Social Networking Websites

Jessica Van Hattem David Jia Celete Kato Won Shim Ami Tian

Social Networking Websites

What are they? Tool for: Communication Expressing interests Nodes and Ties

Recent phenomena
Digg, 2004 Youtube, 2005 Myspace, 2003 Facebook, 2004

How the Technology Operates

Specialization vs. Integration Youtube, Digg, Del.icio.us, Livejournal Myspace, Facebook Web 2.0

Change in trend
Enhanced creativity, information sharing, collaboration, and functionality User-contribution Users submit content for other users

History
Early social networking websites: 1995 - classmates.com

focused on ties between former schoolmates

1997 sixdegrees.com

focused on indirect ties

History, contd
Modern social networking websites: 2002 Friendster

now mostly used in Asia

2003 Myspace bought by News Corporation (parent company of Fox) in 2005 most popular social networking site in 2006

History, contd
2004 - Facebook (founded by Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard as thefacebook.com) largest and fastest growing site in the world membership initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Ivy League; later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over 2005 - Bebo

stands for blog early, blog often

Developments

Third-party applications
Privacy settings Instant messaging News feed (Facebook) Music (Myspace)

Positive Aspects for Social Networking

Ease of access to recent trends/topics Digg Faster communication over longer distances Facebook, Myspace, Digg Big audience

Blogging (Blogger, Livejournal, Youtube, Wordpress)

Equating computer to sociability; second life

Facebook, Myspace

Criticisms against Social Networks

Promoting False Identities Celebrities/Political Site Security Lack of customer service Accessibility and reliability

Child Safety
Stalking Party gatecrashing

Crashing uninvited parties which were advertised through sites like Myspace and Facebook where anyone could see the invitation.

Criticisms against Social Networks, contd

Social Exploitation and Censorship Social and Cultural

Dave Itzkoff and his experience

Censorship Privacy Security MIT and 70,000+ Facebook profiles

Our Opinion?
Social networking sites have caused much debate among users across the globe. They help us to connect more easily to others, display our interests in a public forum, and allow us to forge connections despite vast space between users.

Positive aspects:

Simple, user friendly set up and personalization

Usually cost efficient/free

Easily accessible and globally available

Our Opinion? contd

Positive aspects notwithstanding, there are some arguments against social networking sites, including:

Lack of privacy/ control over what is public and not

Encourages procrastination Tendency to compartmentalize and make vague and occasionally unfair assumptions about others

Generally speaking, social networking sites are seen as positive among the CMU community.