Social networks began to appear back in 1995. True, in those years the Internet was used much less than now, and no one had heard of such sites. But by the end of the twentieth century, there were many social networks around the world, the popularity of which was growing rapidly. According to VTsIOM, about 52% of Russians using the Internet are registered on social networks.
What are these record-breaking sites for? Initially, the same Odnoklassniki site was conceived to be able to search for former classmates and classmates, and VKontakte was intended as a social network for graduates of Russian universities. For the same purposes, the popular all over the world Facebook and MySpace networks were created. Judging by the same "Odnoklassniki", compatriots immediately rushed to use the site for its intended purpose. That is, actively look for classmates, classmates who have not been seen for many years and communicate. There was even a grin on this topic in Runet: "You all hated each other at school, and now everyone has become friends on social networks." While the years certainly go by, people mature and change.
Over time, the possibilities of social networks have expanded, and in addition to schoolmates, users have the opportunity to search for and add as friends colleagues, colleagues, people they know at the rest home, courses. It became possible to search for a person without reference to an educational institution, it is enough to enter in the search line for example “Anna Petrova, 20 years old, Moscow”. Soon it became possible to create your own account on social networks, regardless of age. You can often find the pages of 10-11-year-old schoolchildren, or even one-year-old toddlers, whose parents have accounts.
Of course, social networks are very convenient for those who have left to study, work or live in another city. After all, new acquaintances will not appear immediately, and adaptation in a foreign city is not an easy thing, and thanks to the Internet, you can communicate with people dear to you at least every day, no matter what distances you may have.
Now many users have almost all their friends and relatives as friends. It's just that if earlier people often communicated in person or by phone, now more and more often, even with a neighbor in the stairwell, they actively correspond on the Internet. Social networks replace many letters, both paper and electronic, phone calls and sms-messages, because you can write in a personal message! Which again gave rise to a lot of statements from people. This is especially true for congratulations on the holidays, they say, before friends called with congratulations, and friends sent sms, and now friends write sms, and friends write on the VKontakte wall. It seems that jokes are jokes, but Internet communication replaces and replaces the real. It is one thing to correspond from time to time with acquaintances with whom, for some reason, there is no opportunity to meet in person, and another thing is to communicate with your beloved girl more online than in reality.
The truth is, in reality, few people communicate with the entire friend of 350 people. All the same, there is a closer social circle and acquaintances with whom people correspond from time to time. And with many, often with the same classmates, they exchange a maximum of 2-3 messages, and at this the active correspondence dries up due to the lack of common themes.
Quite a nice feature - upload your photos and view other people's. But even here you need to be vigilant. Social media pages are easy to find through any search engine on the Internet. Before uploading a topless photo, think about what your relatives, colleagues, boss can see.
Extensive social networking functions allow you to listen to music, watch videos. Now many owners of an unlimited Internet channel at high speed do not even bother downloading the material they like. Everyone watches and listens online, adding their favorite songs or films to their page.
The networks are looking not only for already familiar people, but also make new acquaintances. For example, many members of communities of interest, forums of moms and other groups soon get to know each other for real, start dating, chatting, making friends, not only looking at the monitor. But there is also a downside to the coin. Online, when communicating with a stranger, a person can imagine himself to be anyone. And it's not even so much that someone wrote a fake name or lied about age. Firstly, 18-year-old Katya may in fact turn out to be Vladimir Ivanovich 45 years old, who has nothing to do, and it's good if he doesn't turn out to be a maniac. And secondly, in front of virtual acquaintances, you can endow yourself with whatever positive qualities you want, without actually possessing them. In turn, the interlocutor may not be as "white and fluffy" as it seems. Sometimes it comes to the point that spouses make such virtual acquaintances and begin to really believe that a person who has never been seen in life is better than what is nearby every day. But in fact, real emotions are not visible on the monitor, voices are not heard, and you will never know what your interlocutor really thinks.
But there is also a positive side, namely, communication and borrowing experience from other users. Of course, it is better to treat a throat not with the help of advice from the network, but on the recommendation of a doctor, but after all, other users can tell from their personal experience how to plant a flower, or where to find the district education department, and often the necessary information is found quite quickly.
At the moment, almost half of Internet users are registered in at least one social network. Moreover, many users visit these sites almost every day, often even several times. You can also meet those who are online all day. Although, as a rule, people still do not sit on these sites around the clock, they manage to communicate on the Internet while at work or doing household chores. It reaches the point of absurdity. Mommies sit on forums more than with children, wives and husbands, instead of paying attention to each other, sit on the Internet.
Social networks are really good, the main thing is to know when to stop. There are many other interesting sites on the Internet, in life there are many other interesting activities that are far from the computer and the Internet. Better to go for a walk in the fresh air than to sit for days in a stuffy room in captivity of virtual reality.
