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  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • So what is social networking?

  • Take a look at Facebook.

  • Formed in 2004 this site now has over one billion active users

  • every month.

  • And Twitter, formed in 2006.

  • These are the two major kings of the social networks.

  • Think about your friend's birthday.

  • What would you do for your friend's birthday?

  • Me personally, I'd write on their wall.

  • But how has this changed the world?

  • Let's look at the facts.

  • Before a time when Facebook was around traditionally

  • you would say happy birthday by sending a card.

  • That card would cost anything from 50p to well, any amount.

  • With the ease of simply writing, happy birthday

  • to your friend or family member through your Facebook account

  • there is now no need to go to the shops

  • and spend money on these type of cards.

  • This is one of the main contributors to the slow demise

  • of card shops on the nation's high streets.

  • The success of President Obama's campaign back in 2008

  • was almost purely driven by the social networks.

  • His advisor Chris Hughes was there

  • to support him, as his technology adviser,

  • with his decision making with this new medium.

  • The outcome of the election could

  • have been so much different without him.

  • Let's look at teenagers today.

  • How are their lives different as opposed

  • to somebody who was a teenager 65 years ago?

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • How do I use social networking?

  • Well, I only use it professionally in as much that

  • being at the radio station here.

  • I will use it to promote radio shows

  • and what we're doing here.

  • But I don't tend to use it on a personal basis at all.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • In days gone by there was no social networking.

  • So it's difficult to compare.

  • I think in those days we were just

  • doing it in the real world, and actually

  • talking to one another face to face,

  • rather than communicating through this machine that

  • sits there.

  • People have a habit, I think nowadays,

  • of talking through those machines almost 24 hours a day.

  • They've got mobile phones switched

  • on all the time talking to friends.

  • And I think, in a way, that is difficult

  • because it means they can't ever get away from people.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • I'm not sure that there is the definitive answer

  • as to whether the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

  • Because I'm not sure that it's been

  • going long enough for people to identify what

  • all the things are that might be wrong with it.

  • Compare it with how it was before.

  • I personally think that I probably

  • had a better experience not growing up

  • with all of this networking.

  • But then I'm not living today.

  • And therefore for me to say that doesn't necessarily

  • follow that anybody my age-- sorry anybody of the age

  • that I would have been then-- would agree with me.

  • They probably wouldn't.

  • It's a totally different world.

  • So we've taken a look at Facebook in depth.

  • But what about the other major social network, Twitter?

  • It works in a similar way.

  • But there are some differences.

  • The major one being that you've only

  • got 140 characters to deliver your message.

  • Maybe you want to confess your love to Justin Bieber.

  • Or maybe ask a radio station to play your favorite Robbie

  • Williams track.

  • Whatever you do, you've only got 140 characters.

  • There's also some strange things going on on Twitter.

  • Jimmy Kimmel Live had a brilliant TV show

  • where he looked at the strange tweets

  • that celebrities have received.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • I would rather chop my arm off and [BLEEP]

  • myself with my detached limb than watch Katy Perry

  • the movie.

  • What the [BLEEP] is wrong with the world?

  • I'd pay to see that.

  • Zooey Deschanel is overrated.

  • I think I'm underrated.

  • Did you know that if you skinned Larry King

  • and ironed out his leather you could make enough coats

  • to give one it every poor child in America?

  • [BLEEP] David Spade.

  • At least this guy just gets right to it.

  • I like Kristen Stewart more when she was a boy.

  • Dear God, give us back 2Pac and we'll give you Justin Bieber.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • We've uncovered some of the nasty ways

  • that Twitter can be used.

  • But how about we ask people one what they actually think.

  • Social networking, what do I think?

  • I love it.

  • I think it's a fantastic tool.

  • However I think it's massively over-saturated.

  • It can be an incredibly useful tool, incredibly useful,

  • very powerful as well.

  • Examples from all ends of the spectrum, good things

  • and bad things.

  • You know, there are plenty of good examples

  • of why social media is useful.

  • For advertising or getting something promoted.

  • But also, you have to be very careful with social media.

  • Once it's on the internet, it's on the internet.

  • For me I use Facebook quite a lot and Twitter for the radio.

  • At least for kind of sharing things

  • I find on the internet, interesting stories, something

  • quirky, funny, something a bit light-hearted.

