Introduction

In China twenty years ago, it would be big news to hear of a household with a telephone. And just ten years ago, it was almost unheard of to have one of those new fashioned computing devices called a personal computer. Computers were devices normally associated with people with high qualifications working in specialized fields. Nowadays though – computers are prevalent everywhere, even in countries such as China whose average family income is many times less than developed nations. Now in the present, the Internet is becoming an all encompassing communication network that is increasingly becoming more ingrained into our work, our social lives and impacting upon our culture. It is against this background that the birth of Social Network Site, a new emerging trend has exploded over the last 5 or so years.

During the course of this essay, I will discuss the various perspectives of the Social Networking Site – their advantages and disadvantages, the influence upon our life, how it helps people to build relationships and maintain friendships, and how it affects the structure of communication and social cultural rites. SNSs’ prevalence in today’s society is an incremental evolution to the   concepts of friendship and social organization and structure.

Background information of SNSs

The first social network site, SixDegrees.com, was launched in 1997, which allowed users to construct their profiles and add friends to their contacts lists. Profiles could then be searched and was used by most major dating sites and many community sites. (Danah & Ellison, 2007). During the years following 1997, more and more popular social network sites have sprung up and have been attracting multitudes of users. Figure one (Danah & Ellison, 2007) clearly shows the development of SNSs since 1997 when the first social network site was designed.

Figure 1. Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNSs and dates when community sites re-launched with SNS features

Social network sites allow individuals to create a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulating some users whom they have a connection with, and searching their list of connections made by others within the system. (Danah & Ellison, 2007).  As the internet becomes more ingrained into society, it is fueling the SNS boom which is in turn driving ot

her technologies such as mobile technologies to keep up with the demand. As the scope of SNS increases, the opportunities for communications between friends is increasing, slowly transf

orming our social and cultural landscape.

Positive effect of SNSs –Building the Social Circle

When electronic communication wasn’t so prevalent in society, how did people maintain friendships? A major factor was distance. Relationships are maintained through communication. If the person in question is in close proximity, friendships were maintained by direct communication. If the friend is further away, other means such as post through letters and gifts. Common interests in hobbies or work is always a good foundation for any relationship. The biggest bottleneck for any kind of relationship is always communication. Communication must be easily and readily accessible to both parties for the chance for the relationship to be maintained.

Telecommunications infrastructure and the popularity of the Internet created a suitable platform and environment for Social Networking Sites to grow. The Internet removed many of the barriers that insulated people from each other. The Social Networking Site is almost a natural extension of what people have been doing for centuries – creating their own social circles.

An important mechanism for SNS to be successful is to provide an environment that facilitates increasing one’s social circle of friends. The tools in the QQ networking site is a prime example of successful infrastructure in China. QQ is the biggest SNSs’ software which belongs to Tencent Internet Company in China. 76.9% of China’s instant-messaging market in the third quarter is controlled by Tencent. (Lee, 2010). The numbers of Online QQ users simultaneously exceeded 100 million, and it is also the first online SNSs’ application simultaneously having exceeded 100 million users. (Fu, 2010).

On QQ friend you can not only communicate with friends, but also can play games such as Mahjong or other simple casual games. Invitations can be sent, both friends and strangers can join the games, gifts can be sent, and communications between users may take place through written chat or voice communication. In addition of this, the QQ networking site also provides plenty of beautiful musical e-cards ranging for birthdays, festivals and special ones for lovers. The QQ application provides a networking site and tools to build and maintain the friendship, and more important is that QQ users can manage their contacts with an intuitive interface.

Positive effect of SNSs: Build new Friendships

SNSs indeed provide us with a new sort of friendship concept. By participating in the popular SNSs, internet users can find new friends easily.  “Users can choose friends who have common habits and interests by reading their profiles, comments and private messaging, moreover, some users have photo or video sharing, and some built blog and instant messaging technology”.( Danah & Ellison, 2007). This changes our original inherent model of communication in the society. Through these new found sharing ways and SNSs online functions, a new of way of exchanging personal information among people and linkage of friendships has entered into the mainstream of culture.

Compared to the physical friendship, the online SNS friendship is simple and fast as if we ordering McDonalds, so it is hard to judge the quality of this type of friendship. “Friends” on SNSs are not the same as “friends” in the physical sense, and the “Friends” actually just provide an imagined audience to guide behavioral norms of users. (Danah & Heer, 2006).  The phenomenon shows that it is a big change to the conventional ways of making new friends and maintaining friendship.

