Social Networking Site Suggestions For The Older Crowd?

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Here is an overview of social networking sites. I am currently in college, but I feel this is reasonably objective.

Myspace - oriented toward a younger demographic (high school or college). Possibly a little harder to get in touch with people as there is no particular network system - e.g., you're not in a set for your state or your alma mater, even if you list that information.

Facebook - To second Billfred, this social networking website has become a pretty widespread tool for many demographics. I'm honored to be friends with a few mentors on there, and it is an excellent way to keep in touch with people. They're trying to do a workaround with applications right now, so hopefully that will happen soon. However, there can be a lot of annoying stuff to wade through (e.g., games / zombies / random other apps).
One important thing if you choose this one - set your privacy options high. Facebook can and will give your info to third parties, and there are a few settings you have to go through to ensure that doesn't happen (unless you're OK with it in which case less worry).

LinkedIn - I'm kind of new to LinkedIn, but I would say this is probably the best of the three for the professional crowd. More and more people create profiles every day, and the layout is very simple and devoid of random apps. This is very much a professional network and useful to access if you don't really want that much fluff (e.g., interests, hobbies).

I have profiles both for LinkedIn and Facebook and the combination of those seems to work fairly well. Happy socializing!