Fenomenon of social sites

Fenomenon of social sites has become one of the most important parts in the Internet environment and communicating technologies. Social sites have big influnce on lives of people. Due to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein social media (synonym to « socail sites ») « create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create , discuss, and modify user-generated content. It introduces substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities and individuals ». Yes, that is truth. . In the next part I am going to do a survey of the most popular social sites in the world.

The first object of survey is Facebook. It was founded in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. And now is has more than one billion users. Facebook added over 200 million users in less than year and now it tops Google for weekly traffic in the USA. 60 million status updates happen on Facebook daily. The fastest growing segment on the site is 55-65 years-old females. If Facebook were be a country it would be the world’s third largest. People trust facebook more than advertisements. Percent of 18-34 year olds who check Facebook when they wake up is 48 %. Percent of 18-34 year olds who check Facebook before they get out of bed is 28 %. 350 million users who access the site through a mobile device. There are 3 million message sent everyday.

Now I am going to take a view of Vkontakte. It was found in October 2006. 44,3% of users are females and 55,7% are males. 31,4% of people have higher degree and 32,3 % are married. Everyday there is 40 million hosts. Comparing with population of Ukraine, it is less only on 45 million. On the beginning of its development most of users were people from CIS especially from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Nowadays, a quantity of users from the western Europe increases.

There are a lot of other chats where people spend their time.

Thanking to social sites we can make our communication faster and do that in comfortable time for us. According to statistics 96% of Millenias have joined a social network. So humanity has unique chance to be in contact everytime and everywhere. 1 out of 8 couples marries in the USA met via social media. Despite of good sides, social sites have disadvantages. Due to the newest pulling, people spend 11 hours per month in social sites in Ukraine. It is told that people who study without the Internet get better marks that thie opposites. It is meant that they study in their free time. The level of development decreases. According to statistics, mostly users are people from 18 till 25 years old. As I observed with users in my own pages in the Internet, I saw the next. In facebook I have people different ages begging from 18 years old, while in Vkontakte I see children from seven years old. Yes, this is true as this kid is my neighbour. Social sites can also be the reason of hatred and jealousity. As people see another life and begin to want kind of the same. Psycholigists can find out a lot of facts about people from their social pages.for example, the scientists from Cambridge University reseached that we can determine person’s tastes or thoughts by their « like » on social sites. Yes, if person gives « likes » on the pictures for some protests, this means that he or she supports them. As for bad sides, a new study suggests that social media siteshave created a new phenomenon knows as « Facebook depression ». The American Academy of Pediatrics recently warned parents about the possible dangers of networking websites on their children’s mental health. Report co-author Gwenn O’Keefe described the way social interaction is changing: "For some teens and tweens, social media is the primary way they interact socially, rather than at the mall or a friend's house," she said.

Social sites have advantages and disadvantages. The first ones are in spreading information rapidly. But the second ones are in wasting of time, losing of communicative skills, degradation. I cannot give full mark as there are different positive and negative sides. In the meantime, social sites are step forward and degradation.

Oksana Girchak