Internet Social Networking is a web based network for communities of people that provides the ability to share interests and activities with others nationally and internationally.  Most social networking websites provide the user with the ability to share information through email, instant messaging, blogging, discussion forums, and video.  Social networking can also benefit and provide a great tool for small and large companies wanting to grow and expand their business and customer database.  Another benefit for companies is the low costs of advertising.  The cost of an ad on a social network is only a fraction of a television ad.  Additionally, healthcare organizations are using social networking as a way to manage and share educational knowledge from physician to physician.  Social networking that focuses on the medical field provides a resource of information for parents with medical questions and concerns as well.

Social networking began around 1995 with websites like classmates.com with the idea to find and reconnect with old school mates.   In 2003, social networking company, MySpace.com, began to grow and develop a networking system that offered users an interactive, user-submitted network of friends.  It also includes personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos that can be shared internationally. Another example of social networking is a site called ivillage.com, which is dedicated to enriching the lives of women by offering educational content, forums, and other useful tools.  One final example of social networking is online fantasy sports leagues.

These leagues are a game where players build and own a team that competes against other team owners based on the facts of players and teams of professional sports. A popular fantasy sport website is sportsline.com owned by CBS Sports.  This site provides its users with coverage and statistics of football, baseball, basketball and other professional sports to help users develop fantasy sports teams.  Social networking as become an integral communication tool in today’s American society.

Social Networking is the newest fad to hit the internet, teenagers, women and men are all participating, but along with the advantages of social networks we also have many disadvantages and problems. We here at Areo Consulting believe that most of the problems related to social networking are linked to the accessibility of others. Many teenagers are using sites such as MySpace and Facebook to connect to their high school and college friends not realizing that the personal information listed on their personal web page can be accessed by people other than their friends. Teenagers are listing phone numbers, home towns, places they go a lot, and other things predators can use to find them. Sexual predators and stalking incidents are some of the most public problems with today’s networking sites.  

Some other problems involving the accessibility around social networking sites are employers have started hiring people to search these sites for possible hires to see how they represent themselves and possibly their job. Many larger companies have begun to perform more than criminal and background searches on their candidates. They are searching their personal websites to see how they present themselves, see who they have become friends with and how they spend free time.

Although it is easy to find the problems with social networks it is harder to find a solution for them. Aero Consulting believes that the first step in fixing the problem would be to educate the public. Starting with the parents of teenagers we can inform them of the dangers of listing personal information on a webpage. There are books, articles and television specials to inform and educate the public of the dangers. Dateline airs a special to show parents how easy it is to become a victim of a sexual predator. The parents are not the only people needing education of this subject. The teenagers using these program are old enough to know right from wrong and need to know the consequences of their actions. They need to be aware of how may people can view their personal information and how easy it is to use it against them.  

As the public we can not count on people to get the education they need before involving themselves in these sites. We also need strict restrictions on what can be written and posted on these sites. No provocative photos, phone numbers, addresses, cities or place of work can be displayed about anyone and age limits required when accessing certain sites. People looking for jobs also need to be aware of the practiced procedure of employers searching for possible hires. Again education about the sites is the key to informing people of possible bad decisions. The public needs to be aware of the people viewing their personal web page and aware of the dangers that can results from revealing to much about yourself; and the best way to do that is by education and restrictions.