Do you use Facebook, MySpace or Twitter? If so, then you are part of a social network. Social networking sites allow us to see our social connections.
When you create a profile (a description of somebody that gives useful information) on a social networking site, you open up a number of possible social connections. You can look up old friends, make new friends, and share music, photos and videos with them. You can also join groups according to your interests or hobbies, favourite TV shows or music.
Setting up a social networking account (账号) is simple. You just create and post a personal profile. For this you need a login name, password, and an e-mail account. Then you add some personal information such as name, age, sex, location, interests, etc. You can also add a photo of yourself. You can control who sees your profile. The next step is to look for new ones, and add them to your network. Then you can search your friends' connections for anyone else you'd like to add to your network.
Different social networking sites allow people to communicate in different ways. There are sites that allow you to enlarge your personal community such as Facebook. Then there are ones that include media (媒体) sharing, such as YouTube, where members upload and look at other people's pictures and videos. There are also ones that specialize in sharing music, such as Last FM, and finally, ones that allow bloggers to form online communities, such as Live Journal.
The latest trend (趋势) in social networking is to create your own independent social network. Companies do this to make their products sell well and people do it to create their own communities.
