SOCIAL NETW0RKING IN THE WEB THE 21ST CENTURY COMMUNICATES TODAY I. INTRODUCTION Social networking in the web, it is the first century communicate today. Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like a small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in the workplace, universities, and high schools, it is most popular online.
This is because unlike most high schools, colleges or workplaces, the internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other people, to gather and share first-hand information and experiences, developing friendship or professional alliances, finding employment, business-to-business marketing and even group sharing information. The topics and interest are as varied and rich as the story of our world. In other words you meet people with different races and cultures. When it comes to online social networking websites function like an online community of internet users.
Once we are granted access to a social networking websites we can begin to socialize. This socialization may include reading the profile pages of the other members and possibly even contacting them. The friends that we can make are just one of the many benefits to social networking online. Another one of those benefits includes diversity because the internet gives individuals from all around the world access to social networking sites. This means that although we are in United States we could develop an online friendship with someone in Denmark or India.
As mentioned, social networking often involves specific individuals or organizations together. While there are a number of social networking websites that focuses on particular interest, there are other that do not. The websites without a main focus are often referred to as “traditional” social networking websites usually have one membership. II. SOCIAL NETWORK SERVICES A social network services focuses on building and reflecting of social network or relations among people, e. g. , there share interest and/or activities.
A social network services essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the internet, such as email and instant messaging. Although online community services are sometimes considered as a social network services in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events and interest within their individual networks.
The potential for computer networking to facilitate new forms of computer-mediated social interaction was suggested early on. Efforts to support social networks via computer-mediated communication were made in many early online services, including Usenet, ARPANET, LISTSERV, and bulletin board services (BBS). Many prototypical features of social networking sites were also present in online services such as America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe. Early social networking on the World Wide Web began in the form of generalized online communities such as Theglobe. com (1994), Geocities (1994) and Tripod. om (1995). Many of these early communities focused on bringing people together to interact with each other through chat rooms, and encouraged users to share personal information and ideas via personal webpages by providing easy-to-use publishing tools and free or inexpensive webspace. Some communities – such as Classmates. com – took a different approach by simply having people link to each other via email addresses. In the late 1990s, user profiles became a central feature of social networking sites, allowing users to compile lists of “friends” and search for other users with similar interests.
New social networking methods were developed by the end of the 1990’s, and many sites began to develop more advanced features for users to find and manage friends. This newer generation of social networking sites began to flourish with the emergence of Friendster in 2002, and soon became part of the Internet mainstream. Friendster was followed by MySpace and LinkedIn a year later, and finally, Bebo. Attesting to the rapid increase in social networking sites’ popularity, by 2005, MySpace was reportedly getting more page views than Google. Facebook, launched in 2004, has since become the largest social networking site in the world.
Today, it is estimated that there are now over 200 active sites using a wide variety of social networking models. III. SOCIAL NETWORK HOSTING SERVICE A social network hosting service is a web hosting service that specifically hosts the user creation of web-based social networking services, alongside related applications. Such services are also known as vertical social networks due to the creation of SNSes which cater to specific user interests and niches; like larger, interest-agnostic SNSes, such niche networking services may also possess the ability to create increasingly-niche groups of users.
IV. EMERGING TRENDS IN SOCIAL NETWORKING As the increase in popularity of social networking is on a constant rise, new uses for the technology are constantly being observed. At the forefront of emerging trends in social networking sites is the concept of “real time” and “location based. ” Real time allows users to contribute content, which is then broadcasted as it is being uploaded – the concept is similar to live television broadcasts. Twitter set the trend for “real time” services, where users can broadcast to the world what they are doing, or what is on their minds within a 140 character limit.
Facebook followed suit with their “Live Feed” where users’ activities are streamed as soon as it happens. While Twitter focuses on words, Clixtr, another real time service, focuses on group photo sharing where users can update their photo streams with photos while at an event. Friends and nearby users can contribute their own photos and comments to that event stream, thus contributing to the “real time” aspect of broadcasting photos and comments as it is being uploaded. In the location based social networking space, Foursquare gained popularity as it allowed for users to “check-in” to places that they are frequenting at that moment.
