Social Networking

Complete list of Social Networks
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

Connecting With Your Child

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. It's a place where people put their real lives online, providing factual information about themselves and having trusted interactions with their friends. If your child is an avid Facebook user, join this community (and befriend him/her) to get frequent updates.
www.facebook.com

Twitter
Originally, Twitter was a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? If your child uses Twitter, you can subscribe and follow his/her "tweets" to stay connected in real-time. (Be aware that sometimes you may get "too much information" about what your child is doing for your own comfort!) Alternatively, you can begin "tweeting" to keep your child (and others) posted on what you're up to.
twitter.com

Twitter in plain English
Irreverant but accurate simplified explanation of Twitter
Twitter in Plain English

To help build your twitter network:
The Ultimate Guide for Everything Twitter

Connecting With Others

Squidoo is a popular publishing platform and community that makes it easy for you to create "lenses" online. Lenses are pages, kind of like flyers or signposts or overview articles, which gather everything you know about a topic of interest--and snap it all into focus. Check out the Squidoo lenses on the topic Empty Nest to keep abreast of what others are talking about.

Empty Nest Lenses on Squidoo

Ning.com
Build your own community with Ning, which lets you discover and create new social networks
www.ning.com
mashable.com/2009/04/16/one-million-ning-networks

Blogging
Are you interested in sharing your thoughts and new adventures with the world? If so, consider starting a blog. What is a blog? A blog is a web log or a public forum to share your thoughts. If you want to keep your thoughts to a more controlled group, consider using Facebook instead.

Blogs in plain English video - another great oversimplified explanation of blogging

How to set up a blog