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Different Types Of Users Within The Network

Decent Essays

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

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