Gowalla is another such service which functions in much the same way that Foursquare does, leveraging the GPS in phones to create a location based user experience. Clixtr, though in the real time space, is also a location based social networking site since events created by users are automatically geotagged, and users can view events occurring nearby through the Clixtr iPhone app. Recently, Yelp announced its entrance into the location based social networking space through check-ins with their mobile app; whether or not this becomes detrimental to Foursquare or Gowalla is yet to be seen as it is still considered a new space in the internet echnology industry. One popular use for this new technology is social networking between businesses. Companies have found that social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great ways to build their brand image. According to Jody Nimetz, of Marketing Jive published in the United States by Oxford University, there are five major uses for businesses and social media: to create brand awareness, as an online reputation management tool, for recruiting, to learn about new technologies and competitors, and as a lead gen tool to intercept potential prospects.
These companies are able to drive traffic to their own online sites while encouraging their consumers and clients to have discussions on how to improve or change products or services. One other use that is being discussed is the use of Social Networks in the Science communities. Julia Porter Liebeskind et al. of New Biotechnology Firms have published a study using social networking sites to share exchanges in scientific knowledge.
They state in their study that by sharing information and knowledge with one another, they are able to “increase both their learning and their flexibility in ways that would not be possible within a self-contained hierarchical organization. ” Social networking is allowing scientific groups to expand their knowledge base and share ideas, and without these new means of communicating their theories might become “isolated and irrelevant”. Social networks are also being used by teachers and students as a communication tool.
Because many students are already using a wide-range of social networking sites, teachers have begun to familiarize themselves with this trend and are now using it to their advantage. Teachers and professors are doing everything from creating chat-room forums and groups to extend classroom discussion to posting assignments, tests and quizzes, to assisting with homework outside of the classroom setting. Social networks are also being used to foster teacher-parent communication. These sites make it possible and more convenient for parents to ask questions and voice concerns without having to meet face-to-face.
Social networks are being used by activists as a means of low-cost grassroots organizing. Extensive use of an array of social networking sites enabled organizers of the 2009 National Equality March to mobilize an estimated 200,000 participants to march on Washington with a cost savings of up to 85% per participant over previous methods. The use of online social networks by libraries is also an increasingly prevalent and growing tool that is being used to communicate with more potential library users, as well as extending the services provided by individual libraries.
A final rise in social network use is being driven by college students using the services to network with professionals for internship and job opportunities. Many studies have been done on the effectiveness of networking online in a college setting, and one notable one is by Phipps Arabie and Yoram Wind published in Advances in Social Network Analysis. V. SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS Social network analysis has been used in epidemiology to help understand how patterns of human contact aid or inhibit the spread of diseases such as HIV in a population.
The evolution of social networks can sometimes be modeled by the use of agent based models, providing insight into the interplay between communication rules, rumor spreading and social structure. SNA may also be an effective tool for mass surveillance — for example the Total Information Awareness program was doing in-depth research on strategies to analyze social networks to determine whether or not U. S. citizens were political threats. Diffusion of innovations theory explores social networks and their role in influencing the spread of new ideas and practices.
Change agents and opinion leaders often play major roles in spurring the adoption of innovations, although factors inherent to the innovations also play a role. Robin Dunbar has suggested that the typical size of an egocentric network is constrained to about 150 members due to possible limits in the capacity of the human communication channel. The rule arises from cross-cultural studies in sociology and especially anthropology of the maximum size of a village (in modern parlance most reasonably understood as an ecovillage).
It is theorized in evolutionary psychology that the number may be some kind of limit of average human ability to recognize members and track emotional facts about all members of a group. However, it may be due to economics and the need to track “free riders”, as it may be easier in larger groups to take advantage of the benefits of living in a community without contributing to those benefits. Mark Granovetter of Drupal:Creating Blogs, Portals and Community Websites published by Packt Publishing Ltd. t 32 Lincoln Road Olton Birmingham, found in one study that more numerous weak ties can be important in seeking information and innovation. Cliques have a tendency to have more homogeneous opinions as well as share many common traits. This homophilic tendency was the reason for the members of the cliques to be attracted together in the first place. However, being similar, each member of the clique would also know more or less what the other members knew. To find new information or insights, members of the clique will have to look beyond the clique to its other friends and acquaintances.
This is what Granovetter called “the strength of weak ties”. Guanxi is a central concept in Chinese society (and other East Asian cultures) that can be summarized as the use of personal influence. Guanxi can be studied from a social network approach. The small world phenomenon is the hypothesis that the chain of social acquaintances required to connect one arbitrary person to another arbitrary person anywhere in the world is generally short. The concept gave rise to the famous phrase six degrees of separation after a 1967 small world experiment by psychologist Stanley Milgram.
