Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Online social networking developed as a globally significant phenomenon in the first decade of the twenty-first century. It refers to the use of social network sites (SNSs) – such as Facebook and MySpace – for online communication as well as for the establishment and extension of friendships and personal networks. SNSs are defined as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.” These sites share properties of persistence, searchability, replicability, and invisible audiences ( boyd 2007 ; boyd & Ellison 2007 ). Researchers differ over what counts as a social network site in the dynamic web environment. The following focuses on what are most commonly acknowledged as SNSs. It does not include photo- and video-sharing sites (such as Flickr and YouTube), virtual worlds (Second Life), social bookmarking ( del.icio.us ), or aggregating services (FriendFeed), nor does it provide detailed coverage of microblogging, although one example of this – Twitter – became increasingly prominent toward the end of the decade (see boyd 2009b for a regularly updated bibliography of research on Twitter and microblogging). SNSs are among the features that characterize ... log in or subscribe to read full text