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| SOCIAL NETWORK SITES: DEFINITION AND CONCEPT - Anil Varghese | ||
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| Author | Post | ||
| Anil Tharayath |
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 Registered Member #8 Joined: Wed Dec 26 2007, 01:14PMPosts: 21 | "Orkut is an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends. We are committed to providing an online meeting place for people to socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests". A Social Network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchanges, friends, kinships, dislikes, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmissions or airline routes (Wikipedia). Social Network Sites refers to the websites that allow individuals to construct a public or semi – public profile within the system and formally articulate the relationship to the other users in a way that is visible to anyone who can access their profile. It allows people to communicate with people that they do not know, chat rooms, community sites, bulletin boards / scrap book etc (Boyd, 2006). The uniqueness of the social network sites lies in the ability to articulate one's network rather than meeting new people which actually leads to communicating with people who are already part of the social network. The notion of internet social networks was suggested by David Andrews in 1984 sketching the possibilities of mediated social interaction and networking. While tracing the history of social networking sites the first website was Classmates.com which began in 1995, followed by Six degrees.com in 1997, Friendster in 2002, My Space in 2003, Orkut in 2004 and so on. It is estimated that there are now over 200 social networking sites using the existing and emerging social network models. Today Orkut is the eighth most visited site throughout the world with 62,638,127 members at present. All over the world, youth especially the teenagers are joining the above mentioned social network sites (SNEes). In India especially the number of youth joining the virtual space of Orkut is increasing day by day and the news of the Pune rave party which was in the headlines of all media was in fact coordinated through orkut. Some Observations on Profiles It is very interesting to observe creation of the profiles and the characteristics which help perceive the identity of the users. The dynamics of identity production plays out visibly on orkut too. Profiles are digital bodies, public displays of identity where people can explore impression management (Goffman,1967). It also provides an opportunity to design the intended expressions one has through language, imagery and media. The goal is to look "cool" and receive peer support especially in the case of imagery written. There are many instances in which writing comments and being visible on popular people's pages expecting them to do in return and write a few lines "Do I know you" can be a motivation for those seeking attention. The profile owners have every right to reject / ignore the comments. All these dynamics may not be important but for the youth they become essential because they too are rooted in the ways of attaining social status and popularity. Through these social network sites it is being noticed that the engagement with the online networking tools also develops the social capital of the user/ participants involved in these communities. According to Bourdieu and Wackant (1992) Social Capital is "the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition." The resources from these relationships can differ in form and function based on the relationships themselves. Through various imagined 'egocentric' communities, participants are also able to express who they are and locate themselves culturally. This provides individuals a contextual frame through which they can socialize with the other participants too. As a result 'friending' has come into existence now which is deeply affected by both social processes and technological affordability. The friending norms have evolved out of a need to resolve the social tensions that emerged due to the technological limitations (Boyd 2006). Friending supports pre–existing social norms yet because the architect of the social networking is fundamentally different from the unmediated social spaces. These sites introduce an environment which is different from one with which we are accustomed too. What also differentiates them from other computer mediated communication sites is the feature that allows the participants / users to articulate and publicly display relations in the system, though the details of how friendship works is site specific. Participants in the SNSes want to be public: interacting with others who may have similar tastes or entertaining or provider of useful information. They absolutely do not wish to exist in public spaces where they get harassed or in unequal power relations. As the context is egocentric and networked in social network sites the speaker addresses their friends to which some of the friends may react positively or negatively but the audience of this response differs from the audience of the original statement. For instance, a debate in particular social work institute community questioning students experiences in the institute elicited mixed reaction and people blatantly expressed their feelings about various issues which invoked the authorities to urgently call upon a meeting and initiate measures in collaboration with teachers and students. Though these sorts of acts of information dissemination certainly raise possibilities concerning the political effectiveness of social network sites nevertheless the content is relevant to the individuals and they will consume it and more importantly share it. The architecture of the social network sites is basically what allows the information to be spread and connecting friends has everything to do with it. These are the latest generation of 'mediated publics'. Mediated publics refer to those environments where people can gather publicly through mediating technology. In some senses, mediated publics are similar to the unmediated publics (parks, malls, sea shore etc). Conclusion It is very important to acknowledge that the mediated publics are shifting the lives of the youth (though in a minimum percent). It is necessary to recognize that the youth do want to spend time with their friends in their "youth space". It is also important to understand that there is no point in lecturing how should the youth should behave in the particular contexts rather should have conversations acknowledging that there is nothing as black and white there are many grey shades too and help youth to understand how their practices fit into a broader societal context. From the flow of the text in the chat rooms to online groups has shifted to the creation of profiles, youth are regularly projecting themselves into the internet so that others view their presence and interact with them directly. With the moral policing once again being orchestrated by the state, adults and bosses to invade the personal spaces of the citizens, youngsters and employees personal space has once again questioned the right to privacy in the digital spaces as in the case of social network sites context matters and people do want control over their audience. After all I am orkutting, it's my space. References Arendt, H. 1998, The Human Condition, University of Chicago Press (2nd Edition), Chicago . Goffman Erving, (1967), On face – Work," Interaction Rituaal. New York: Pantheon Books Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. (1992). An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook "friends:" Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication "Friends, Friendsters, and MySpace Top 8: Writing Community Into Being on Social Network Sites." danah boyd. First Monday 11(12), December 2006. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_12/boyd/index.html Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life." danah boyd. MacArthur Foundation on Digital Learning, Identity Volume (ed. David Buckingham). MIT Press. Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?" danah boyd. Knowledge Tree 13, May 2007. - Anil Varghese, is an Associate of National Centre for Advocacy Studies, Pune. This is one of my article which was published in 'The Movement' ANIL THARAYATH VARGHESE | ||
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| Paulami |
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  Registered Member #44 Joined: Sat Jan 19 2008, 11:11PMPosts: 12 | Worth reading article, I must say. Paulami De Sarkar Project Manager The Hope Foundation paulami.hope@gmail.com www.hopefoundation.ie | ||
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