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It’s always wise to exercise caution when sharing personal details online, but, at their best, networks give new expression to a deep-seated urge: the need to reach out to other people. For adults, this means indulging a passion for culture, furthering a business interest or finding like-minded souls on any level.

Netmums, the award-winning support network for mothers, sees 10,000 members join up each month because it plugs a vitally important gap in an increasingly fragmented world. Research commissioned by the site revealed that three out of five new mothers do not have their extended family around them; nearly two out of three don’t have close friends to lean on; and more than half feel they suffer some form of postnatal depression.

Siobhan Freegard, the founder of Netmums, says: “So many of our users are digital immigrants: we only call it social networking because the media have been calling it that. Social networking is about making friends, isn’t it?”

Additional reporting by Katrina Manson()

Four grown-up stars of social-networking sites who indulge their passions online

GOLFING GURU
Brian Keating, 42, a technology consultant living in Helensburgh, Scotland, loves GolfBuzz, an American-based network for golfers

“I was on my way to Florida and looking for information on a particular course,” Keating says. “All the golf courses tell you they’re great, but what you want is people who have played them to give you their view. That’s the real power of the idea.”

Members post reviews and playing tips, and can even team up to provide playing partners at clubhouses across the world.

Keating is the first UK member to post course reviews of Machrihanish, on the Kintyre peninsula, and of the Machrie, on Islay.

“I don’t really want MySpace, where it’s about my whole life,” he says. “This is a part of my life:

I want information from people who play golf.

You’re putting practitioners in touch with each other. The more networks that can align interests, the better.”

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