Are you on Facebook? If the answer is yes, how many friends do you have? How much time a day do you spend corresponding with your friends on Facebook?

Do you post statements, opinions, video clips or other items on You Tube?

Do you post tweets on Twitter? On what subjects? How often?

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If you answered “No” to the three questions, you are a member of a shrinking minority of Americans -– this writer included – who have not been lured into joining at least one of the social networking websites that have exploded over the past six years. Every week or so, I receive on my e-mail a request from someone who wants to be my friend on Facebook. Usually, these folks already have 200 or more friends according to the invitation. The numbers stagger me when I think of possible e-mails arriving from all those friends. I fall back upon Groucho Marx with his classic remark, “I would never belong to a group that would have me as a member.”

Lest you think I underestimate the seriousness of these networks, I should state that I am somewhat in awe of these 21st century success stories. They are monuments to individual creativity, technology and speed-of-light growth in the world of communication. Facebook was started on February 4, 2004 at Harvard by a former student, Mark Zuckerberg. His initial purpose was to allow Harvard students a chance to reach their friends and exchange information. Within two months, Facebook expanded to other Boston colleges as well as NYU, Stanford and all Ivy League schools. Over the next year, growth spread to many other universities until admittance was extended to people with university e-mail from across the globe. By July, 2007, Facebook had over 47million active members worldwide.

The site is free to users and gains financing from advertising including banner ads and sponsored groups. Users create profiles that often include photos and lists of personal interests as they exchange messages and join groups of friends. Chris Hughes, spokesman for Facebook, says, “People spend an average of l9 minutes a day on Facebook.” There has been a shift upward in the age of active members, with those 25 years and older making up about 40 percent of participants. Facebook remains a private company, headed by the founder, Mark Zuckerberg. By July, 2010, 500 million users were enrolled.

You Tube was created on February 15, 2005 by three former PayPal employees: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. Hurley had studied design as a university student, while Chen and Karim had majored in computer science. You Tube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and exchange video clips, movies, TV and music -plus amateur content. By November, 2005, they had gained venture capital backing of $3.5 million which spiraled to $11 million within months. By July of 2006, 100 million video clips were seen daily by people across the country. Nielsen reported 56 percent of viewers were male and 44 percent female. An interesting statistic is that of all You Tube viewers, the 12- to 17- year-old age group is dominant. You Tube was bought by Google on October 9, 2006 for $1.65 billion as an all stock transaction.

When did Twitter arrive on the cyberspace scene? In 2006, Jack Dorsey introduced the idea of an individual using a Short Message Service (SMS) to communicate with a small group during a “daylong brainstorming session” held by the board members of the pod casting company Odeo. Dorsey said, “We came across the word ‘twitter’ and it was just perfect. The definition was ‘a short burst of inconsequential information’ and ‘chirps from birds.’ And that’s exactly what the product was.”

Twitter is now a social networking and micro-blogging service with headquarters in San Bruno, California. Twitter Inc. enables its users to send and read messages called tweets, textbased posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page. Their slogan, “What are you doing right now?” emphasizes the news that is happening at the moment. Tweets are available in English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French and Italian to over 190 million users worldwide. In the first quarter of 2010, 4 billion tweets were posted.

What is one to make of this deluge of opinion, information and exchanges available on the different means of cyberspace communication? Critics have been sharp in their appraisal of the content and quality of tweets and blogs that appear on websites of political figures. There is no validation of statements or claims that are posted. Tweets and blogs are raw, untested comments. If one knows the source, that is a first step at evaluating the message. Skeptics need to be on guard.

Facebook, You Tube and Twitter play different functions in the social networking world. They attract millions of users for different purposes each day. And they raise certain concerns. Are people substituting cyberspace for in- person social interaction? Do we spend less time talking to friends and family because we are engrossed in our conversations on our new networks? Do we accept information from Twitter without checking the source? These are questions that accompany the sky-is-the-limit expanse of social life on the web.

I am reminded of one of my favorite comments about progress in the 20th century. “Most of it plugs into the wall.” Will that also be said of the 2lst century when they weigh how people solved the important problems worldwide by spending more and more time in cyberspace?

Joyce S. Anderson is the author of “Courage in High Heels,” “Flaw in the Tapestry,” “If Winter Comes” and “The Mermaids Singing.” She can be reached at JSAWrite@aol.com.