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Social networking has grown to be become one of the largest and most influential components of the web, but despite how prevalent it is in the Western World (especially among the younger crowd), not everyone uses it or understands it. Just think of the older people you might know or people who've live in locations where internet access isn't the norm.

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The open-ended nature of social networks may only add to the confusion. Once signed in to a social network, having answered a few basic profile questions, it's easy to sit back and wonder what you are supposed to do next.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand social networking is to think of it like high school. You had friends in school and you knew quite a few people even if you weren't friends with all of them, but it's likely that you didn't know everyone.

If you ever moved to a new school or if you can imagine moving to a new school you start out with no friends. After attending classes, you start meeting people, and as you meet them, you begin associating with those that have similar interests.

Getting started with social networking is much the same as starting at a new school. At first, you don't have any friends. But as you join groups, you begin to meet people, and you build a friend list of those with similar interests.

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Social networking is based on a certain structure that allow people to both express their individuality and meet people with similar interests.Here are a few of the most common components of a social network:

Profile. This is your own little piece of digital real estate where you tell the world about yourself. Profiles contain basic information, like a main photo, short bio, location, website and sometimes personality questions like who's your favorite actor and what's your favorite book. Social networks dedicated to a special theme like music or movies might ask questions related to that theme.

Friends and followers. Friends and followers are trusted members of the site that are allowed to post comments on your profile or send you private messages. You can also keep tabs on how your friends/followers are using social networking, such as when they post a new picture or update their profile. Friends and followers are the heart and soul of social networking. It should be noted that not all social networks refer to them as friends or followers LinkedIn refers to them as connections but all social networks have a way to designate members as trusted.

Home feed: Since the goal of social networking is to connect and interact with others, almost every social network puts a live feed of updates from friends on the home tab. This gives users a real-time glimpse of everything their friends are sharing.

Likes: Lots of social networks have made it easy for users to "like" another user's content by tapping or clicking something like a thumbs up or heart button. It's an easy and straightforward way to put your personal stamp of approval on something that a friend posted.

Comments. A primary focus of groups is to create interaction between users in the form of comments or discussions. Most social networks support comment sections on every type of post.

Groups. Some social networks use groups to help you find people with similar interests or engage in discussions on certain topics. A group can be anything from "Johnson High Class of '98" to "People Who Like Books" to "DoorsFans". They are both a way to connect with like-minded people and a way to identify your interests. Sometimes, groups are called by other names, such as the 'networks' on Facebook.

Tags: As an alternative to groups, lots of social networks have turned to tagging to allow users to categorize their posts according to their topic. Social networks will either automatically generate a tag when you type a pound sign (#) before a keyword (called a hashtag) or require you to enter in several keyword terms in a specific tag area. These tags become links, and when you click or tap them, they take you to a new page where you can see all of the most recent posts from everyone who included that tag in their posts.

Social networking is a nice form of entertainment, great for meeting people with similar interests and useful for staying in touch with old friends/acquaintances. It can also be a very effective promotional tool for businesses, entrepreneurs, writers, actors, musicians or artists.

Most of us have hobbies, or things that we are keenly interested in such as books, television, video games or movies. Social networks allow us to reach out to others that have the same interests.

You are never too old to get involved in social networking! There are plenty of social networks to choose from including niche social networks that focus on a specific theme or style of posting.

If you're stumped on which social networking to join first, have a look at this list of 25 top social networks to get a glimpse of what each one offers. Try one out and see what works for you. You can always leave and try something else if you don't end up up loving it.

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Updated by: Elise Moreau

Read more here:
What Is Social Networking? - lifewire.com