Today, almost everyone is a member of at least one online social network, as proven by the fact that Facebook has over 500 million members , but not all social networks are thriving, in fact, many of them are dying or have died (Wauters). There are several potential causes, but among these, the most prevalent are uncontrollable exponential growth, narrowing of niche markets, and lack of innovation and renovation. Social networking sites were created as an online environment where people who share “personal or professional interests, place of origin, education at a particular school, etc. share each other. » can connect (“social networks”). The most popular examples of these web communities are MySpace and Facebook, but these are only genetic mutations of their predecessors. One of the first, if not one of the first, social networking sites was SixDegrees.com, established in 1997 and over the next five years. several others would appear, notably Friendster (Boyd and Ellison 5). Friendster's popularity skyrocketed due to media coverage, culminating in being ranked second on Time magazine's 50 Coolest Websites (Buechner). The growth that followed this media coverage was unexpected by Friendster, which meant their systems were ill-equipped to handle the volume of traffic generated. When browsing the Internet, the most frustrating experience, especially in the early 21st century, was the loading time. Frustration with load times reportedly decreased significantly between 2002 and 2005, when the average user's ability to connect at speeds of 1 Mbps or higher increased by nearly 25% (“Survey: Internet Connection Speed” ). Friendster users became aware of their inability to handle the volume of users as connection speeds increased....... middle of paper ......orks CitedWauters, Robin. “Zuckerberg makes it official: Facebook reaches 500 million members.” July 21, 2010: Web. July 21, 2011. “social networks”. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, 2011.Web. August 4, 2011. Boyd, Danah M. and Nicole B. Ellison. “Social Networking Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship…” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13.1 (2007): 0-19. Internet. July 21, 2011. http://jcmc.indiana.eduBuechner, MarryAnne Murray. “Tech Time: 50 Coolest Websites.” Time Magazine June 2004: n. page. Internet. August 4, 2011. http://time.com “Survey: Internet Connection Speed.” kdnuggets.com (2005). Polls. Internet. August 4, 2011. http://www.kdnuggets.com Boutin, Paul. “How Google+ will balkanize your social life” Technology Review: The authority on the future of technology. MIT, July 11, 2011. Web. August 25, 2011. http://www.technologyreview.com