In Milgram’s experiment, a sample of US individuals were asked to reach a particular target person by passing a message along a chain of acquaintances. The average length of successful chains turned out to be about five intermediaries or six separation steps (the majority of chains in that study actually failed to complete). The methods (and ethics as well) of Milgram’s experiment was later questioned by an American scholar, and some further research to replicate Milgram’s findings had found that the degrees of connection needed could be higher.
Academic researchers continue to explore this phenomenon as Internet-based communication technology has supplemented the phone and postal systems available during the times of Milgram. A recent electronic small world experiment at Columbia University found that about five to seven degrees of separation are sufficient for connecting any two people through e-mail. Collaboration graphs can be used to illustrate good and bad relationships between humans. A positive edge between two nodes denotes a positive relationship (friendship, alliance, dating) and a negative edge between two nodes denotes a negative relationship (hatred, anger).
Signed social network graphs can be used to predict the future evolution of the graph. In signed social networks, there is the concept of “balanced” and “unbalanced” cycles. A balanced cycle is defined as a cycle where the product of all the signs are positive. Balanced graphs represent a group of people who are unlikely to change their opinions of the other people in the group. Unbalanced graphs represent a group of people who are very likely to change their opinions of the people in their group.
For example, a group of 3 people (A, B, and C) where A and B have a positive relationship, B and C have a positive relationship, but C and A have a negative relationship is an unbalanced cycle. This group is very likely to morph into a balanced cycle, such as one where B only has a good relationship with A, and both A and B have a negative relationship with C. By using the concept of balances and unbalanced cycles, the evolution of signed social network graphs can be predicted. One study has found that happiness tends to be correlated in social networks.
When a person is happy, nearby friends have a 25 percent higher chance of being happy themselves. Furthermore, people at the center of a social network tend to become happier in the future than those at the periphery. Clusters of happy and unhappy people were discerned within the studied networks, with a reach of three degrees of separation: a person’s happiness was associated with the level of happiness of their friends’ friends’ friends. Some researchers have suggested that human social networks may have a genetic basis.
Using a sample of twins from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, they found that in-degree (the number of times a person is named as a friend), transitivity (the probability that two friends are friends with one another), and betweenness centrality (the number of paths in the network that pass through a given person) are all significantly heritable. Existing models of network formation cannot account for this intrinsic node variation, so the researchers propose an alternative “Attract and Introduce” model that can explain heritability and many other features of human social networks. . PRIVACY The main types of social networking services are those which contain category places (such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages) and a recommend system linked to trust. Popular methods now combined many of these, with FACEBOOK,BEBO and TWITTER widely used worldwide; MYSPACE and LINKEDIN being the most widely used in North America. On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns about users giving out too much personal nformation and the threat of sexual predators. Users of these services also need to be aware of data theft or viruses. However, large services such as MYSPACE and NETLOG, often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents. In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personal information in the hands of large corporations or government bodies, allowing a profile to be produced on an individual’s behavior on which decisions, detrimental to an individual, may be taken.
Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of data-information that was altered or removed by the user may in fact be retained and/or passed to third parties. This danger was highlighted when the controversial social networking site. Quechup harvested e-mail addresses from user’s emails accounts for use in a spamming operation. In medical and scientific research, asking subjects for information about their behaviors is normally strictly scrutinized by the institutional review boards, for example, to ensure that adolescents and their parents have informed consent.
It is unclear whether the same rules apply to researchers who collect data from social networking sites. These sites often contain a great deal of data that is hard to obtain via traditional means. Even though the data are public, republishing it in research paper might be considered invasion of privacy. Privacy on social networking websites can be undermined by many factors. For example, users may disclose personal information, sites may not take adequate steps to protect user’s privacy and third parties frequently use information posted on social networks for a variety of purposes. For the Net generation social networking sites have become the preferred forum for social interactions, from posturing and role playing to simply sounding off. However, because such forums are relatively easy access, posted content can be reviewed by anyone with an interest in the user’s personal information”. Many social networking services, such as FACEBOOK provide the user with a choice of who can view their profile. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from accessing their information. Parents have become a big problem to teens who want to avoid their parents to access their MYSPACE or FACEBOOK accounts.
