Face-to-face in the latest online meeting place14 July 2006
Meeting people online has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years and it could be argued we have reached the point where socialising in cyberspace is indeed the norm.
In what is quite a leap from 'geeky' nineties chatroom culture, or 'sad' online daters, it is now completely acceptable to spend time talking to someone you have never even seen, meeting and dating them and, in some cases, falling in love on the strength of a grainy low-resolution photo and a few artfully worded emails.
Few people can have failed to have heard of MySpace, the phenomenally popular community website which has allowed more than 60 million people worldwide gain access to other people's details and get in touch, while the website itself rocketed into the world's top five.
And now a new craze is sweeping the internet chat community - but while it is enjoying its own runaway success, this new online 'get together' is slightly different. Called Facebook, the online community was started in the US - and it is based around other existing real communities.
It first caught on among high school and college students in America - users post pictures, personal details, interests and opinions on it in a similar way to MySpace, but only people with log-in authentication for a specific institution may gain access to it. So for example, only students at, say, Harvard, can view the posts of other Harvard students.
The network has become so integral to student existence in the States that research from LLC found that it was in the top three most important things to student - along with beer and iPods - and it has started to catch on the UK too.
Academics and social commentators ask why it is that these kinds of communities have become so popular, but the enthusiasm with which they have been adopted should really come as no surprise. It seems that in our increasingly busy and broadband-oriented lives it is a natural step to start to utilise the internet to form personal relationships. Whether working or studying, most of us spend so long sitting in front of a computer it has simply become like one of our friends - or the most convenient way for us to talk to them!
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