Josh Paluch's List: SNSs

• In this introductory article, we describe features of SNSs and propose a comprehensive definition.
• MySpace, Facebook, Cyworld, and Bebo

  • examples
• there are hundreds of SNSs, with various technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. While their key technological features are fairly consistent

  • Can do many things with them, but their features are fairly consistent.
• Most sites support the maintenance of pre-existing social networks, but others help strangers connect based on shared interests, political views, or activities

  • Most support existing friendships, but some encourage new ones.
• We define social network sites 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.

  • Definition of SNS according to boyd
• While networking is possible on these sites, it is not the primary practice on many of them
• 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.
• Structural variations around visibility and access are one of the primary ways that SNSs differentiate themselves from each other

  • Visibility of profile is one way SNSs differentiate themselves.
• Most SNSs also provide a mechanism for users to leave messages on their Friends' profiles
• Beyond profiles, Friends, comments, and private messaging, SNSs vary greatly in their features and user base
• it is not uncommon to find groups using sites to segregate themselves by nationality, age, educational level
• According to the definition above, the first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. SixDegrees.com
• and most users were not interested in meeting strangers.
• and Friendster became the most significant, if only as "one of the biggest disappointments in Internet history" (Chafkin, 2007, p. 1).
• While most dating sites focused on introducing people to strangers with similar interests, Friendster was designed to help friends-of-friends meet, based on the assumption that friends-of-friends would make better romantic partners than would strangers (J. Abrams, personal communication, March 27, 2003)
• Because organic growth had been critical to creating a coherent community, the onslaught of new users who learned about the site from media coverage upset the cultural balance
• Furthermore, as the social media and user-generated content phenomena grew, websites focused on media sharing began implementing SNS features and becoming SNSs themselves. Examples include Flickr (photo sharing), Last.FM (music listening habits), and YouTube (video sharing).
• Then, in July 2005, News Corporation purchased MySpace for $580 million (BBC, 2005), attracting massive media attention. Afterwards, safety issues plagued MySpace.
• although research suggests that the concerns were exaggerated.²
• Blogging services with complete SNS features also became popular. In the U.S., blogging tools with SNS features, such as Xanga, LiveJournal, and Vox, attracted broad audiences
• Unlike previous SNSs, Facebook was designed to support distinct college networks only.
• Unlike other SNSs, Facebook users are unable to make their full profiles public to all users

  • Is this still true?
• Finally, anyone who wishes to create a niche social network site can do so on Ning, a platform and hosting service that encourages users to create their own SNSs.

  • Ning allows users to create their own SNS. Does it allow users to pick/choose features for that site?
• To date, the bulk of SNS research has focused on impression management and friendship performance, networks and network structure, online/offline connections, and privacy issues.

  • 4 areas of SNS research
• Impression management is one of the reasons given by Friendster users for choosing particular friends (Donath & boyd, 2004)

  • Impression (persona) management is an increasingly important skill for students to master earlier in their lives.
  Add Sticky Note
• Lampe, Ellison, and Steinfield (2007) explored the relationship between profile elements and number of Facebook friends, finding that profile fields that reduce transaction costs and are harder to falsify are most likely to be associated with larger number of friendship links.
• Although exceptions exist, the available research suggests that most SNSs primarily support pre-existing social relations
• These relationships may be weak ties, but typically there is some common offline element among individuals who friend one another, such as a shared class at school.
• For instance, Lampe, Ellison, and Steinfield (2006) found that Facebook users engage in "searching" for people with whom they have an offline connection more than they "browse" for complete strangers to meet
• Likewise, Pew research found that 91% of U.S. teens who use SNSs do so to connect with friends (Lenhart & Madden, 2007).
• Finally, challenging the view that there is nothing educational about SNSs, Perkel (in press) analyzed copy/paste practices on MySpace as a form of literacy involving social and technical skills.

  • Educational implications
• Judith Donath extends signaling theory to explain different tactics SNS users adopt to reduce social costs while managing trust and identity. She argues that the construction and maintenance of relations on SNSs is akin to "social grooming."
• The fact that participation on social network sites leaves online traces offers unprecedented opportunities for researchers
• Although the situation is rapidly changing, scholars still have a limited understanding of who is and who is not using these sites, why, and for what purposes, especially outside the U.S. Such questions will require large-scale quantitative and qualitative research.
• Furthermore, only .08% of students surveyed by the National School Boards Association (2007) met someone in person from an online encounter without permission from a parent.

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