Genres of the Interwebs

The internet is an ever changing place.  Yes, I know, I know, "Gracias, Señor Obvioso."  Anyway, these changes are constantly happening to make it a more user-friendly commodity.  One of these most common genres is social networking.  Since they first started popping up around 2003-2004, social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have quickly grown to online monsters.  Why?  It's quite simple, they met the human need of social interaction.  Facebook allows us to stay social, see what our friends are doing, share information, and pretty much our entire lives without even getting out of bed or getting dressed.

Of course, to keep up, these genres must grow and change to continue meeting needs.  This spawns subgenres.  Just look at Facebook and how far it has come since 2005.  When the site started, it was meant mostly for private individuals connecting to each other.  However, it quickly became common for business and organizations to get onboard to connect with patrons.  This was initially done through groups or profiles that represented the business.  However, Facebook has now made it possible for these organizations to create "pages" that work differently than the normal profile.  They can still share all the information, photos, etc. while doing it in a more business-oriented member.  Also, the info section allows for such information as business hours, etc.

Facebook has also changed the way status work.  Initially you could only post a simple sentence that followed the phrase "Such N. Such is..."  Eventually, it was changed so that users could select their own verbiage.  Now users can post pretty much however they'd like and include photos, videos, links, and more.  They can also tag their friends so that the post will appear on their profiles as well.  This gives users more control over their statuses and allows them to share info with friends better.  Also, privacy settings can be customized on a post-by-post basis, which is great if say you want to plan a surprise party or something.  You can block the person to be surprised - or you can just have a good ol' bitch session about someone.