Between school, work, and outside activities, a teen can have a hard time finding time for fun, but it seems like no matter how tight one’s schedule is, they have time for some social networking. Between Androids, iPhones, laptops, and other technology,  Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Pintrest, and Instagram are at everyone’s fingertips.

Business Education teacher Jocelyn Ruppert has noticed and enjoys the outpouring of social media sites. “I think they’re a beneficial outlet for communication,” said Ruppert. “However, there needs to be more education on online citizenship.” Facebook is dominant in the list with features that attract everyone.

The site offers messaging, photo sharing, status updates, and ever popular game applications. Easy, free messaging is an attractive feature for busy and social students like Junior Sadie Albright. “I can talk to my friends [who live] out of state who I can’t text,” said Albright. “I find that helpful.” Messages aren’t the only notification users find when they log on. It’s hard to be online and not find a request in one’s inbox from someone on one’s friends list asking you to visit their virtual farm. If the statuses are more your thing, than blogging is the way to go. Tumblr offers a blogging environment where one can write blogs, post pictures, follow blogs they are interested in, and design their own page layout. Visitors beware; the site is addicting, fun, and often times more of a “reblogging” environment rather than a blogging one. Bloggers on the site often just “reblog” popular images onto their blog, similar to the sharing tool on Facebook. Pintrest is a similar experience. The site offers many of the same features of Tumblr where users share photos and interact with others who have common interests. Each member of the site has his or her own page that displays the photos they’ve “pinned,” making a blog  categorized by one’s interests. Twitter is the happy medium between a blogging site and a complete social site. It may be lacking games and have a character limit for the thoughts one’s sharing, but one can see and share what everyone is up to, post, and “retweet” a pic or two. There are also sites for those photography lovers out there; instagram is the twitter for pictures. The site offers apps now for android and iPhone markets and offers many filters for the photos being uploaded onto the site. One’s photos can now be shared from instagram to tumblr, Facebook, twitter, and Flickr. Boasting features included in normal social networking sites, participants can follow their friends and other users, along with liking posted pictures and leaving comments. As popular as these sites are, it is important to remember that social networking is not always an interest for some students. Plus, sometimes these sites take up too much extra time;  sophomore Sean Slattery is a student who agrees with this point. “I find that people obsess over social networks too much,” said Slattery. “It makes teens less social in person.” Students should keep that in mind when deciding which sites to visit and how much, because although many of them are fun and helpful, they should only be a side hobby or interest.