Let's face it: The only time you've ever heard the word "flux" used in a sentence was either a) to describe the economy or b) next to the word "capacitor" in Back to the Future. Which is why you'll have no idea why MTV just spent all of its TRL rent fund buying out Social Project. Social Project is the group which MTV previously partnered with to create Flux, a social media network. You know guys, a social media network like Facebook, or MySpace, or… another one of those:

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A bunch of authors of young adult books got together on the Internet and created a new social networking site, because there really aren't enough of those things floating these days (young adult writers or social networking sites, obviously).

But! Judy Blume and the woman who wrote The Princess Diaries aren't just using the Internet to promote their works or interest kids in reading. Oh no, the site, which launches September 22nd and is called YA for Obama, has a dark and sinister agenda. Care to guess what it is?

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'Social networking sites are the hottest attraction on the Internet, dethroning pornography and highlighting a major change in how people communicate, according to a web guru.' [Reuters]

Taking a cue from all those kids working for him over at MySpace, Australian immortal Rupert Murdoch imparted a new design for the Wall Street Journal online. The new site, which goes live tomorrow, includes more features for the paid memberships accounts, and restricted access for the plebes who choose not to fork over their dough.

Sure, it was always possible to read WSJ articles that were technically membership only, but now if you wanted to say, comment on any of the pieces and engage in a spirited debate with other individuals, you need the premium membership account. There is also a network function for the premies; so it will be just like MySpace, except that you will be forced to use your real name and identity, as verified against your billing address, on the site. The concept behind this pulling-back of the Internet's anonymous curtain being that the news sites where anyone is allowed to comment under a pseudonym (*ahem*) leave themselves open for baseless, personal attacks.

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'A survey by online job site CareerBuilder.com of 3,169 hiring managers found 22 percent of them screened potential staff via social networking profiles, up from 11 percent in 2006. An additional nine percent said they don't currently use social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace to screen potential employees but they do plan to start.'

Facebook, the brainbaby of weasel-faced Aaron Sorkin subject Mark Zuckerberg and waster of 500 million employer hours per annum, will be going through another mandatory face lift. Nobody is safe — it will affect everyone's account, whether they approve it or not. And no one likes it.

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Vanity Fair isn't the only brand that should be above the fluff of social networks but is instead begging to plant a footprint there. Luxury retailer Cartier, whose watches are so feverishly produced in various knockoff varieties, is joining the fray with a MySpace page. This is apparently newsworthy because upscale brands like Cartier are supposedly reluctant to give up complete control of their brand, so the Richemont brand's embracing of Web 2.0 represents some sort of sea change. Except not really.

The Cartier page on MySpace looks like any other souped-up profile: custom background, streaming music, list of friends (3,800 total, some of them celebrities). The only thing that's really different is that Cartier, like many other brands hoping to connect to MySpace's young audience, must pay a fee to the social network to have an official page. And what do they get in return? A promise from MySpace's censors that anything appearing on the page "respects the brand’s objectives," which means if you're shown performing a keg stand in your profile picture, your friend request will likely be declined — which is a telling sign that it's MySpace, and not Cartier, who's dictating what the watch and jewelry company's profile page looks like. It's the sweet smell of outsourced luxury.

Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook has officially conquered the U.S. market on vampire throwing and drunk status updating, but what about abroad? What are intoxicated German teens supposed to do? And oppressed Chinese youngsters? Actually, they have their own Facebooks. Except they aren't international spin-offs — they're unsanctioned clones. And they've got lots of cash. Chinese Facebook clone Xiaonei got $430 million in funding earlier this year, and last year Germany's StudiVZ was bought for $120 million. Zuckerberg's unit, of course, sees none of this. And he's challenging them to a game of Scrabulous. [SIA]

MySpace is said to be shopping around its public relations account to tech-focused agencies. Mainly, the social networking site would like to stop being referred to as "over." [PR Week]

The New York Times, always striving to do something to impress the geeks, is getting itself into the business of social networking. Their little toy is called TimesPeople (no space!), and it'll let you do things you're already familiar doing, such as saving articles to your TimesFiles, commenting on stories, and emailing their most ridiculous trend pieces to friends (and Jossip editors). But now you'll be able to share your favorite items with your friends. The final product is very Facebook — at least when it comes to the newsfeed you'll begin spitting out as you start recommending stories to your friends — and, thanks to the millions of user accounts it already has, will immediately become one of the Internet's largest social networks. Unlike Facebook, however, you will not be able to throw vampires or sheep at the Thursday Styles section.

When somebody attaches the name of a social networking website and the word "suicide," we think of that tragedy in Missouri where 13-year-old Megan killed herself after a being taunted on MySpace. For the irreverent magazine AdBusters, "Facebook Suicide" is something else entirely. Based on the site's maniacal policy about removing one's profile, AdBusters has spotted a trend where users, desperate to leave the site but unable to easily do so, are killing themselves.

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Manhattan Media, owner of esteemed publications including the New York Press, Avenue, and Our Town, has purchased 02138, the Harvard alumni magazine that was all the rage this time last year, from The Atlantic's parent Atlantic Media. [NYT] Not only are they boosting the number of issues from four to six (that's quarterly to bi-monthly, to those keeping score at home), but there are grand plans to launch a website and start a social network around the Ivy Leavue school.

Um, yeah. It's called Facebook.

In an effort to placate parents who watch Dateline: To Catch a Predator and privacy advocates whose No. 1 goal in life is to make the Internet safe for kids to upload photos of their puppies, Facebook is implementing new privacy safeguards for minors.

None of which can't be completely fudged, of course.

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So we've got social networking sites for tweens, professionals, college grads, Starbucks drinkers, and dog lovers. Why not the dead?

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Are you a JetBlue crew member who just joined the airline's brand new internal social network? We'd like to hear from you!

What are crew members posting on each others walls? Do they care that passengers will lose out on free headsets beginning in June? That rising fuel prices are forcing the airline to cut flights? Is the biscotti or the Terra Blue chips the workforce favorite? Oh — and do you frickin' hate having to say "Happy Jetting"?