Negative effect of SNSs— create fraudulent situation

When making new friends through the computer, users can choose what role and identity – an alias that suits them in SNS space of their choosing. This flexibility – this anonymity of the internet allows people to create false identities or steal identities. The online ‘space faking’ who masquerades as other people keeps growing, internet users’ concerns about the safety and security of social networking sites soared. (Nicol, 2009). Someone hacked into Fein’s Facebook profile and contacted nearly 50 of her friends. (Gormley, 2010). According to the payment association APACS, Online banking fraud rose by 44 per cent last year to £33.5 million, and  Internet shopping fraud amounted to £155 million While people’s basic details have been traceable online”.(Wallop, 2007). So, SNSs not only brings internet users with effective maintaining existing friendship and with convenient meeting new friends, but also results in unexpected negative communication and possible misappropriated personal information. The SNSs is becoming ingrain in our social lives with internet technology fueling the change.

Both Negative and positive effect of SNSs — Cultural Rites Changing

The physical greeting during a festival or special occasion, is seen as a conventional rite, and is very important part of regional culture in society. However in modern times, face to face greetings have been replaced by telephone calls and now electronic through – SNSs. A tradition of Chinese New Year is on the morning of the first day is to contact and visit everyone you know – to pass on your good wishes. But these days, it’s more convenient and time efficient to pass the good wishes by mobile message and emails in the SNSs.

Figure 2: Greeting message’s images (Kozar, n.d) shows the images of the message. The message of Chunjiehao, which means having a good spring festival, is spelled out on small lanterns. Xinchunruyi means wish you a happy new year, and the bottom reads, in the same direction: gongxifacai, “wish you prosperity”. Some of these or similar tools are be used by computer artists to design greetings which have the potential for global distribution and reproduction. “The Ten Thousand-Dimensional Web of Heaven and Net on Earth” (WWW) is quickly becoming an integral feature of many Chinese students’ intra-cultural communication, a vast rhetorical surface where one can do anything from peruse a classical novel to select a clever greeting to send to an old friend now halfway around the world”. (Kozar, n.d). There are varieties of QQ e-cards and QQ e-gifts for birthday and

different festivals can be chosen from the websites. (Whois QQ, 2010). People are increasingly choosing the SNSs tools to contact relatives and friends by sending e-card and e-gift.

Figure 2: Greeting message’s image

The SNS is not only affecting the way we greet each other, it is also affecting our traditional culture of communication. “The “e-Card”, an electronic greeting, was sent over the Internet or by mobile phone and increasingly popular with young people because it is easier, cheaper and more environmentally-friendly than traditional cards. (Harrison, 2007). Meanwhile, in society, the types of social networks effect on the way people work and the structure of their daily life with developing in different communities. (Wellman,1999). The phenomenon and impact upon culture of communication is hardly judged positive or negative to social and cultural transformation.  Significantly, it provides internet users completely convenience and high-speed transmission of contacting information.

Conclusion

SNSs are mainly organized around people in the organization of online communities. (Danah & Ellison, 2007) I believe SNSs are a natural extension of friendship in this technological age. It is not a sudden development but a natural evolution of the Internet and traditional cultures merging together. It brought us a positive new communicational way with people, and at the same time, SNSs’ prevalence produces negative and positive aspects, that will take time for us to adapt to.

It’s this modern convenience – through technology that is replacing the traditional ways. But this is a natural evolution of society; it is not something people should resent. When something new emerges there will always be those who cannot adapt, but as time passes and more people embrace it, it will become the normal and accepted in culture. This is the way things have been since the beginning of mankind.

Currently it is the Internet and SNS that is influencing our cultural traditions and social structures. In 50 years it may be something else, and in 500 years or 100years it will be something new. It’s called evolution.

The addictive nature of social networking sites has facilitated the downward spiral of communication skills.

Social networks. It is amazing how quickly these websites grow and gain popularity in our society and how quickly that situation can change. Take Twitter for example. Just a few years ago, when you said the word ‘Twitter’ to your friends, they probably responded with words like ‘What is Twitter?’ but these days it’s the third most popular social network website behind MySpace and Facebook (Ebizmba, 2010). In 2005, Rupert Mourdoch’s News Corporation purchased what was then largely regarded as the world’s biggest and most popular social network site, MySpace. The site grow rapidly into the most talked about social media site. MySpace was the most popular social network site by end of 2008. Since then its popularity and traffic numbers have been rapidly declining. Facebook with its amazing speed of growth also started to have problems with user traffic numbers and Bebo also struggled to regain its popularity and make a profit after a sharp decline. Growth cannot last forever and sooner or later most sites will face decline.  If they do not quickly take appropriate measures to make changes it will be too late to recover.

