Social Networking Sites -- Some Examples and Comments

Social networking sites, if allowed to remain free and open for the world at large, could potentially provide platforms for nothing less than World Peace itself! We have already seen how social networking helped bring about significant, important changes in Egypt and other areas of the world; and, unless the Internet becomes a police-state-platform where all communications are restricted and otherwise intruded-upon, social networking might one day be the vehicle that brings about global togetherness...in my (humble) opinion.

Some recent government missions (U.S., Europe) like SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act-U.S.), PIPA (Protect IP Act-U.S.), and ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement-E.U.); allegedly designed and constructed to help stop illegal online activities dealing with protection of copyrights and other property rights, might, say many powerful sources like Google, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and others, be the end of the "free and open Internet" as we know it. Apparently, these proposed laws and regulations go far beyond what most folks understand them to do...to the point that Google (et al.) thought it important enough to stage a web 'blackout' in protest. Such actions, coupled with massive support from individual users signing petitions and other collective resistance measures, were enough to derail U.S. government action on SOPA and PIPA...at least temporarily.

Surely, this whole thing is very likely to continue to haunt and cloud Internet freedom, if not because of the very real and legitimate need for stopping some Internet scams, piracy, copyright-infringement, and similar illicit practices, surely because of the political pressures and big money of powerful lobbyists and political action groups who want it done.

Do your part...let your government representatives know we expect the Internet to forever remain free from government intrusion and controls, except where such controls are really necessary and do not infringe on our basic right to free knowledge, information, and communications with whomever we choose to communicate with. Thanks!

I have not been real heavily involved with social networking sites, but I do belong to a few; and I do participate at times. I'm not what you might call a "true-blue" social networking addict, but I make some time for these sites, mostly because they provide easy, effective, dynamic, and even "cool" way to keep up with friends, family, "fans", customers, and more. That said, I also must admit that I did find some friends, and I learned a lot of things from others at some of these social networking sites.

As we know, social networking sites have begun to show their value as a way of "connected people" STAYING "connected". Pretty much in "real-time", too! Sites like FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, Google+, Yahoo! Buzz, Digg, and many others.