Online Social Networks

Are you keeping up with "where" your students are spending their time online? Take a look at the December 12, 2005 issue of Business Week and the article called "The MySpace Generation" by Jessi Hempel, pp. 86 --96. You will find information about three hot sites for students that illustrate how they live, buy, and play online and how "their power is growing.
Facebook.com began as a way for college students to connect
(4.2 million users; 2.4 million are 12 -- 24 years old)
MySpace.com was started as free Web space for independent musicians
(20.6 million users, 9.2 million are 12 -- 24 years old)
Xanga.com began using message-board technology to let beginning writers publish work
(6.4 million users; 3.2 million are 12 -- 24 years old

Social networking online is BIG. How do we tap into this network? And how do we understand what students are saying with their sometimes indecipherable language? Try Webopedia's text messaging reference list for starters: http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp