In the modern era most us of access the Internet, using it to enhance our knowledge and broaden our horizons about the world and many of its objects. A recent popular usage of the Internet in the past two three years is to connect with other people. The birth of the social networking sites have gained mass popularity and are used by a many, many of us to connect with our families and friends, and to find or meet new people virtually.

Social networking has surpassed the need for meeting physically for communicating things or for keeping in touch. Since it is free, it enjoys mass popularity and is gaining thousands of new users daily across the world! All of this popularity has revolutionized the way we communicate and has truly made the world a global village where no person close to you is not far enough to not to be reached online.

Recent studies have shown that social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut and Myspace have helped children learn some very important skills, which will help them throughout life. Researchers found that low-income students are in many ways just as technologically proficient as their counterparts, going against what results from previous studies have suggested.

This shows that the internet is helping in breaking the socio-economic barriers which prevent two people from two different socio-economic backgrounds from intermixing. On these networking websites, no one is rich or poor and everyone is equal.

Studies have also revealed that nearly all of today's children access the internet, and a large majority of them have accounts on social networking websites. This has a huge impact on the skills that the children learn, as it helps in removing shyness slowly, the children become technologically empowered, and they get to showcase their creativity on a global platform without much effort. Young users of such social networking sites also learn to communicate and learn to become open to diverse views, thereby enhancing their life skills.

These skills are essential not only for survival in the 21st century but are extremely vital in jobs within an organization, which is where all these skills count. Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout. They're also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology.

The social networking Web sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Squidoo, and MyBlogLog offer tremendous educational potential. Thus sites such as those mentioned above have a great reserve of educational benefits especially as our friend on these sites.