Social networking communities have become more popular since the introduction of Web 2.0. A major research study on the use of digital technologies by adults from 16 industrialised nations suggests that on average they spend a third of their leisure time online, belong to two social networking sites and have regular contact with people who they have met on the Internet (Harrison & Thomas, 2009). Social networking websites can be defined as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and view their list of connections and those made by others within the system (Harrison & Thomas, 2009). One of the most common social networking communities is Facebook. The popularity of social networking communities such as Facebook demonstrate the addictive appeal of online and virtual communities across generations and cultures, particularly their attraction to teenagers, housewives, students and a new group of recently enfranchised elderly digital immigrants (Harrison and Thomas, 2009). For my conference paper, I am going to focus on Facebook and how people behave and present themselves on social networking sites. I will talk about how a lot of people create fake accounts on these websites and the reason why they do this.

By Jeremy Neyman

Users of the internet are currently spending more than 17% of their internet time on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. This represents a three-fold increase from August 2008 to August 2009 (Nielsen, 2009).

In Australia alone there are currently 9 million Australians communicating through social media channels. It is reported that 75% of Australians have been to Facebook with 59% of them having an account and spending over 8 hours a month on the site. This interaction is ideal for business wanting to get their brand and message in front of their target audience, more so as 86% of people look to friends, family and colleagues to help them decide on their product purchases (smartcompany, 2010).

Social Networks- Changing the way we learn?

By Sarah King

The advancement of technology in the past decade has seen changes to the way we live our lives. The internet has diminished the problem of isolation with the help of social networking. Social networking has allowed people to meet new people in other countries, companies to share ideas over vast distances and for people to gain an education.

Using social networks in schools to educate students is a highly debated topic. There are both benefits to using social networking with education but there are also some risks that need to be monitored if the network is going to be successful for all that use it.

But My Post Was Private!
Why We Can’t Assume Privacy on Social Network Sites

By Samantha Warren

Participation in social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter has dramatically increased in recent years, offering users an online environment where they can share what they are doing and express their views (Huberman, Romero & Wu, 2009; Rosenblum, 2007). This explosive growth and the amount and type of information participants reveal has lead to increased scrutiny of user’s private lives. Personally identifiable information, along with sexual, political or entertainment interests all provide a disturbingly intimate insight (Gross & Acquisti, 2005). In this paper, I will be focussing on the issue of privacy and social network sites, and how we cannot assume that what we post on a social network site is private.

How many “friends” do you have?

Social networking sites have become very popular in today’s world. It is enough to take a walk through offices and trains and observe what people do in these environments to understand the level of importance these sites present to people.  It is also enough to walk through parks, cities and restaurants during the late afternoon or evening to realise the absence of what once used to be a buzzing environment populated with people making or maintaining friendships. It is quite rare to see teenage kids play, run around, make friend and love relationships. These activities seem to have descended into the virtual world where these same teenagers today spend time socialising and playing games with friends online, some even finding love online. They no longer “hang out” with five friends but rather with 200 or more friends. As such, it is worth arguing that in today’s world, people have more friends but less (emotional) friendships. The paper looks at why people spend more time trying to create and maintain online friendships with no emotional connection while disregarding real friendships as well as impact “friends” (virtual contacts) have on “friendships” (emotional contacts).

Introduction

Social network gaming provides the opportunity to strengthen the bonds between employees a work place environment. In this paper we will examine how social network gaming enables employees to communicate and strengthen work place relations with their peers and those in supervisory positions.  We also examine how Facebook users represent themselves online and how they use their online persona to establish real life relationships in the work place.

Socially isolated in an electronic cottage

Taraeta Nicholls, Student, Curtin University of Technology, GPO Box U1987, Perth WA 6845. Taraeta.Nicholls@student.curtin.edu.au

Abstract:

Computer technology has evolved to allow employees to work from different locations. This paper specifically analyses teleworkers and the social implications of working remotely. Whilst technology has developed to make teleworking a viable option for many employers, social disadvantages such as isolation still remain. By understanding how teleworking has developed the social disadvantages can be brought to the forefront and strategies to overcome this geographically and social isolation developed.

