What is social networking?

      Wikipedia broadly defines social network.  We are responsible for educating our students about STRANGERS.  This should be a huge component of what we share and how we instruct. Predators exist everywhere, especially on the web.  I defer to MySpace, which is scary. What is the proportion of successes vs issues at this site? In a Lesley online tech course, I was required to open a MySpace acct and peruse the site.  The application alone is alarming.  Our students are becoming desensitized to "common sense" on these sites. What is appropriate to share, and what is not?

Who can be defined as a predator? I became alarmed when I read that the Marines were recruiting on MySpace. Facebook is also a "wolf".  Kids in college "connect" here.  They share and store photos, many are incriminating. Employers keep their eye on Facebook. The potential for positive social networking is overwhelming.  SN

 Here is a link to a You Tube video which explains  social networking in its simplest terms: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc   JB

Although the intention seems to be networking and sharing, there is also a voyeuristic quality to social networking as you can obtain a lot of personal information about someone from their MySpace.com or Facebook.com account.  Another social networking site is LinkedIn.com   JB