Second Life and it's Benefits

Many know the online game Second Life to be a fun, virtual world in which one can do almost anything with their personal avatar. However, many do not know this game could provide much more than just entertainment. An organization called ARCI uses Second Life to help abused children in Portugal socialize with other kids. Second Life is also used in Business Schools. Professor Kevin Warbach's students at the Wharton School, use Second Life to start virtual businesses and see how successful they become. Second Life, in comparison to other Massively Multiplayer Online Games, is more flexibile and that is what makes it more popular for professional use.

Obama's use of social networking tools

President Obama surprised many when he was elected to the white house last November. A big reason for his overwhelming victory over both Senator Hillary Clinton and John McCain was because his campaign realized the importance of social networking tools and they utilized them much more effectively than there opponents. President Obama had a personal social networking website called MyBO which he used to raise money for the campaign. Through MyBO, the campaign had raised over $200 million from online donors before the month of August in 2008. The website was also used for for multimedia purposes; anyone could easily watch any of Obama's speeches on the site. The campaign also realized that when they left messages from Obama onto the site, the millions of supporters would spread those messages further throughout the web. MyBO was not the only social networking site used by the campaign, they also posted messages on MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter to gather even more supporters. Many believe that the effective use of these social networking tools by Obama's campaign , and the opposite by his opponents was the big reason for his historical victory.

Dangers of Social Networking

Many adolescents are not aware of the responsibilities that come with using social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook. These sites have no authority that can regulate how teenagers utilize them. Some refer to them as "private worlds" because parents cannot access their child's account, so they have no idea what they are texting, what kinds of pictures they're uploading, and who they're meeting up with. Irresponsible teenagers are not careful with what they post and do not realize that disturbing photographs can seriously hurt them in the future. Another scary fact is that this dangerous environment is filled with child predators and horrible things can happen if parents are not aware of who their children are communicating with online.