Skype

Skype runs on VOIP software and provides cheap and free phone calls. It was launched in 2003 and now boasts 663 million users mainly because of the value for money and the fact that it appeals more towards the older generation.

Skype doesn’t just allow for phone calls but also has the software for you to, again for free, video call your friends and family. This gives the whole phone call a more personal feel and encourages the older generation to use it as they get to see the rest of their family’s more often and see their grandchildren growing up if they are unfortunate enough not to live close by.

These pieces of software have helped the internet to develop socially because it allows everybody to have conversations without any limitations. They are used for anything from securing that all important deal in your office, having a friendly chat with someone or even group calling a number of people.

YouTube

 YouTube stand for four things: independence, freedom, music and community, shown by its slogan "broadcast yourself’ which indeed many of us do. YouTube’s fan base has grown rapidly over the past few years, shown by the facts and figures which YouTube has published, displaying over 300 million account on YouTube at the current time, over 3 billion videos watched daily and the total time needed to watch all of the content on YouTube totalling over 600 years.This has totally changed the way in which we receive and distribute information between ourselves.

This website which has been the largest video sharing website since it was founded in 2005 has been made so successful by the features it offers. Everyone who sets up a free account can upload any video they have (within reason). This has allowed people who are experts in their field or just enjoy doing it to begin a trend called vlogging. This is when these few people frequently post videos on their channels which can show anything from music which they have created to their own opinions about current events and news. Vlogging has also become more popular to people using social networking site as you are able to like you content, so if you use Facebook it could be displayed on your wall. 

Twitter

Twitter has recently become the ‘SMS of the internet’ and can be accessed all over the world, anywhere and at any time. It has become so popular that over 300 million mobile devices are connected to the site at any one time, and each one making at least one tweet ( a message informing your followers of your current activities).

One of the main reasons for its triumph over other social networking sites is that it gives the average person the ability to make a personal connection with a celebrity. Twitter has had a large impact on the development of the internet because of its huge member base which is expanding every day and has started its own trends of connecting with the stars.

Facebook

Over one million sites are integrated with Facebook making it the largest in the world. 50% of the 400 million users (as of February 2010) log onto Facebook each day and share what they are doing with the world. There are three major ways in which the site Facebook has changed the face of the internet:

1.    Finding people  has become a lot easier thanks to Facebook. By just typing in their name into the search bar you are able to sift through all the people who have Facebook with that name. With the use of profile pictures, you can easily find the individual you want.

2.    Privacy on Facebook can sometimes be a problem. Every user posts lots of pictures on Facebook ranging from nights on the town to an average school day. Due to this the Facebook developers allow privacy settings to be applied to your account. This means that you can vet who can see your page ranging from friends, friends of friends and the whole internet. However , there have been a few reported cases where these privacy settings have been compromised, such as a few years ago where Mark Zuckerberg’s private photos were on show to the whole world.

3.    Connections are made through Facebook with people all over the world. Many different websites (over one million) have like buttons featured on them which means that everyone of your friends can see the articles which you have been reading.

Social Growth of the Internet

Social networking sites really took off originally in their simplest for – forums. Since them, these sites have radically changed the way in which we view the internet, something which now plays host to some of our favourite past times – sharing ‘What’s on our mid’ and ‘tweeting’. Facebook and twitter have changed the internet for good and even though they could eventually go out of fashion, the internet will never be the same again and social networking will always be king.