Social Networking is one of the biggest crazes on the internet. People are using social network web sites such as Facebook or Myspace to reconnect with old friends from elementary school, colleagues from work, and even their favorite celebrities and musicians. But the internet has been widespread for a long time and web sites built for the purpose of profile sharing is nothing new. So why have social networks taken off so much in the last few years? When MySpace was a new website and social networking was in its’ infancy, it was normal for youngsters to add all the people in their social circles as friends on the site. Currently Facebook is so huge, it is very common to find people with networks spanning from their friends at school, to their teachers, parents, friends of the family and even their college professors. There is a clear distinction between the way we look at and use social networking now and how we did in its’ early stages. So what are the factors that have made social networks so huge and why do people use online social networks?