Social Networking Sites

In their article, Boyde and Ellison define social networking sites as an internet service that allows users to build a public persona in a an enclosed space, and meet people that share similar interests. This is how we network with people through mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, and other prominent social networking sites.




The first Social Network I was involved with was Sconex, in high school. Needless to say, it did NOT have the same security measures as Facebook or even Myspace. People's innate need to want to connect with others, combined with a love of travel, is a reason why social networking sites are so popular.The idea of a validation system was definitely necessary, as there was a time when Sconex users were claiming to be people they weren't so they could gain more friends. When Myspace allowed users to personalize their pages, it was both a gift and a curse. "A copy/paste code culture emerged on the web to support users in generating unique MySpace backgrounds and layouts." I'm glad that feature was removed however, as the level of embellishment had a habit of taking away from getting to know the actual user.