By choosing to make their profile private, teens are able to select who can see their page and this prevents unwanted parents from lurking. This will also mean that only people who are added as “friends” will be able to view the profile. Teens are constantly trying to create a structural barrier between their private life and their parents. To edit information on a certain social networking accounts, the social networking sites require you to login or provide an access code. This prevents unauthorized user(s) from adding, changing or removing personal information, pictures and/or other data. . EMOTIONAL APPLICATION A common misuse of social networking sites such as FACEBOOK is that it is occasionally used to emotionally abuse individuals. Such actions are often referred to as trolling. It is not rare for confrontations I the real world to be translated online. Trolling can occur in many different forms, such as (but not limited to) defacement of deceased person(s) tribute pages, calling ‘AUSTRALIANS” “AUSTRIANS”, playing online pranks on volatile individuals and controversial comments with the intention to cause anger and cause arguments.
Trolling is not to be confused with cyber-bullying. Interpersonal communication has been a growing issue as more and more people have turned to social networking as a means of communication “Benniger (1987) describes how mass media has gradually replaced interpersonal communication as a socializing force. Further, social networking sites have become popular sites for youth culture to explore themselves, relationships, and share cultural artifacts”. A Privacy Paradox, many teens and social networking users may be harming their interpersonal communication by using sites such as FACEBOOK and MYSPACE.
Stated by Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University Neuroscientist, “My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment. ” c. GOVERNMENT APPLICATION In government application social networking is more recently being used by various government agencies. Social networking tools serve as a quick and easy way for the government o get the opinion of the public and to keep the public updated on their activity.
The Center for Disease Control demonstrated the importance of vaccinations on the popular children’s site Whyville and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a virtual island on Second Life where people can explore underground caves or explore the effects of global warming. Similarly, NASA has taken advantage of a few social networking tools, including TWITTER and FLICKER. They are using these tools to aid the Review of U. S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, whose goal it is to ensure that the nation is on a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest aspirations in the space. . BUSINESS APPLICATION The use of social networking services in an enterprise context presents the potential of having a major on the world of business and work (Fraser & Dutta 2008). Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contact bases. These networks often act as a customer relationship management tool for companies selling products ad services. Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of banners and text ads.
Since businesses operate globally, networks can make it easier to keep in touch with contacts around the world. One example of social networking being used for business purposes is LinkedIn. com, which aims to interconnect professionals. LinkedIn has over 40 million users in over 200 countries. Another is the use of physical spaces available to members of a social network such as Hub Culture, an invitation only social network for entrepreneurs, and other business influence, with Pavilions in major cities such as London and UK.
Having a physical presence allows members to network in the real world, as well as the virtual, adding extra business value. Applications for social networking sites have extended toward businesses and brands are creating their own, high functioning sites a sector known as brand networking. It is the idea a brand can build its consumer relationship by connecting their consumers to the brand image on a platform that provides them relative content, elements of participation and a ranking or score system. Brand networking is a new way to capitalize on social trends as a marketing tool. . DATING APPLICATION In dating application, many social networks provide an online environment for people to communicate and exchange personal information for dating purposes. Intentions can vary from looking for a one time date, short-term relationships, and long-term relationships. Most of these social networks, just like online dating services, require users to give out certain pieces of information. This is usually includes a user’s location, age, gender, interests, and perhaps a picture. Releasing very personal information is usually discouraged for safety reasons.
This allows other users to search or be searched by some sort of criteria, but at the same time people can maintain a degree of anonymity similar to most online dating services. Online dating sites are similar to social networks in the sense that users create profiles to meet and communicate with others, but their activities on such sites are for the sole purpose of finding a person of interest to date. Social networks do not necessarily have to be for dating; many users simply use it for keeping in touch with family, friends and colleagues.
However, an important difference between social networks and online dating services is the fact that only dating sites usually requires a fee, where social networks are free. This difference is one of the reasons the online dating industry is seeing a massive decrease in revenue due to many users opting to use social networking services instead. Many popular online dating services such as Match. com, Yahoo Personals, and eHarmony. com are seeing a decrease in users, where social networks like MYSPACE and FACEBOOK are experiencing an increase in users.
