Three (Other) Communities for Teens

by Nick Danforth • 10/03/2007 at 09:40 PM

With internet communications rapidly overtaking much of our social lives, the number of websites designed specifically for this purpose has increased by hundreds, if not thousands. While many sites are quite generic in purpose, many cater specifically to a certain “cult”, intentionally or not. For student Mac-users, and other Apple fans alike, there are a few excellent social networking sites available.

MacRumors Forums
Though there are multiple Apple message boards on the web, none stick out more prominently than the MacRumors Forums. With a user-base of thousands, and knowledge to match, the Mac Forums (as they are commonly known) are the perfect way to easily get plugged in to an Apple community.

The Mac Forums feature individual message boards for each Apple computer, as well as forums for general advice and help, external peripherals, a marketplace, general discussion, and of course: Apple news and rumors.

Though there are thousands of regular posters, the Mac Forums still have a small community feel, and it’s very easy to connect with other Mac users.  The bottom line is this: If you’re an Apple user and are looking for a great forum, then the Mac Forums should be the top on your list.

Twitter
Another excellent way to connect with your online tech friends is the acclaimed networking service, Twitter. Often hailed as the “instant messenger replacement”, Twitter offers an easy way to keep in contact with people throughout the day, which can easily eliminate unnecessary IM chats.

Networking with Twitter is as simple as it can get. Just simply answer the question, “what are you doing?” whenever you are inclined. Your status update will be sent out to all of your contacts. It’s an easy way to indirectly communicate with your online friends, killing off the dreaded IM question, “wats up??”.

Twitter can also be used on the Mac with the third party desktop application, Twitterific, created by the IconFactory, which makes “tweeting” more accessible, and therefore tempting you to update more frequently. Twitterific features a simple yet sleek user interface, and is free to download.

If you don’t want to wait for a forum response to a question, or fear into a deluge of messages on iChat, then check out Twitterific. It definitely lives up to all the claims.

Facebook
Last, but most certainly not least, is Facebook, a remarkable replacement for the oh-so spam-ridden MySpace. Many people enjoy creating a personal page on the internet for friends and colleagues to look at and comment on. MySpace successfully accomplishes this, but with many banner ads along the way.

Facebook has a much cleaner interface than MySpace, and basically performs an identical task: the ability to create and customize a personal page on the web. Adding features to your Facebook page is much simpler than a MySpace page. Simply add one of the thousands of Facebook applications, and drag it to the desired spot on your page. More Mac-like than MySpace? Definitely.

Facebook is also generally populated by more of your online friends than MySpace, making it another great way to communicate back and forth with your internet buddies. Though it does not feature a user base as large as MySpace, thousands of people use Facebook on a daily basis, making it no small competitor.

All in all, Facebook is a worthy replacement of MySpace, featuring a fairly large user-base, ease of use, and a cleaner interface to boot.

Conclusion
Though there are hundreds of excellent social networking sites on the web, these offer great features for Mac users, and tech fans in general. Each serves a slightly different purpose, but they all make it easier to network with an online community.