When sophomore Jo Jones gets out of school, one of the first things she does is get on Facebook. “I like being able to stay in touch with friends, and being able to keep track of my pictures,” Jones said about Facebook.

High School students are not the only ones who use social networks. Studies show that 65 percent of adults who use the Internet regularly use a social networking site. This may be related to the new innovative features that CEO Mark Zuckerburg and the Facebook staff have continued to create. Many other high school students find themselves on Facebook throughout the day.

Facebook isn’t the only websites that students become addicted to, however. Senior Molly Litzler discovered a website called Pinterest, and has been using it ever since.

“I used to get on Pinterest a lot,” Litzler said. “but I’ve slowed down. I get on once every few days, now I do it during my free time, or when I don’t want to do homework.”

There are many websites that high school students use every day, but what makes a website so addicting? Is it the innovative features? Or the fancy looks?

“I look at the homepage, to see how nice it looks. Accessibility too, that’s always important,” sophomore Cole Bunker said.

Accessibility, looks, and the website’s popularity are all common answers. Now, with smart phones becoming more common, websites are also becoming more innovative. Most sites now have mobile apps, where users can log onto their favorite websites on the go, where ever they are. Social networks such as Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, demonstrate a good example of innovation. Twitter has a unique system of communicating, where tweeters use hash tags and other symbols to express their thoughts. Tumblr is one of many websites that focuses on using pictures, instead of text posts. Despite the increasing number of users, there are many people who think changes still need to be made. “I avoid Facebook when I can because of the drama. Sadly some of that drama is making its way to Twitter,” Jones said. While drama can’t be controlled by the website’s staff, Bunker has a few suggestions about other possible changes.

“On Facebook and MySpace, there are a lot of old men. It’s kind of creepy, and I look down on that stuff,” Bunker said.

Whether we use websites for their availability, looks, or popularity, each social networking site offers their own unique ways of connecting with friends. If a websites fails to innovate, it is usually replaced with new, sleeker sites on which to connect.

AIM

AIM stands for AOL Instant Messenger. Released in May of 1997, AIM provides users with a way to chat instantly with friends, anywhere, anytime. Sounds great, right? It was, at least in 2007, when it had close to 35 million users, more than any other instant messaging website. Since then, it has seen a dramatic loss in members. In 2009, AIM had only 17 million users, drastically less then Yahoo’s instant messenger, which peaked at nearly 40 million users at around the same time. In the last year, it isn’t only AIM that is becoming less popular. The only IM site to add users was Windows Live, which still only had 15 million. The reason is simple: ways of communicating through technology have become much easier. Text messaging has taken over, and left Instant Messaging sites in the dust. They released video chat in 2002, but that has recently become less popular due to the emergence of Skype and FaceTime.

MYSPACE

MySpace was created in 2003. It consecutively earned the title of most visited website from 2005 until 2008. From then on, it began a drastic decline in number of users, as many people migrated to newer social networks such as Facebook. Many people have ideas as to why the site became obsolete so quickly. One claim is that the website failed to innovate, while Twitter and Facebook have continued to launch new features. Another theory is their lack of child safety. In 2009, the company had to delete 29,000 accounts, all belonging to known sex offenders. In 2006, a 13-year- old girl, Megan Meier, committed suicide after she was bullied online by the mother of Meier’s friend. Because of the decline in members, MySpace, who at one point had 1,600 employees, has gone through many rounds of lay offs, and now only 200 employees work for the company. Last year, it was the 138th most visited website, coming in far behind both Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook & Twitter

Recently, these two social networking sites have run the show, leaving other websites wondering what to do. It’s unusual to find a teenager without a Facebook, and most teens log into Facebook multiple times per day. Twitter, a social networking site which emphasizes using as few words as possible, has seen a recent growth in users. Many teens have become aware of Twitter through its media publicity. Many famous actors, musicians and athletes have a Twitter, which they use to update fans on their actions and thoughts throughout the day. Despite the celebrities, Facebook has far more users than Twitter. At the beginning of this year, Facebook confirmed that it had 350 million users, and that 150 million of those users log in every day. Twitter, on the other hand, has around 100 million users, and only half of those users have more than two followers. Despite the gap in users between the two social networks, both are gaining popularity, and show no signs of slowing down.

Pinterest & Stumbleupon

Pinterest is a fairly new, vision board style website. It is basically an online bulletin board, where people can post anything that interests them. It’s goal is to connect people around the world with similar interests. Users can like, comment, and re- pin the original posts. The more “re-pins” a post has, the more likely it is to be seen. This website is mainly used by women, but shares many characteristics with StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a site where you can enter your interests, and the computer displays websites that pertain to that category. For example, if you are interested in rap music, the website will display rap songs, music videos, and information on different rap artists. You can like these posts, and they will be saved on your profile, where you can refer back to them at any time. StumbleUpon was launched in 2001, and has seen an increase in users since. Pinterest was founded more recently, in 2010. It has quickly gained popularity, and was chosen for the “Top 50 Websites of 2011,” by Time Magazine.