Social Networking Websites

In the Internet's short life span it has experienced many revolutions. In the beginning online chat and chat rooms were all the rage, linking people together by a common interest, region, or other factor. As using the Internet socially become more favorable, many entrepreneurs envisioned a new way to link people together online.

Social networking websites have been around since the 90s, but didn't start hitting major popularity until around 2004. A social networking website aims to link people together who are friends, or have common interests and bonds, such as classmates, co-workers, and hobbyists. On a social networking website you can link up with all of your contacts, and also instantly make new contacts in your network.

Some of the most popular social networking websites today include Myspace, Facebook, Orkut, Habbo, Hi5, BlackPlanet, and Linked In. These websites range from general interests to websites defined by a common factor such as country, race, or ethnicity.

Since meeting new people online has become so easy, it has also created a new topic of conversation in what is considered cheating. Before the Internet, being unfaithful to a partner included physically meeting another person and engaging in intimate relations. Now people can easily meet new romantic interests online and communicate with them frequently. They may send each other email, flirt in instant messages, or even have cybersex. A person who is concerned about their partner has to ask themselves at what point are they uncomfortable with these types of activities.

On Myspace and other websites, men and women can search for people by sex, age, region, and relationship status (married, single, in a relationship). If after viewing a person's pictures and deeming them to be attractive, they can send that person an online message and ask them if they want to chat. It's very easy to access pictures of thousands of men and women in a matter of minutes. In addition, many people ignore a set relationship status and decide to send messages to those people they find attractive, regardless if they are in a relationship or not.

Infidelity occurs all over the Internet, but it is more common on social networking websites because the main reason why people join them is to connect and meet people.