Are social networking sites effective, or are they just a sophisticated means for stalking people?

I'm not big on social networking sites .... But I do love being on Twitter .... I get to voice my opinion and I'm followed by over 2 thousand people there  ....so it does make me feel heard ...  They may not always listen to me ... But I shout loud there and I am free to voice my opinion... All of my opinions ...  And I am much more opinionated there than I am here cos I find this site a bit soft at times :) lol :)all the time but that's fine and I like it here cos it's sweet and cute  ;)    I also like being free to vent there though ...very much :) if I'm ever on here ... I'm also on there.  I get the best of both worlds then ;)

They are what you make of them. They have security restrictions that you set. You are allowed to decide who follows you. If you leave everything open to the public, you can set yourself up for stalking. I have mine set to just friends.

So how are you doing? I saw on another question that you are running your a/c. We may have to turn our heat on this week. I was running it in the car this morning.

Stalking isn't their primary objective and lots of people make good use of them.

Personally I don't like them, yet I do have an anonymous Facebook account which allows me to click on any Facebook links I want to follow up. I certainly don't post any personal information.

Hi Stuart,

This goes about your question in an indirect way...FB for me turned out more hassle than it was worth. 

What IS interesting to me are sites like this one, Ask, and the one Sephira tried...and it is because of the learning and the international friendships. And, I wonder sometimes if these sites might someday be the basis for a more powerful kind of democratic groundswell, worldwide.

* * *

With credit to Blurt moderators...ours ought to start a moderator school.

Why not? Social media became an important part of our lives. And that is the reason we take them into account.

Really so. The thing is that when the person starts to upload all the interesting and new information, photos into one social account, he wants to do it with the others.