So what is social networking?

Take a look at Facebook.

Formed in 2004 this site now has over one billion active users

every month.

And Twitter, formed in 2006.

These are the two major kings of the social networks.

Think about your friend's birthday.

What would you do for your friend's birthday?

Me personally, I'd write on their wall.

But how has this changed the world?

Let's look at the facts.

Before a time when Facebook was around traditionally

you would say happy birthday by sending a card.

That card would cost anything from 50p to well, any amount.

With the ease of simply writing, happy birthday

to your friend or family member through your Facebook account

there is now no need to go to the shops

and spend money on these type of cards.

This is one of the main contributors to the slow demise

of card shops on the nation's high streets.

The success of President Obama's campaign back in 2008

was almost purely driven by the social networks.

His advisor Chris Hughes was there

to support him, as his technology adviser,

with his decision making with this new medium.

The outcome of the election could

have been so much different without him.

Let's look at teenagers today.

How are their lives different as opposed

to somebody who was a teenager 65 years ago?

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How do I use social networking?

Well, I only use it professionally in as much that

being at the radio station here.

I will use it to promote radio shows

and what we're doing here.

But I don't tend to use it on a personal basis at all.

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In days gone by there was no social networking.

So it's difficult to compare.

I think in those days we were just

doing it in the real world, and actually

talking to one another face to face,

rather than communicating through this machine that

sits there.

People have a habit, I think nowadays,

of talking through those machines almost 24 hours a day.

They've got mobile phones switched

on all the time talking to friends.

And I think, in a way, that is difficult

because it means they can't ever get away from people.

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I'm not sure that there is the definitive answer

as to whether the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Because I'm not sure that it's been

going long enough for people to identify what

all the things are that might be wrong with it.

Compare it with how it was before.

I personally think that I probably

had a better experience not growing up

with all of this networking.

But then I'm not living today.

And therefore for me to say that doesn't necessarily

follow that anybody my age-- sorry anybody of the age

that I would have been then-- would agree with me.

They probably wouldn't.

It's a totally different world.

So we've taken a look at Facebook in depth.

But what about the other major social network, Twitter?

It works in a similar way.

But there are some differences.

The major one being that you've only

got 140 characters to deliver your message.

Maybe you want to confess your love to Justin Bieber.

Or maybe ask a radio station to play your favorite Robbie

Williams track.

Whatever you do, you've only got 140 characters.

There's also some strange things going on on Twitter.

Jimmy Kimmel Live had a brilliant TV show

where he looked at the strange tweets

that celebrities have received.

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I would rather chop my arm off and [BLEEP]

myself with my detached limb than watch Katy Perry

the movie.

What the [BLEEP] is wrong with the world?

I'd pay to see that.

Zooey Deschanel is overrated.

I think I'm underrated.

Did you know that if you skinned Larry King

and ironed out his leather you could make enough coats

to give one it every poor child in America?

[BLEEP] David Spade.

At least this guy just gets right to it.

I like Kristen Stewart more when she was a boy.

Dear God, give us back 2Pac and we'll give you Justin Bieber.

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We've uncovered some of the nasty ways

that Twitter can be used.

But how about we ask people one what they actually think.

Social networking, what do I think?

I love it.

I think it's a fantastic tool.

However I think it's massively over-saturated.

It can be an incredibly useful tool, incredibly useful,

very powerful as well.

Examples from all ends of the spectrum, good things

and bad things.

You know, there are plenty of good examples

of why social media is useful.

For advertising or getting something promoted.

But also, you have to be very careful with social media.

Once it's on the internet, it's on the internet.

For me I use Facebook quite a lot and Twitter for the radio.

At least for kind of sharing things

I find on the internet, interesting stories, something

quirky, funny, something a bit light-hearted.

Also to tell people stuff is coming up.

You know, I do quite a-- not a scheduled show.

It's not really regimented.

But I like to keep things in a similar spot

every morning so that people would get used to it.

And they know what time is [INAUDIBLE], what

they could hear on the show.

So if I know I've really specifically good showbiz news

bit, I'll tweet a few minutes earlier,

showbiz news on the way.

You won't want to miss it.

And then it gives the people a chance to go, oh, yeah,

I could do with knowing it, because I

do it quite flippantly.

But things like I do musical quiz every day.

We do a track of the week, which starts

on a Tuesday funny enough.

So this morning I made the post online on the website.

Then I tweeted it and Facebooked so after I played it on-air.

On social media I'm saying, just played it.

If you missed it, here it is.

And you point people to it.

I think it's a fantastic tool to either bring people in or point

people in certain directions.

And if they have an interest in what you do then

it's fantastic.

Yeah, it's great.

It's great to talk to people as well.

It's a really informal way of talking without people feeling

like they have to do anything.

It couldn't disappear.

It will never disappear.

Facebook may be at the point where

it's starting to plateau off with memberships.

But it will never disappear.

Really think about eight years ago Facebook didn't exist.

Twitter didn't exist.

We've got over half a billion people on Facebook now.

200 million on Twitter.

But since then you've had you've got Vine now the new one

that's out.

You've got loads of others.

You've got Tumblr.

You've got Pinterest.

Instagram, I mean that's just basically an app for taking

photos of your food, I guess.

But for some people it's brilliant.

And it works.

I think the world is a better place for it actually.

Things are more instant.

News, is a really good thing as well.

News can be spread really fast, important news, something

that's important to people.

And Twitter is a fantastic tool for that, really, really good.

It's just got the edge because it so instantaneous.

It's 140 characters.

It's this has happened, more news to follow.

And instantly, I think probably BBC news or Sky News

or something like that have got millions of followers,

hundreds of thousands of followers.

If 1% of them re-tweet that, that's

expanded from 100,000 followers to 10 million, 20 million.

And instantly BBC are breaking this news story.

Or Sky are break it, or ITV, or sometimes even a celebrity

is the first one to tweet it.

But that's it.

It's like wildfire.

It's great.

I think it really is.

But it has to be used the right way.

In 2008 MySpace generated in excess of $800 million.

They were a major employer in the social networking world,

employing 1,600 people.

But there was a storm on the horizon.

Our old friend Facebook was growing in popularity.

Why was MySpace suffering?

Was it the fact they were showing far too many adverts?

Or users were quite simply just deleting their accounts?

Whatever the reason on the 19th of April 2008

Facebook took over the social networking world.

Let's look at the facts.

As of 2011 there are five million active Facebook users.

That's one in every 13 people on Earth.

48% of 18 to 34-year-olds check Facebook right

when they wake up.

The 35 plus demographic now represents more than 30%

of the entire user base.

Did you know there are 206.2 million internet users

in the US?

That means 71.2% of the US web audience is on Facebook.

57% of people talk more online than they do in real life.

48% of young Americans said they found out about news

through Facebook.

A record breaking 750 million photos

were uploaded to Facebook over the New Year's weekend.

Let's take a local what happens every 20 minutes right here

on Facebook.

One million links shared, 1,484,000 event invites,

1,323,000 tagged photos, 1,851,000 status updates,

over 1,972,000 individual friend requests are accepted.

There's over 2,716,000 photos uploaded.

There's 2,716,000 messages sent, and over 10 million comments

made, along with 1,587,000 wall posts.

So there we go, Facebook the world's leader

in the social networking site.

Benefits some people, but effects other people

in so many other ways.

What will take over from Facebook?

Only time will tell.

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