Social networks

Social networks become more and more important these days and I just wonder why these networks have such a power! Personally I only use studivz.de and mostly for being in touch with people from University. It is an easy way to organize meetings or to share things about the same classes. For me it fulfills the function of a student network in a good way. Of course sometimes I use it for other things, too, for example looking at my friend's photos but this is just a side effect.
I do not like to write messages with people that I have not seen for long time (some people from school for example), it is basically just stupid small talk like "what are you up to, how is University..." and after writing one or two messages we never talk again. For me this is useless and kinda a waste of time. However, there are some other good social networks, too. Especially when it comes to school/student networks or business networks. Basically networks that help communicate with people that share the same interests.
Social networks can be dangerous though if people have wrong identities and try to betray that way. You never know who the person at the other side of the computer is and if that person is talking to you honestly. I am actually a careful person and I never tell much about myself. Still, I do not think that it is easy to live without social networks these days, especially for young people. there are so many information going around over these networks and it really helps us in our everyday life. And if you do not participate you are
The first social networks on the internet started in 1985 which means that these networks are not ideas of recent years. Twitter http://twitter.com/ is one of the recent ones and combines a lot of functions in one "tool". It becomes really popular these days. I found a nice article that tells about how twitter is used in Iran. http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/487599/index.do?direct=486568&_vl_backlink=/home/politik/aussenpolitik/index.do&selChannel
It is amazing that it is possible to follow the actions that happen right now. you get even more the feeling that you are "live" at places where something happens. You get the latest news every minute.
It is sad that not all people in the world access to the internet. The ones without are kinda excluded from the world because they do not know what is happening, especially if countries block websites for the people.
The internet and with it the social networks create a really great community where people from all over the world share information. The world becomes more interconnected because of that.