Social Networking and Real Life

Since we first broadcast this segment in October, Time magazine has the founder of Facebook its "Person of the Year." Mark Zuckerberg's "friends" now number a half billion, the major example to date of social networking on the Internet. The film The Social Network has won big audiences and a lot of awards. Does social networking enhance and encourage the same kinds of human connections we find in real life, or does it do something else? Is it changing the way people think about themselves and their relations with others? What does it mean for the news media and commercial marketing? Does Internet anonymity require new protections for casual users who don't know the power of social networking?