Social networking has evolved from early platforms like AOL in the 1990s to modern giants like Facebook. It began by focusing on communication and connecting with known contacts, but has since expanded to include sharing photos, videos and other content. Early social networks appealed mainly to specific demographics but became more universal as platforms opened up. Issues around privacy and third party access to personal information are growing concerns. The future of social networking involves portability of social graphs between platforms, focusing networks around true relationships rather than all being combined, and integration into other websites and applications.