  • Also to tell people stuff is coming up.

  • You know, I do quite a-- not a scheduled show.

  • It's not really regimented.

  • But I like to keep things in a similar spot

  • every morning so that people would get used to it.

  • And they know what time is [INAUDIBLE], what

  • they could hear on the show.

  • So if I know I've really specifically good showbiz news

  • bit, I'll tweet a few minutes earlier,

  • showbiz news on the way.

  • You won't want to miss it.

  • And then it gives the people a chance to go, oh, yeah,

  • I could do with knowing it, because I

  • do it quite flippantly.

  • But things like I do musical quiz every day.

  • We do a track of the week, which starts

  • on a Tuesday funny enough.

  • So this morning I made the post online on the website.

  • Then I tweeted it and Facebooked so after I played it on-air.

  • On social media I'm saying, just played it.

  • If you missed it, here it is.

  • And you point people to it.

  • I think it's a fantastic tool to either bring people in or point

  • people in certain directions.

  • And if they have an interest in what you do then

  • it's fantastic.

  • Yeah, it's great.

  • It's great to talk to people as well.

  • It's a really informal way of talking without people feeling

  • like they have to do anything.

  • It couldn't disappear.

  • It will never disappear.

  • Facebook may be at the point where

  • it's starting to plateau off with memberships.

  • But it will never disappear.

  • Really think about eight years ago Facebook didn't exist.

  • Twitter didn't exist.

  • We've got over half a billion people on Facebook now.

  • 200 million on Twitter.

  • But since then you've had you've got Vine now the new one

  • that's out.

  • You've got loads of others.

  • You've got Tumblr.

  • You've got Pinterest.

  • Instagram, I mean that's just basically an app for taking

  • photos of your food, I guess.

  • But for some people it's brilliant.

  • And it works.

  • I think the world is a better place for it actually.

  • Things are more instant.

  • News, is a really good thing as well.

  • News can be spread really fast, important news, something

  • that's important to people.

  • And Twitter is a fantastic tool for that, really, really good.

  • It's just got the edge because it so instantaneous.

  • It's 140 characters.

  • It's this has happened, more news to follow.

  • And instantly, I think probably BBC news or Sky News

  • or something like that have got millions of followers,

  • hundreds of thousands of followers.

  • If 1% of them re-tweet that, that's

  • expanded from 100,000 followers to 10 million, 20 million.

  • And instantly BBC are breaking this news story.

  • Or Sky are break it, or ITV, or sometimes even a celebrity

  • is the first one to tweet it.

  • But that's it.

  • It's like wildfire.

  • It's great.

  • I think it really is.

  • But it has to be used the right way.

  • In 2008 MySpace generated in excess of $800 million.

  • They were a major employer in the social networking world,

  • employing 1,600 people.

  • But there was a storm on the horizon.

  • Our old friend Facebook was growing in popularity.

  • Why was MySpace suffering?

  • Was it the fact they were showing far too many adverts?

  • Or users were quite simply just deleting their accounts?

  • Whatever the reason on the 19th of April 2008

  • Facebook took over the social networking world.

  • Let's look at the facts.

  • As of 2011 there are five million active Facebook users.

  • That's one in every 13 people on Earth.

  • 48% of 18 to 34-year-olds check Facebook right

  • when they wake up.

  • The 35 plus demographic now represents more than 30%

  • of the entire user base.

  • Did you know there are 206.2 million internet users

  • in the US?

  • That means 71.2% of the US web audience is on Facebook.

  • 57% of people talk more online than they do in real life.

  • 48% of young Americans said they found out about news

  • through Facebook.

  • A record breaking 750 million photos

  • were uploaded to Facebook over the New Year's weekend.

  • Let's take a local what happens every 20 minutes right here

  • on Facebook.

  • One million links shared, 1,484,000 event invites,

  • 1,323,000 tagged photos, 1,851,000 status updates,

  • over 1,972,000 individual friend requests are accepted.

  • There's over 2,716,000 photos uploaded.

  • There's 2,716,000 messages sent, and over 10 million comments

  • made, along with 1,587,000 wall posts.

  • So there we go, Facebook the world's leader

  • in the social networking site.

  • Benefits some people, but effects other people

  • in so many other ways.

  • What will take over from Facebook?

  • Only time will tell.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

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