"Wow, you look so different from your profile."

Finding that special someone has been rather tough. Everyone has such busy schedules it's starting to be hard to have a relationship with. A great deal of people started to flock to these dating sites. Online dating is where individuals connect and contact other individuals over the internet in the hopes to start up either a friend or romantic relationship. There are many websites, which provide members with a profile that includes their personal information. Users use the profiles to match themselves with desired love interests.

It has become common for online dating websites to provide webcam chats between members in order to get to know one another. Online dating could be considered a form of social networking because users create a profile and start to interact with other user, but here the users have a goal in mind: find some one for a relationship.

I find fault in online dating. maybe it is because i believe in the old-fashion dating. I mean how can you real KNOW someone on the internet. In class we talked about putting the wrongs signals out. There is a serious lack of trust in the other members, on whether the information the put forth is real or fake. There are those wackos who pose as singles but really they are looking for someone to have an affair with. My aunt nancy tried one of the dating sites. She finally decided to meet up with him. When she arrived at the resturant for her date, the guy ended up being in a wheelchair. My aunt was taken back because this man left out the detail about being handicapped.

Even though online dating scene has grown, how can you create a real relationship by means of the internet? A real relationship is based on honesty and truth. I just can't believe those commercials, which show couples who met online and made it work.

The Advancements in Cell Phones

The emerged around the nineties. Slowly they gained more popularity, as you saw more people with cell phones. The very first cell phones seemed not as practical. The were way too big. Their was no way you could fit those bad boys in your jeans pocket. When i think about the look of the very first cell phones, i think back to the popluar show Saved By The Bell. The main character, smooth talker Zack Morris would whip out this big phone about a 12 inches tall. I cant imagine some one walking around now a days with that same phone. It is too much of a hassle to lug that phone around.

I was in 5th grade when i got my first cell phone. It was one of those Nokia "bricks". I thought i was the coolest thing. I was able to make calls anywhere, and it had one game, snake, which i played constantly. Then more people began getting cell phones. Then came the fad of making the cell phones more fun. People began designing fun caps and stickers and antenna tassels to have more fun with the phones. Kids would come in to school with so much pizazz on their phones.

The I got into high school, the newest phone to have was flip phones. It was much thinner and when you flipped it up there was the key pad. Those became the coolest things to have and all the different phone services have made many versions to flip phones. The enVy phone was one of the first to have a number key pad on the front then when you flip the phone open their is a alphabet key pad, which made it easier for texting.

Flip phones are still the most popular form factor for cellular phones, however they have been losing popularity to phones with slide-out keyboards, and touch screen phones like the iPhone. These have become the newest advancements to cell phones. The less buttons there are the more cooler.

The ability to connect to the internet has also been a new step for cell phones. Phones such as the Blackberry and iPhone make for a person anywhere in the world to connect to the internet. I am not sure what will be the next thing for cell phones but it will be different.

Facebook updates

Oh it was so good to see all the amazing statuses after the New York Yankees won the World Series. Being from New Jersey and being such a huge yankees fan, and once the game was over, more than half of my facebook friends had changed their status to something related to the game. My "live news feed" was over 300 posts. Something so exciting happens, you can most defiantly count that it will show up on facebook.

I am practically friends with Patrick Dempsey?!

There is the idea that everyone in the world is connected. The theory of Six Degrees of Separation shows that any person in the worlds is (on average) six steps away from any person in the world. Through a chain of acquaintances, you can have a connection to any person on the planet. I could know someone, who is related to someone, that works with someone, that they went to school with, who knows someone, that went to a party with someone, whom was eating in the same restaurant as Vince Vaughn. There is this network which links you to Vince Vaughn. People like to believe in this connectivity because it make one think that they run in the same social circles as your favorite celebrities.

I like to think that i could possibly one day meet some famous guy through someone i know. My aunt who is in the theater business has many actors as friends. So I'm thinking that one day my aunt will introduce me to to a Broadway star.