Author Keywords:

Telecommuting, Work Force, Social Isolation, Technology.

Instant messaging is not destroying the English language. It is in fact building the younger generation’s interest and ability to communicate efficiently with their peers. All should embrace social networks and instant messaging as useful tools that can be incorporated into ones daily life.

“Instant messaging language is characterized by a robust mix of features from both informal spoken registers and more formal written registers – in essence it is a hybrid language.” (Tagliamonte & Denis, 2008, p. 5)

Data collected by The Nielsen Company found that in December 2009, global consumers spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter (Nielsen, 2010). This is an increase of 82%, from the same time in 2008 (Nielsen, 2010). With this increase of consumer use of social networking sites, business has seen this as an opportunity to use sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube for their needs. Some of these opportunities include “sales, marketing, recruitment, research, and technical support” (Wilson, 2009). This paper will look at how social networking sites are used by business.

Social network sites such as Facebook facilitate the formation of new relationships and the maintenance of existing personal relations between friends and sharing of information through shared common interests, blogging via comments, applications, photo sharing and status updates (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).

On-line Social Network sites incorporate a multitude of mediated platforms in which individuals can communicate with other individuals and/or groups. These mediated platforms include (but are not limited to) Facebook and Twitter which have provided a new and interesting way of communication within the virtual community. While this paper will deal with social network sites and friendship generally, Facebook and Twitter will dominate the paper as the mostly referred to social networking sites. Within this conference paper I will firstly discuss how people are adjusting the way they socialize and behave when using social network sites as another form of communication with friends and acquaintances. Secondly when researching the way users behave and communicate in these sites a new term ‘Ambient Awareness’ has been created to identify the excessive on-line contact. The constant flow of information provides users with the ability to piece together information to give an insight to that user’s life which has not been available through traditional forms of communication before. Thirdly when contributing to the social networks users are influenced by user generated content by which the user can not only to read information but create the information. And in conclusion I will discuss how social networks sites are a positive way of communicating and socializing because they allow a new way that users can intertwine friendships both on-line and off-line.

The spread of social networking sites has changed every person’s ways of socializing and communicating with friends and acquaintances. Since the birth of social networking sites, it has given enormous benefits to the sphere, as it allows to keep in touch with anyone and to collaboration with others even in different geographic areas. By having the full advantages of social networking sites, a big disadvantage existed for some reasons, which is cyber stalking. Cyber stalking is referred to as online harassment or electronic stalking is defined as the offensive, threatening communication through the Internet, via e-mail, chat rooms, or instant messaging or through other electronic devices (The University of Texas at Arlington, n.d.). This paper will be examined closely for further insight on how obvious is that stalking takes place in social networking sites and shows cyber stalking is socially acceptable and typical. Further, it will take a look at the several controversial issues about social networking sites makes life easier for stalkers.

Introduction

Social networking sites have acquired such a huge following in a short amount of time it is understandable that there has been both positive and negative impacts. Here I will argue that social networking sites have a negative influence on teenagers, in the workplace and society in general. This paper is a component of the Social Networking stream for the NET204 Conference as it relates primarily to social networking and the impact it has on society. It is important to gain an understanding of what social networking is and to be aware of the influence it has on society. Social networking sites allow their users to build a profile of themselves which is freely available to a select community with links to others within the community who are able to view and share information (boyd & Ellison, 2007). There are already over 400 million users accessing Facebook (Kirk, 2010), 75 million registered users on Twitter (Gaudin, 2010) and 125 million users with access to MySpace (MySpace, n.d.). In such a short period of time social networking sites have thrived in the community, impacting the lives of both adults and teenagers alike.

Introduction:

Social networking has rapidly grown to be one of the most widely used Internet social interaction and communication tools online. Although online communities and public social interactions have been around for quite some time now, the rate at which social networks have developed in the last few years is phenomenal. Today, a large number of online communities participate in some form of social networking.

Whether it is Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, social networking has proved a popular method of online interaction and communication with participation from a wide group of individuals.

