook pages that reveal bad habits or disrespect for work construct a negative image, and one survey respondent went so far as to say a potential employee was rejected based on online activities that "did not fit ethically" into the company.

However, once users begin to understand the implications of having an active MySpace or Facebook life, they can use this to their advantage.

The same survey found that 13 per cent of HR decision-makers have also decided to employ people after taking a closer look at the positive qualities that hadn't appeared on their CV or during the interview, but that appeared online.

Now that we know potential employers may be interested in your virtual life, you can use your page as a forum to depict past achievements or simply demonstrate the handy internet skills you possess.

Protecting your privacy
The most important thing to remember is that you choose what goes onto your virtual life, and you can always limit your profile to let certain people see what you want them to see.

These network sites all provide the option of editing your settings under the 'privacy' tab.

However, users must also be cautious when posting personal information, not only for the obvious internet safety reasons we have been warned about time and time again such as identity theft, fraud and cyber stalking, but because social networks are ultimately business that can and will use your information for their own financial gain - whether it is saturating us with advertising or selling information for marketing purposes.

And this of course, is legal, because once you sign for an account you accept a private policy that gives these social networking sites the right to the "irrevocable, perpetual, non exclusive, world wide license...to use, copy, display, inform...and distribute information and content" about you, or so state their terms of service.

As invasive and insidious as this sounds, this doesn't mean that you should quit your virtual life altogether, but always be wary as you never know who is looking through your information and using it - be it acquaintances, friends, prospective employers, would-be stalkers or even the companies themselves... but who knows who's the next long lost, third-grade friend bound to find you!

09:00 Sara Saleh logs off. But not for long.

Social Networking Security - Dos and Don'ts

• Don't post provocative pictures as they may encourage creepers (cyber term for stalker) to contact you.
• Do limit your profile and photo albums with privacy settings so only your friends can see those intimate moments of your life.
• Don't post your year of birth as potential online predators will usually target those who are young.
• Do use a public server email address, like Yahoo or Hotmail, when setting up your account and in your contact information.
• Don't use your service provider address as this makes it easier for a stalker to find you in the real world and get your name on a targeted spam list.
• Do make cyber friends- after all they are just a modern version of pen-pals.
• Don't leave the default privacy settings as set, but customise them so you limit what people you don't know can see - especially before you have added them as a friend.
• Do report any abuse, threats of violence or other inappropriate posts or pictures to the network's creators as well as proper authorities like school officials, parents and police.
• Don't ever announce where you are going or who with on any wall, and do not accept event invites unless you remove the information from your mini-feed (by editing private settings)... this will stop stalkers from knowing where to find you.

Source: About.com

The writer is an International Student Correspondent for Notes, studying at the University of Sydney, Australia