Where virtually everyone meets

In recent years, social networking websites such as Facebook have definitively come in from the virtual fringes to join the mainstream. But their popularity has its danger, writes Brian O'Connell

DUBLIN ACTOR Will O’Connell held out as long as he could. For weeks his e-mail inbox was bombarded with invites from colleagues and intimates asking him to be their virtual friend. He had flirted with internet social networking before, when he was in regular employment and many of his co-workers were joining in the online craze. Having given in on that occasion to the world of Bebo, he was determined to remain resolute when it came to other sites.

But the ubiquitous nature of Facebook forced his hand and O’Connell eventually bit the bullet and set up a profile for himself 18 months ago.

“I kept getting e-mails to join, so I said ‘what the heck’ and set up a page,” he says. “Before I knew it, my first kiss (when I was seven years old) got in touch through Facebook. She was from Greece. I got into a lot of trouble from mum and dad for that kiss! So I got a mail asking ‘do you remember me?’ I said ‘I do, and what the hell are you getting in touch for?’ That was the start of it. I now have 400 online friends and would love to stop using it, but I find it incredibly handy.”

O’Connell is not alone. An estimated 400,000 Irish users have signed up to Facebook, a doubling of numbers since this time last year. In a short space of time, social networking sites have become a pervasive aspect of our online experience and an increasingly accepted part of our social and professional lives.

Profiles on sites such as Bebo and Facebook, or the more business-orientated LinkedIn (which boasts 30 million members worldwide), provide virtual first impressions where prospective friends, employers, or even lovers, can form opinions based on our digital footprint. It’s a case of “you show me your profile and I’ll show you mine” then, as the screen outdoes power lunches and fumbling first dates.

BUT IT’S NOT all plain browsing. In recent months several groups using social networking sites have courted controversy, including one that instigated a “Kick a Ginger Day”, encouraging thousands of users to attack red-haired people. There has also been a worrying increase in pro-anorexia groups, whose members share their “thinspiration”. Facebook itself drew controversy when it removed pictures of breastfeeding mothers posted by members, saying that images of exposed breasts violated the site’s terms and conditions. In response, a group called “Hey Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene” was set up and currently has more than 150,000 members.

Will O’Connell has also taken note of some other groupings: “I noticed one called ‘If one million people join, my girlfriend will let me turn our house into a pirate ship’, which I thought was very inventive.

“I also spotted one called ‘Open a HM store in Israel’, which has 11,830 plus members. Important issue, that. I had been a member of ‘On May 15 everyone must go out and panic-buy carrots’. That group actually made it to Sky News.”

HOWEVER TRIVIAL, there is little doubt that online social networking has come in from the virtual fringes. So how do these sites manage to retain their popularity and turn a buck?

Eileen Sweeney is a young entrepreneur based in Galway, who runs a dinner party service for single people with an active online presence called Dine to Meet. She says online social networking has quickly become a vital part of her business model, and she now finds herself accessing sites on a daily basis.

“Our business is based on the idea of people meeting each other in a social setting, such as a restaurant, and is in many ways the opposite of online networking,” she says. “But we are very entrenched in the virtual world – it’s the main way we contact prospective clients and where we do most of our advertising. From an entrepreneurial point of view and as a person working from home, I use social networks such as irishbusinesswomen.com as points of reference and advice.”

But a word of caution. Social networking sites are not without their dangers, especially when it comes to time management.

“Something like Facebook can become a self-employed person’s Achilles heel,” says Sweeney. “I have a self-imposed Facebook ban from nine to five which I try to stick to, but it never works.”

So rapid and complete has been the triumph of virtual social networking that Enterprise Ireland, the Government-backed organisation, admits to funding several companies involved in such sites in the past year. Pat Byrne, a department manager at Enterprise Ireland, says the agency “funds five or six companies involved in social networking, while several multiples of that number would have applied for funding. Social networking first came on the radar in 2006, before really gathering pace in 2007 and 2008.”

EMPLOYERS, HOWEVER, have raised objections to the amount of time lost by employees browsing their online profiles, contributing to group discussions, e-mailing friends, updating status bars or posting personal pictures.

Online profiles can also be used to assess prospective employees, and those with Facebook or Bebo profiles may be judged on the basis of their online associations and activities.

Avine McNally, assistant director of the Small Firms Association, estimates that if employees misuse social networking sites for 10 minutes each day, “then the cost to Irish business is over €575 million a year, in pure productivity terms”.

The use of social networking sites is increasing in the workplace, according to McNally, and will continue to do so as the sites become even more popular.

“Irish employers need to wake up to the scope, extent and impact which internet abuse can have on their businesses,” she says.

Online social networking is not without its quirks and curiosities. The groups in existence range from focused business networks to bizarre casual collectives. For example, last week, through a dormant MySpace account, this reporter became a member of several collectives, including “Tea! Beautiful Tea”, “I flip my pillow over to get to the cold side”, “Guys and girls that love vampires and pirates” and “When I was your age, Pluto was a planet”.

All have a slightly different vibe from the Scouts, although I don’t anticipate organising sleepovers with my new virtual friends any time soon.

Facebook


Founded by Mark Zuckerberg while he was a student at Harvard University, the website currently has more than 150 million users worldwide. The site is free to users and generates income through advertising. It allows members to join groups or societies, post pictures, update their whereabouts and chat with friends. In October 2008, Facebook announced that it would set up its international headquarters in Dublin. It has been reported that the number of Irish users has jumped from 200,000 in January 2008 to 400,980 in January 2009.

MySpace

According to Wikipedia, MySpace is a "social networking website with an interactive, user-submitted network of friends". It also offers personal profiles, blogs, groups, photographs, music and videos. In July 2005, it was bought for $580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Musicians have used the site as a relatively inexpensive way to launch or further their careers by posting new material and videos and maintaining the equivalent of online diaries. It currently has more than 120 million users worldwide, but although there is no specific information available for Ireland, it lags behind other social networking sites, failing to get into the top 10 most visited sites in recent studies.

Bebo

Founded in 2005 by husband-and-wife team Michael and Xochi Birch, this website was bought by AOL last year for $850 million. It's a popular social networking portal, especially among a younger generation, who can design their own profile site, leave messages for one another and upload videos, which can all also be accessed by mobile phone. In 2007, Bebo announced that it had one million users in Ireland, making it the most popular social networking site. Recent studies also show that, on average, users spend 30 minutes a day on the site.