This paper will examine whether the Internet based technologies collectively known as social networking exhibit characteristics that make them addictive. Specific examples of these technologies include well known sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare but can also be extended to include generic technologies based around material such as blogs. An important consideration to address at the outset is the negative connotation that is placed on the word “addiction”. In this case, any addiction to social networking should not immediately be equated to addiction of illicit and illegal drugs but rather to more benign items such as chocolate. In fact, there are many aspects of the modern world that could be considered “addictive” raising “some safety and social concerns” (Tilbury, 2008) but clearly concerns currently being raised in the public domain are that social networking is in fact as “addictive” as illicit substances. If the reader accepts these concerns then they are drawn to the conclusion that the end result of any social networking addiction will in fact be the same as drug addiction including problems with “health, finances and stability” (Saisan & Seagal & Cutter January 2009). Examining this issue in more detail will require further investigation and definition of exactly what addiction is and how it may be applied to social networking. Next, the key components of social networking will be examined in order to isolate any that may lead to addiction. Further analysis will then be conducted on these components to determine if there indeed is a direct link with addictive behavior. As with other types of addiction, factors such as predisposition may form an important consideration. Thus it will be established whether they do contribute in this instance. At the finale of all this analysis it will be concluded that, like other commonly accepted social practices, such as alcohol consumption, there is the potential for social networking to be addictive if individual control is not exercised. However, it is still too early to definitively prove a direct link with a specific medical disorder, and so, may instead be nothing more than normal human behavior being amplified by modern technology. Only further study will reveal a definitive answer, yet for the time being it should indeed be considered that social networking is addictive.

-By Hardik Gondha

Take a close look at these scenarios. A teenage boy is sharing strategy secrets about football on a Facebook group. A mother is posting photos of her trip to the Himalayas on Flickr. A Father is uploading a video of his daughter’s performance in a band on You Tube. A marketing expert is sending invites on facebook and twittering about a new product he’s trying to sell.

The development of World Wide Web and the transformation to web 2.0 brought a lot of changes to people’s lives. Starting from providing easy access for file sharing with static web page, animated gifs, and blinking words, now we can do and find anything in the web. Because web is all about communication, collaboration, and information sharing between people in the network. And unlike the early web, web 2.0 allows people to participate more in the web. People begin to live with the web. From sharing their thoughts through blog to the famous one, joining a social network sites (SNSs—will describe further in this paper). One of the form of SNS is microblogging, a specific website to update your status. In this paper, I will argue that microblogging is a new way of communicates and the risen popularity since it emerged because of the easy to use way, the community created by it, the first form (blog), and how microblogging is useful to every sectors of life.

Given the huge increase in popularity of Social Networking, could sites such as Facebook be making us less social?

Today’s societies consist of both localised and distributed tribes linked by numerous advanced forms of communication that transcend both real and virtual worlds.  In the last 20 years we’ve experienced a rapid evolution with many new forms of Computer-Mediated-Communication (CMC) being used for social and relational purposes (Katz, Rice, Acord, Dasgupta, & David, 2004; Kavanaugh, Reese, Reese, Carroll, & Rosson, 2005). Primarily based around the Internet, these new forms of communication include technologies such as web-pages, blogs, newsgroups, forums, bulletin boards, chat lines, Multiple User Dungeons (MUDs) and Multi-user-dungeon Object Oriented (MOOs). Much of the earliest forms of CMC socialisation were based around e-mail (Finholt & Sproull, 1990), however in the last five years its been the exponential uptake of Social Networking Services (SNS) by mainstream society, (Ofcom, 2008) that has authorities (Kirby, 2009) and academics most concerned (Heim, 1992, 2009; Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010).     

by Janette Treanor, April 26 2010.

Since the early days of the internet and the world wide web, people have crowded to online communication channels, from email down the social media timeline through Usenet, IRC, Wikipedia, Friendster, My Space, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter … to the mobile communication technologies of today (idfive, 2006).  Since its beginning in 2001 multitudes of people from all over the globe have swarmed to be part of the Wikipedia phenomenon, to experience the satisfaction of participating in something for the benefit everyone and to experience the gratification of seeing their contribution published instantly online.  The popularity of Wikipedia has never been questioned.  Initially Wikipedia’s content was compared favourably by some to that of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Giles, 2005), but murmurs currently circulating in the press and growing louder, are predicting Wikipedia, at least as it presents today, may be approaching the end of its lifecycle (Angwin & Fowler, 2009; Farrer, 2009; Frommer, 2009; Johnson, 2009; Subhasis, 2009). This paper argues that the quality of Wikipedia’s content has deteriorated over time and questions the authority, accuracy, reliability and completeness of Wikipedia content which is increasingly subjected to hoaxes, vandalism, political and corporate cleansing, self-promotion, and the abuse of power and the individual agendas of the site’s editors and administrators. The conclusions drawn counsel that Wikipedia should not be relied upon as a quality resource and warn that citing Wikipedia for serious academic scholarship is ill-advised.

