Do people ever REALLY win friends on Facebook or other social networking sites?

[lalapunk]

I've tried Yahoo! dating and other social networking sites like Facebook but so far had very unsuccessful in establishing any friends or relationships. Am I alone in this? Seriously, what will it take to REALLY win friends on these so-called "social" networking sites?

[Hamza]

The dictionary defines a social network as:
An association of people drawn together by family, work or hobby. The term was first coined by professor J. A. Barnes in the 1950s, who defined the size of a social network as a group of about 100 to 150 people. On the Web, social networking sites have millions of members.
An online social network is a group of people who connect online and who use the power of the Internet to meet new people and stay in touch with the old. It is a new-age, technologically-based spin on the social networks of old, in which like-minded people with similar interests came together to form relationships.
Online social networks can be internal or external. An internal online social network is a smaller, more private group of people who use the Internet to facilitate communication with each other. An external social network is a network that is open to anyone, so millions of users can join, to make friends with new people or to have an exciting new way to keep in contact with their old friends.
Users generally join a social network by creating a profile. The profile may include personal details, such as your name (or a "screen name" which is an online alias), photographs, your age or any other information you want to share with the world.
These networks then provide you with the opportunity to form relationships online in their community. On many networks, you do this by requesting (or accepting) requests from others who want to form a relationship. This may be called "friending" or some other related term.
Within the social networking websites, you then have the opportunity to communicate and share with your "friends." Some sites allow you to send brief updates on a regular basis (such as Twitter, where you can "tweet" to your followers). Others allow you to post pictures, write messages on "walls" or otherwise communicate with your network of "friends" through the social network.