Tuesday, 19 June 2012

What is social networking?

To be able to understand what social networking is we must first understand what is meant by 'social network' that is not involved with computer usage.

Social network: (In person) 
  • A network of friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts: Strong social networks can encourage healthy behaviours.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social+network

  • Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighbourhood subdivision.
http://www.whatissocialnetworking.com/

Wikipedia: A social network is a set of social actors (e.g. people, organisations, communities, nations) and a set of social relationships (e.g. friendship/affect, communication, economic transactions, interactions, kinship, authority/hierarchy, trust, social support, diffusion, contagion, shared memberships) among them.


From these definitions shown, you can gather that the general term defining an 'in person' social network is personal relationships between two or more people.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network


Social Networking: (Computer usage)

Wikipedia: The use of a dedicated Web site to communicate informally with other members of the site, by posting messages, photographs, etc.

Dictionary.com: a.an online community of people with a common interest who use a Web site or other technologies to communicate with each other and share information, resources, etc.: a business-oriented social network.


  • b. a Web site or online service that facilitates this communication.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social+network

WhatIs.com:Social networking is the practise of expanding the number of ones business and/or social contacts by making connections through individuals.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-networking

From these definitions shown, you can gather the general term defining social networking is an online organisation that allows communication between people on a larger scale and is a way of advertising for companies on a broader scale.

From the variety of these definitions we can pinpoint that an in person social networking are the networks in which we communicate with people on a daily basis such as; Family, friends, co-workers etc. and what social networking is, is simular to an in peron network and embodies the same characteristics but allows for this 'network' of people in whom you interact with to be on a wider scale such as; People you met on the bus one time, distant family, acquaintance's, friends of friends, ex-friends, ex-partners etc. That fact that online social networking allows you to communicate with people you may not really know, or may not even of met in person at all, raises both positive and negative reactions in people which we will soon explore.

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