Introduction

Social networking sites such as Facebook allow people to keep in touch with family and friends using the Internet. They can chat, leave posts (or messages), play games and share pictures. Facebook, in particular, has grown in popularity over recent years to a point where, according to facebook.com (Facebook Press Room, 2010), over 400 million people worldwide are using it.

Facebook demographics, according to Corbett (2010), show that around 10% (or 40 million) Facebook users are teenage school children. Although there are risks for anyone using Facebook, the teenager is at the greatest risk. Teenagers are not experienced in the corrupt and dangerous world we live in, they don’t understand some of the risks involved, they don’t understand how powerful words can be and they can be easily led and succumb to peer pressure.

Social Networks: Growth, Isolation and Sucking the Time Away From Us

“As the internet has become ubiquitous, faster, and increasingly accessible to non-technical communities, social networking and collaborative services have grown rapidly, enabling people to communicate and share interests in many more ways” (boyd & Ellison, 2007). Social networking allows the use of: instant chat, uploading of photos and videos, blogging, interactive games and so on. However, all of these services consume our time, one way or another. Debate has risen that social networks are leading us to social isolation. Reports also have shown that users are spending more time online, leaving little time for other activities. This paper argues that while social networks are growing and becoming increasingly time intensive, social isolation however does not occur.

Social networking (SN) and Web 2.0 applications, commonly known as “social media”, are an inherent part of most activist campaigns today due to the fact they are, as Clay Shirky (2009) states: “global, social, ubiquitous and cheap”.  Social media platforms allow activists to not only create, but also tap into networks of people to promote an issue or cause, and are an excellent way to create action and send issues global.  The premise of this paper is that much more effective campaigns are organized now that activists and organizers are more adept at employing the characteristics inherent in these social media platforms, such as tags and their ability to spread a message virally and more importantly, send the message global.  To illustrate this, this paper will concentrate on social media platforms that have come to the fore in the last five years:  Facebook, Twitter and Weblogs (blogs) and will also outline events from inside authoritarian regimes, where these tools have been used successfully to either highlight issues or instigate real change.  The concept of ‘citizen journalist’ is discussed in depth in the paper and emphasizes the link between traditional mass media, and online social media and the changes brought about by local people being able to report on local events using social media.  As a counterpoint to the positive aspects of online activism, this paper will also highlight and respond to some of the negative perceptions.

By Alison Stringer

The mobile Internet, and in particular Social Networking Sites (SNS), are set to play a major role in big business’ attempts to transform an estimated four billion people who live in poverty into consumers. These “aspirational poor”, those who earn less than $2 a day and “who make up three-fourths of the world’s population–could contribute an additional $13 trillion in annual sales to the global economy, if only companies would drill deep enough to reach them” (Prahalad in Johnson & Nhon 2005).

Libraries – Time to get onboard with social networking or find yourselves extinct!

 This paper will examine libraries and their importance in embracing the web 2.0 phenomenon of social networking.   This paper will examine the importance of using social networking sites like facebook,  twitter and youtube to enable libraries to “engage with students in the virtual environment”(Graham, Faix, & Hartman, 2009, p. 228) for the  promotion of the library, library events and services, teaching and learning and humanising the concept of the library and librarians.  This paper will also examine the importance that social networking sites have with improving professional relationships within the library profession and across the university therefore, resulting in an increase of information sharing that ensures libraries are on the forefront of changes in demands and needs of their students. If libraries fail to adopt this technology, they are in danger of finding themselves extinct. 

Introduction: Context, Definitions and Direction

The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority is likely to begin regulating marketing and branding efforts on social networking sites to ensure that content related to such sites does not mislead or offend, and that it abides to relevant laws related to health, alcohol, gambling, financial products and auto (Marshall, 2010).  Clearly, marketing on social networking sites is serious enough to have stimulated regulation in the United Kingdom.

Social networking has many benefits but it is also prone to abuses that make it look like a curse.

