by Barnaby Meins

Created on: July 18, 2009   Last Updated: August 17, 2009

Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia have become some of most ubiquitous social media tools in the modern age today. Indeed, social media has become part and parcel of one's life and even become a popular marketing tool for many companies. It has become either more useful or not depending on the circumstances and the perspectives of a person.

According to Forrester Research, 80% of young adults use social networks such as Facebook and My Space. It is the trend of the society nowadays and in days to come, it is expected that the number of people involved in social networking will increase. Currently, sources have reported that about half a million members are added to the social networks everyday. Due to this phenomenon, social networks will play an important role for one to stay connected to its social network. Not only social networks use the Internet, which is a global networking platform; the average Joe can easily learn how to use it in a short time. In short, most social networks sites are accessible to anyone around the world who can access the Internet.

No doubt, such online social networking platforms have changed the social landscape in many countries. First of all, it helps to foster ties in the offline community by acting as a complementary form of communication between people who know each other primarily in real life. Social networking sites include chatrooms and forums that use text, video and audio. Also, it enables one to build new relationships when it could be difficult to do so in the real world .

On the other hand, it could be said that those who have an active life in the real world do not really spent much time on these online social networking sites. This is because they could be so busy planning the next social gathering or training for a marathon that they cannot afford to spent time checking out their friends' Facebook photos or maintaining their social networking profile.

While social networking devices allow one to reconnect with people one might not have thought of meeting again in real life, the time of thinking hard of who to add will eventually come. Although one is connected with friends online, in the real and offline world, it is disappointing to say that one is not really connected with them.

As these novel tools are here to stay, it is important that one has to learn how to strike a balance in spending the right amount of time in social networking. It is important to understand how social networking sites are influencing one's life and know how to use them effectively to improve one's personal life while minimizing any undesirable outcomes. For example, one can refrain from publishing Facebook's flash games' score or updating friends on mundane details of life. It is also vital to choose the correct friends by learning to ignore the person's add-me request.

Seeking assistance from others can be one of the various means to learn more on how to utilize with these new social networking tools. One should not be ashamed to turn to more knowledgeable professionals who can provide excellent advice to deal with problems that has arose from using these tools. In fact, help for counseling can even be found over the Internet these days.

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