It is accepted that social network sites enable individuals to conduct interactions with different types of users within the system, which can build online relationships with others. Castells (1996) states that each individual can be seen as a node within the network spaces, while the network society can be constructed by the different connections of nodes. As being a special network of the society, SNSs allow people to build personal relationships and networks with other users. In a board sense, the term ‘friendship’ can be used to describe the online relationships on SNSs without the limitations of face-to-face friendships. Spencer and Pahl (2006) defines this kind of friendship as friend-like relationship. Chambers (2013) also argues that there is no accident that the term ‘friendship’ can be employed to describe all social connections on social network sites. Thus, the traditional concept of friendship has changed from physical and intimate relationships to conceptual and virtual relationships in the SNSs context.
According to the network society theory by Castells (2010), he points that each flow between two nodes of the huge and complex spaces undertakes information, which means that friendships of SNSs is networked and informational. ‘The network of communication is the fundamental spatial configuration: places do not disappear, but their logic and their meaning become absorbed in the network’ (Castells, 2012 p 443).Hence, interactions and communications within SNSs
It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).
In the last ten to fifteen years accompanying the dawn of social media, means of communication among friends and strangers have been easier than ever. Since its creation in 2004, Facebook has grown into the largest social media site on the Internet with 30 million users and counting. The ability to catch up with former high school friends who are now across the country or see how an aunt in Pittsburgh has been doing since the birth of her son are now as simple as the click of a mouse. However, the amount of “friends” acquired on social media may not be an accurate reflection of how many close relationships one truly shares. In an article from Bigthink.com titled “Do You Have Too Many Facebook Friends?”, Steven Mazie gathers research from Pew Research Center about statistics surrounding Facebook
In this article she is giving us a look into the damage that social networks can do to students in their job, school, and life. She talks about the millions of members that are already using these sites and that they still growing. The members use these sites to make friends, find old friends, and to talk to friends. “The only
However, with the expansion of social media, many argue that the word “friend” has lost its meaning. Social media “friends” may, in reality, just be acquaintances added to social media lists order to appear popular. Even as many Americans spend time and energy developing
Social media allow persons from all over the world to remain contact and communicate with their friends, family, at the same time make new connections. As stated by Amedie, social media sites are known for allowing people to make new connections with people who share similar interests, creating new relationships, and people end up being good friends (4). In fact, people create groups that accommodate subscribers who have similar interests or life goals where they assist each other. Again, there are friends or family members who are a thousand miles away; and through the use of social sites, it is easy to often communicate with them, increasing intimacy at a reduced cost. Furthermore, social networks have encouraged the users to come up with an online persona, which establishes a personal network of friends who connect to an open worldwide community.
(2) A network of friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts. (3) An online community of people with a common interest who use a website or other technologies to communicate with each other and share information or resources. Social Network sites is 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 who they share a connections, and (3) view and navigate their list of connections and those made by others within the system. These social network sites are named as such but not limited to: Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and
In our first unit of sociology, I felt I could relate with the term social network, " The term social network refers to the people who are linked to one another(Henslin,116.)"Social networks include everyone you know. I can relate to social networking because I 'm on a social salsa team. When I joined my dance team , we all had the same passion, the love of dance. After a few years of performing and hanging with the same clique all the time for they have the same interests as me. After a while we all seemed to cluster together and they are now more than just a clique to me they are my fiends.
The America society has many aspects in life since 1950 through 2000s, many up and down due to be economy changing over time. In the book, bowling alone by Robert d. Putnam believes that are society are influence by things that are leaders does and the effects on our people judgment. Putnam reveals that each chapter has clear message that highlights his points about people interest in American society. Putnam reveals his points about American society; social capital, religious participation, social network, and trust.
With 50% of users logging on to Facebook everyday and more than 35 million users updating their status’s everyday (Facebook a, 2010), it posses the question what effect are social networking sites, mainly Facebook, having on our friendships? Are we extending our social networking and enriching them? Or are the effects of the ease and accessibility of a ‘friend’ demeaning our relationships?
In the article, Faux Friendship, William Deresiewicz explores how friendship between individuals have evolved in modern life. Nowadays, the social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace turn the idea of friendship into universal friendship, in which an individual become a friend with everyone. Also, he pointed that the modern friendship became a form of distraction, “If we have 768 “friends”, in what sense do we have any? Facebook isn’t the whole of contemporary friendship, but it sure looks a lot like its future. Yet Facebook – and MySpace, and Twitter, and whatever we’re stampeding for next – are just the latest stages of a long attenuation.” (Deresiewicz 435).
Comments can be categorized as three types, thumbs up, share and comment. Different types of comments determine different levels of friendship. Importantly, there is a trend that users of social network sites are willing to create connections through thumbs up. Moira Burke indicates that interaction as thumbs up may enables individuals to obtain social capital, which can relatively reduce the investment of conducting friendships as well. Same with thumbs up, communication by share may allow individuals to maintain potential correspond with weak connections within public settings. After sharing in RENREN, the events can be reflected in personal pages of sharer. It means that the interactions of sharing can be considered as a part of constructions of personal culture. Thus, online connections of friendships can contribute to conducting personal culture in public settings. While personal culture may extend to public culture. Another communication tool in RENREN is called private message, meaning that each user can communicate with others in a private way without being online friends. Apparently, private message enables participants to conduct friendship with strangers, which can be regarded as weak
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Instagram, and Flicker was invented to keep us in touch and keep us closer to our family and friends. But according to How Facebook ruins Friendships “we took our friendship online” (Bernstein). First we began communicating more by email than by phone and then switched to instant messaging or texting. By joining social Medias online
Social media improves the way people communicate with others. It allows them to meet new people. At the click of a button, millions of strangers all over the world who would have never met otherwise are able to connect with each other. Many people believe that internet friends are not as valuable as real life friendships. However with websites like “skype” and instant messaging sites, long distance friendships can be as intimate as real life friendships because social media allows friends to see each other face to face and spend quality time together whenever they want to. Because of this, internet friendships should no longer be considered taboo and should be seen as normal human relationships, “It’s entirely possible to have hundreds of
* What makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between "latent ties" (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some offline connection. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them "social network sites."
Social network sites (SNSs) such as such as Friendster, CyWorld, and MySpace allow individuals to present themselves, articulate their social networks, and establish or maintain connections with others (Ellison, 2007). These sites could be used for work related situation, romance, connecting with individuals with shared interest, or creating a connection amongst college students. Facebook enables its users to present themselves in an online profile, accumulate ‘‘friends’’ who can post comments on each other’s pages, and view each other’s profiles (Ellison, 2007). Individuals can write on the wall of friends, send private message, comment on posts, as well as chat via instant messaging. Much of the early research on online communities assumed that individuals using these systems would be connecting with others outside their pre-existing social group or location, liberating them to form communities around shared interests, as opposed to shared geography (Ellison, 2007).