Author : Ernest Hojilla

Introduction

Online social networking has over the last few years changed the way people connect and communicate. Many of the Internet users may have heard of Facebook and what it does. Well, Facebook just happens to be the most popular social networking website. But what really is social networking? In simple terms, social networking is putting individuals together into specific groups according to some common attributes like education, religion, age, and interests, among others. To complete the definition you can imagine such groups of people, for example, friends, family, students’ e.t.c sharing information and experiences online. In addition, the users are able give their comments or feedback. This is what social networking is about.

There are currently over 400 million active Facebook users and over a quarter of these are currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices (Facebook Statistics, 2010). This paper discusses how Social Networking Sites (SNS’s), like Facebook and Myspace, are changing the way the teenagers and young adults are communicating to their real world communities, drawing attention to the increasing access of SNSs on mobile internet.

Facebook is known for its “privacy trainwrecks” (boyd, 2008) and has been criticised for its handling of these issues, often retreating until its users adjust to the changes brought upon them (Grimmelmann, 2009).  However, there is more to look at when assessing privacy concerns around Facebook; to purely blame Facebook would be an exercise in technological determinism, instead there are societal and cultural values, political persuasions and economic motivations that shape the technology (Williams & Edge, 1996). As Clay Shirky has said, “[t]he human condition infects everything it touches” (1995, as cited in Grimmelmann, 2009, p. 1206).  It is the users who perpetrate the crimes of privacy on Facebook. This paper argues that users are not innocent bystanders, but rather active participants in privacy violations against one another. From the moment users begin to create their identity-image, through to when they rapidly multiply their audience by accepting acquaintances as Friends; they are setting themselves up for context collisions, which they will experience as privacy violations (Grimmelmann, 2009). “The privacy violations are bottom-up; they emerge spontaneously from the natural interactions of users with different tastes, goals, and expectations” (Grimmelmann, 2009, p. 1188).  Users and their Friends – motivated so strongly by their social tendencies – are their own greatest privacy foe.

Social Networking sites have transformed the political landscape.

Written by Tom Evans.

The emergence of social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have changed the face of politics. Politicians all over the Western world are switching on to the new technology to increase their profile and spread their message (for a fraction of the cost of a conventional political campaign); governments are using the mechanism to consult with ordinary citizens and to give them a voice in the democratic process; but perhaps the most exciting development of all is the use that activists in totalitarian regimes have made use of the new technology to promote opposition.

A Virtual Collision:  When your private and professional worlds clash

A Social Society: The Positive Effects of Communicating through Social Networking Sites

Ebony Wheeldon

By Rosanna Marie Candler

Rising acceptance and registration of networking technologies has confounded the “nature of intimacy” (Barraket & Henry-Waring 2004) we practice in modern culture. An examination of technologically articulated communication on social networking website Facebook reveals a disappointing regression of interpersonal contact: from face-to-face to a single click of a mouse. To argue the metaphor that ‘Facebook is to socialising what masturbation is to sex’ is to acknowledge a similar outcome (both Facebook and real-life achieve social fulfilment), but criticize the online process on an interpersonal level. Network websites are popular for two key reasons; firstly offering convenience and accessibility to large groups of people, and secondly their ability to define, promote and control perception of identity. It seems Facebook has provided the opportunity to maximise quantity and dilute quality as we hurriedly reach our social ‘orgasm’ through 15 second status updates, disingenuous photo comments and the ever superfluous ‘poke’. Today with over 400 million active users (Facebook Statistics 2010), the website has a firm grip of influence on the manner in which individuals articulate and develop their personal affairs.

According to Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton, & Robison (2009, p. 6), participatory culture is, essentially, a culture where people are happy to contribute content to a community that encourages and appreciates it. Participatory culture can be seen from the way Facebook users update their profiles, upload photos, share videos and links, answer quizzes, write on walls, and respond to status updates. In relation to blogging, users participate in blog conversations by leaving comments or leaving a message in the chatbox, if there is any. In microblogging, users participate by responding to the question, ‘What’s happening’ (About Twitter, n.d.). Twitter makes participation with the application as simple as possible with fewer features in comparison to Facebook, and with icon buttons such as a star to favourite a tweet, a bin to delete a tweet, and a reply button to reply. Wikipedia is another example of participatory culture where users can contribute information, correct or edit articles. Other forms of participatory culture that are more entertaining in nature include mash-ups, remixes, and Internet memes. The consumption of social media that encourages participatory culture, however, raises privacy issues that may have implications for the offline world, especially Facebook, personal blogs, and Twitter, as these applications are more personal in nature; users tend to use these applications for personal reasons such as maintaining existing relationships or making new connections, and therefore, personally identifiable information is more likely to be found from the contents of these applications compared to a wiki or remix. This paper will argue that the privacy issues raised by the consumption of social media are such that effective education on the dangers is needed for users because education is fundamental in developing responsibility and judgment. We will first discuss Facebook, followed by personal blogs, and finally, Twitter.

