It seems like we're being bombarded with social networking these days.  From MySpace and Facebook to social-networking-ish features on non-networking websites, the Web 2.0 communication and connection craze is affecting all sorts of online businesses.  If you've wondered who's driving this craze, it should come as no surprise that a study reported on by ClickZ says that over half of all the teenagers in the United States use social networking websites on a daily basis.

According to the study, 55% of U.S. teens have created profiles on any number of social networking sites.  They use sites like MySpace and Facebook to manage their "social lives".  48% said that social networking as a normal part of their daily lives.  Teenagers look at their online profiles as extensions of themselves and there's a growing pressure on teens to continually update and add to their profiles.  Facebook, which offers a more private environment, is particularly popular among the privacy-concerned teens, although MySpace has more overall members.

Personally, I just don't get it.  Maybe I'm a decade too old to understand.  But I don't get the draw to sites like these.  Is it really to help people manage their social lives?  Because something is certainly amiss in society if teenagers have such complex social lives that they need external tools and services to manage them.

Did you need tools to manage your social life when you were a teenager?