SOCIAL NETWORKS, What are they really?

Ever thought that by being part of a social network you become a member of a new community. Social networks falls under the virtual communities which come about through their formation by people who love technology. In these communities there is no physical presence which means no body language and thus less things are answered unlike in cases where there is face to face communication. As Dougals Mann says people in the virtual communities are made to become more self centred, keep to themselves and even become more lazier. People tend to avoid meeting other people by simple keeping in touch with them through e mails but can these really be the same with our real communities? In our community we have ethical conciderations to make when doing somethng but on social networks this does not exist, the fact that one can be anonymous helps the users to go out of bounce and say what ever they feel like saying even when it is not the right thing to say. This might seem as a bad community but some people say these communities help them be themselves, they feel at ease communicating with someone miles away than they would if they were to communicate with someone nearby. where other people feel out of place is home for others and so are these vitrual communities.http://hi5.com/