The number of internet users in the U. S. that visit online dating sites has fallen from a peak of 21% in 2003 to 10% in 2006. Whether it’s the cost of the services, the variety of users with different intentions, or any other reason, it is undeniable that social networking sites are quickly becoming the new way to find dates online. f. EDUCATIONAL and MEDICAL APPLICATION The National School Boards Association reports that almost 60% of students who use social networking talk about education topics online, and surprisingly, more than 50% talk specifically about schoolwork.
Yet the vast majority of school districts have stringent rules against nearly all forms of social networking during school day- even though students and parents report few problem behaviors online. Social networks focused on supporting relationships between teachers and their students are now used for learning, educator professionals development and content sharing g. APPLICATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES The 1984 book The IRG Solution argued that central media and government-type hierarchical organizations could not adequately understand the environmental crisis we were manufacturing, or how to initiate adequate solutions.
It argued that the widespread introduction of Information Routing Groups was required to create a social network whose overall intelligence could collectively understand the issues and devise and implement correct workable solutions and policies. VI. CONCLUSION Web based social network services make it possible to connect people who share interests and activities across political, economic, and geographic borders. Through e-mail and instant messaging, online communities are created where a gift economy and reciprocal altruism are encouraged through cooperation.
Information is particularly suited to gift economy, as information is a nonrival good and can be gifted at practically no cost. Facebook and other social networking tools are increasingly the object of scholarly research. Scholars in many fields have begun to investigate the impact of social networking sites, investigating how such sites may play into issues of identity, privacy, social capital, youth culture, and education. Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social networking model for philanthropy.
Such models provide a means for connecting otherwise fragmented industries and small organizations without the resources to reach a broader audience with interested users. Social Networking through the Web A term paper Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan In fulfillment of the requirement in English27 SUBMITTED BY: Frezelle Ivy Melody Comonsad SUBMITTED TO: Johanna Fatima Montil REFERENCE LIST: * The Internet In 24 Hours – Kate Renisch * The Internet – Chris Woodford * The Internet – Hilary W. Roots * The Internet – Laura Lambert * The Internet for Busy People – Christian Crumlish * Internet Literacy – Fredd T.
Hofstetter * How the Internet Works – Preston Gralea * Dictionary of the Internet – Darrel Ince * Building and Integrating Virtual Private Network – Mark Feilner * Fundamentals of the Internet – Raymond Greenlaw * New Biotechnology – Julia Porter et al. * Marketing Jive – Jody Nimetz * Drupal:Creating Blogs, Forums, Rentals and Community Websites – Mark EGranovetter Frezelle Ivy Melody A. Comonsad September 9, 2010 English 27 EC ————————————————- SOCIAL NETWORKING IN THE WEB I. INTRODUCTION:
Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like a small rural communities or a neighborhood. The use of social networking through the web makes faster and easier way to socialize and meet different cultures and races. II. SOCIAL NETWORK SERVICES A social network services focuses on building and reflecting of social network or relations among people III. SOCIAL NETWORK HOSTING SERVICE A social network hosting service is a web hosting service that specifically hosts the user creation of web-based social networking services, alongside related applications IV. EMERGING TRENDS IN SOCIAL NETWORKING
Twitter set the trend for “real time” services, where users can broadcast to the world what they are doing, or what is on their minds within a 140 character limit. V. SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS Social network analysis has been used in epidemiology to help understand how patterns of human contact aid or inhibit the spread of diseases such as HIV in a population. a. PRIVACY The main types of social networking services are those which contain category places b. EMOTIONAL APPLICATION A Privacy Paradox, many teens and social networking users may be harming their interpersonal communication by using sites such as FACEBOOK and MYSPACE. . GOVERNMENT APPLICATION Social networking tools serve as a quick and easy way for the government o get the opinion of the public and to keep the public updated on their activity. d. BUSINESS APPLICATION Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to expand their contact bases. e. DATING APPLICATION Intentions can vary from looking for a one time date, short-term relationships, and long-term relationships. f. EDUCATIONAL and MEDICAL APPLICATION
The National School Boards Association reports that almost 60% of students who use social networking talk about education topics online, and surprisingly, more than 50% talk specifically about schoolwork. g. APPLICATION FOR ENVIRONMENT ISSUES The 1984 book The IRG Solution argued that central media and government-type hierarchical organizations could not adequately understand the environmental crisis we were manufacturing, or how to initiate adequate solutions. VI. CONCLUSION: Web based social network services make it possible to connect people who share interests and activities across political, economic, and geographic borders.
