Social Networking

Social networking is phenomena defined by the linking and building of relationships between individuals and specific groups that typically share a commonality. It refers to the structure of society that is simply a cluster of individuals who are interconnected on a variety of levels for a mutual benefit. Some examples include communities that involve individuals who share common hobbies, religion or political values.

Individuals have always social networked, but the Internet has introduced a whole new concept of networking in a global sense. The notion of online and offline social networking are similar. Online social networking involves the utilisation of social networking websites where individuals from around the globe have the facility to interact with one another. Just like offline social networking, individuals have the opportunity to interact with other people in a familiar environment where they can converse, participate in events, create private networks of their own and interact with existing public networks. The benefits of online social networking have become popular because society now have the ability to communicate through a range of mediums via the internet; such as emailing, instant messaging, file sharing, video conferencing and blogging. We can now build relationships with individuals and groups situated in different regions of the world without the need of travelling the physical distance.

The proliferation of popular social networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, YouTube and Friendster has been deliberately designed to provide a platform for the online population to interact with one another. The development of these platforms permits individuals to form private networks and interact with other public networks online. Several social networking websites have been intentionally designed to cater for the needs of a specific market.

LinkedIn focuses on professional networks which lists information such as previous employment and references. It has the ability to help individuals and businesses network, expand and keep record of their current contacts. These websites have the facility to assist people in maintaining their networks via a login rather than using the traditional paper address book and business card collection.

MySpace is a social networking website that tends to lure the younger demographics. This website is based on an ego-centric model where users have the ability to customise the appearance of their webpage to represent their persona. MySpace has become a social networking platform for musicians and performing artists to upload their music. Many independent bands have taken advantage of this functionality to promote themselves.

Facebook combines and enhances a collection of elements that exists in LinkedIn and MySpace. Facebook adopts a function that only allows authorised ‘friends’ to view a person’s profile page. It also permits users to search and contact strangers from different regions of the world. The ego-centric element is enhanced to allow self expression through news feeds about individuals and their personal activities.

Statistics reveal that the social demographics of Generation Y and Generation X seem to be the predominant users of social networking websites.


References:
http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/
Fatpublisher (November 13, 2007), Social Networking Online,
from http://www.fatpublisher.com.au/resources.php?topic=6&article=14&page=1