Over the last ten years the Internet has become an important part of the daily lives of people of all ages. The Internet is used for many purposes, such as finding information, buying and selling products, watching television programs, finding friends, and seeking entertainment, but the main use of the Internet is communication. Three-quarters of American adults have been online, an even higher percentage among teenagers (93%). Almost all Internet users say that the primary purpose of going online is communication (Correa, Hinsley, Zuniga 2010, cited in Jones and Fox 2009, Pg 247). With the introduction of social networking sites such as Facebook, My Space, Twitter and various smaller community-based social networking sites, the ability to communicate has become so easy and accessible that people are able to sit in one place and know what is happening somewhere else in the world in relation to your friend/group/community network' (Nair 2009, Pg 52). This essay will focus on how social networking sites play an integral part of everyday communication in today's society and will focus on both the positive and negative effects that social networking sites are also presenting in today's society. This essay will finally explain how it is not just younger generations that are using social networking sites to build relationships, but how older generations are taking advantage of social networking sites to form and maintain relationships with each other. Over the last decade there has been an influx of social networking sites, which have become an essential element of everyday society. Social networking sites allow you to share and create information, form personal and business relationships, find romantic relationships... in the middle of paper... or groups? A comparison between UK, Spain and Japan", Journal of Youth Studies, Vol 14, No 1, pp 91-108, Taylor & Francis Online, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 December 2011. Nair, N 2009, ""Social Networking" on the Generation Next', SCMS Journal of Indian Management, Vol 6, No 3, pp 43-52, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 15 December 2011.Pfeil, U, Zaphiris, P & Wilson S 2009, Perceptions and experiences of older people of online social support', Interacting with Computers, Vol 21, No 3, pp 159-172, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 3 January 2012.Zhong, B, Hardin, M & Sun, T 2011, 'Less Efficiency Thinking Leads to Multiple Social Networks? Associations between the use of social networking sites and personality traits", Computers in Human Behavior, Vol 27, No 3, pp 1265-1271, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 31 January 2011.