Are we Smarter than a 5th Grader? Who has the better MySpace Page you or them?

In December 2007, if you would have asked me what is a Social Network, I would have said that it was a person who belonged to a group such as toastmasters, a fraternity/sorority, or college clubs. Boy was I wrong!!!! After taking a class in social networking at American University, my eyes were open to a whole new world and I mean a new world. A social network services according to wikipedia is the use of software to build online social networks or communities to allow groups with similar interest the opportunity to share ideas or experiences. There are sites such as MySpace and Facebook that use to be used for friends to communicate with one another. There are other sites such as LinkedIn which is utilized more for networking with friends, dating, or even HR reps to build a network for job opportunities. Blogging is another popular tool used in social networking. Listed below is a stat of page hits for popular social network services.
















As time passed, social networks continued to grow and also evolved to more sophisticated environments, so did these social networks user base change. No longer were the sites just used for friend to friend collaboration but they began evolving into tools to be used for marketing and educational purposes. 3-D environments such as Second Life, which allows users to create avatars to represent their personalities. The avatar character allows them to interact with other avatars in either socializing, dating, shopping, and everyday living. This allows people to live in two different worlds one the real world where the user may not do a lot of social interaction and the second life where their alter egos come out and they feel as though they can be themselves. This picture speaks to what social networking websites are being used for currently:

















As social networks continue to grow in popularity especially for our current and next generation of the worlds workforce, there is a need to educate our non social network users. These users tend to be our upper level management, our older generation and people like me who dont use computers much other than at work. How do we educate these people? Classes are a perfect way to educate our behind the times users. If we dont take time to learn these new technologies how will we be able to relate to the next generation such as our children or our junior staff. I did a google search on social networking classes and the first listing I found was for a class at American University (ITEC333), Social Networking & Business taught by Professor Melander. This class introduces you to social networks and also shows how social networks are playing a big role in how businesses do work currently and in the near future. This class needs to be taught at all colleges especially in the business schools since this technology is being adopted by companies in a growing rate. Harvard has taken this technology to an another level by having classes inside second life. I think teaching people about this technology is great and needs to be looked at by more schools. There are a couple of questions that I have. How far will social networks evolve? Will virtual worlds over take day to day human contact? Are we really falling into the matrix?





Images From:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/images/comscore.jpg
http://www.brianoberkirch.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/value-added-services-portable-social-networks.png

Videos From YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Lbr03HaC-6E
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hC2oE6aUvRI