The Six Degrees of Separation theory has influenced our culture greatly. The advances in the Internet especially in Social Networking Sites have made for many different connections. Some of the relationships on these social networking sites are in fact true friendships. However on some sites, users are friends with stars but these connections are weak because what are the chances that you are ACTUALLY friends with a famous person.

RIP Kanye....NOT!

Ever since Kanye West's stunt at the MTV's Video Music Awards, he has been getting bad publicity. More drama has exploded dealing with Kanye West. Rumors have been circling that Kanye was killed in a car accident. This started on this hoax FOX News website, which then began to reach the twitter world. Feeds on twitter saying "#RIPKANYEWEST".

Amber Rose, Kanye's girlfriend has be denying all these rumors via her Twitter page. She calls this buzz about "not funny" because it is so hurtful to his friends and family, who love him so much.

There are thoughts that Kanye started this rumor, to create more attention for himself. One can read into this as simple Kanye West's pathetic attempt at creating an uproar, so that people can say things like: "I hope he's not dead" and then begin to write positive things about him. So sad. When a supposed rumor of this kind starts on the Internet it is very easy for a public relations firm to snuff it out in an instant by taking to specific media outlets (much like Twitter) to snuff out the lie. Even if he didn't start this, he and his people could have easily put out the flame before it became a fire.

Parental Control

I started a facebook senior year of high school because school was ending and all my friends were going off to schools in different directions. Facebook would allow me to keep in contact with my classmates and creep on how their life is.

My mom was not liking the idea of facebook. She had told me not to get one because their are a lot of crazys out there. She would tell me and my sisters that could possibly get our information and come track us down. But my mom is nuts! like really? Someone would go to all that trouble to find me, because my facebook was not that interesting at that time.

So I never told my mom that i had created a facebook. I would hide the fact that go on to facebook when in the house. So i took some precautions so she would not find out about it such as erasing my Internet Explorer history. Also, it was good to have the house computer hidden in the study room because one would always find my mother cooking something in the kitchen.

I went off to college, making new friends there, which I soon added to my facebook friend list. Then more adults started to go on facebook and create their own profiles. The first one the friend me was my aunt. I was really hesitant to accept her friend request. I thought it be weird because my college life is different from my home life and i was unsure if i wanted to merge the two. After a week with my aunt's request chilling in "friend linbo", i added my aunt on facebook but with a catch. I put her on an unlimited profile.

Then about six months ago my mom got a facebook. I was shocked and i would never have expected it. But she did not try to friend me. I think she understood that i did not want to include my mom on my facebook. But for some reason over the summer, hanging out with my mom, i found out she knew pretty much all about what i have been doing in high school and that the things i had put up on facebook did not offend or make her upset with me. So for the start of this school semester i had accepted my mom as a friend and now i am in a special facebook group just for the girls in my family (sisters, mom and aunt) to keep in contact with each other.

The Search-ability of SNS

The search-ability of these social networking sites is amazing. The fact that you can locate anyone through sites like myspace or facebook is so cool. I actually have an instance where the search-ability through facebook helped me find someone whom i've been looking for. So this may seem a bit creepy and i admit it but it really shows how easy it is to trace someone:

so this happened last year, there was cute boy who was in my finance class but i did not know his name. He seemed like a bro or hung out with that kind of crowd. I told my friends about him, pointed him out when i saw him at lunch but my friends didn't know who he was either. My friends and i went through a very complex path to get his name. First i went on the Catholic University (my college) athletic website. I went through all the bro-ish sports to find him or a friend of his. I recognized one of these dudes he might be friends with. So next i got the name of his friend and searched him on facebook. Luckily,that guy did not have a private profile. SO i searched through ALL of his friends until i recognized the cute guy from his profile picture. So i went through all of that on the internet to get this guys name. I told you it was kinda creepy but through the internet i was able to locate information about this guy.