Social networking sites have proven to be at the forefront of political success all over the world. They are now a fundamental communications tool in every aspect of the community, and a limitless source of information for campaign strategy. The use of social networking sites in political parties spans across increased media exposure, funding, participation and has increased mobilisation and enthusiasm in numerous recent political campaigns. Social networking sites are now proven to be unsurpassed in their effectiveness to gather and communicate a targeted political message, raising the stakes in strategy and aggressive social media participation.

Founded in February 2004, Facebook has fast become a popular and accepted means of communication with the site’s advertised over “400 million active users” (Facebook n.d). This site has changed the way that many net citizens communicate and interact. Along with these changes many questions are also now being raised about the extent to which privacy is being relinquished by users who join the site. With a reported “5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week” (Facebook n.d ) it is little wonder that privacy has become one of Facebook’s greatest challenges.

The popular Social Networking site Facebook, according to co-creator Dustin Moskovitz, was built to “accumulate social capital” (cited in Ricadela, 2007). The idea of social capital has been around since the early part of last century (Hanifan, 1916).  In an Australian government conference on Family Strengths, Stone & Hughes (2000) defined it as “networks of social relations characterised by norms of trust and reciprocity,” and argue that it is “critical for community wellbeing.” Currently Facebook is accumulating the social capital of over 400 million users (Facebook Timeline, 2010). This accumulation of social capital is valued at $35 billion (Byers, 2010). That’s over $8 per user. Social capital has always been a valuable economic resource,  bowling alleys and cafes rely on it. However, there has been the necessity to tie in a product, be it an overpriced drink or the use of a venue. The actual conversations that built social capital remained the private domain of the participants. Facebook sells advertising to those conversations and it is estimated it will make over $1 billion this year doing so (O’Neill, 2010).  In the eighteen months to February 2010 Facebook membership quadrupled from 100 million to 400 million (Facebook Timeline, 2010).  Facebook takes our social capital, the bastion of  trust and reciprocity, and turns it into a commodity to be traded like any other, yet we continue to flock to it. Why are we allowing Facebook to own, market and commodify our social capital?

To begin with this assignment describes “The Danger of Social Networking” for the users. As we known, there are so many people in different groups, ages, and genders that use social networking sites. Social Networking is the grouping of individuals groups based on specific interest that members of the group may share or other words refers to as web-based services a list of other users with whom they share a connection (boyd & Ellison, 2007).

This paper looks at Facebook, the popular social networking site, and explores some of the negative impacts the site can have on its members.  This paper considers the perspective of individuals who use Facebook for personal reasons, with their primary motivation being to renew and maintain friendships.  The key area that will be examined is that contrary to Facebook being considered a device to socially network, it actually infuses separation and generates antisocial patterns of behaviour, which are isolating to the individual and actually detach them from society. 

The Future Net-oree: The Scouting Convergence to Online Collaborations and Networks

Written by Jocelyn Peucker, 2010

Scouting in Australia is dead. This is the feeling that some adults in Scouting have had over the past few years. However, until recently Scouting in Australia was dying, suffering an average national loss of approximately 4,000 memberships per year from 1995 to 2006. However, since 2007 there has been a significant increase of approximately 4200 memberships per year (see Figure 1). Similarly, Scouting in the Geelong Region also declined, losing 1300 members between 1995 and 2007, with only a slight increase over the past two years (see Figure 2). The causes of these losses remain either unknown or undocumented, although many Leaders have hypothesised that leadership, administration issues and technology are the key indicators. Today’s technological advances e.g. PlayStation, Mobile Phones, the Internet, and other electronic devices, are considered to be one of the most distinct causes.

The way society communicates has changed drastically due to the introduction of social networking sites like Facebook. Facebook has provided society with the infrastructure to expand people’s social circles. It does this by providing people with a place to stay in contact with every person that they have ever met. Facebook’s aggregated newsfeed has enabled members to receive a consolidated update of their social circles’ lives in just a few moments and without being in physical contact with a single person. The consolidated updates have also, in some cases, led to a behavioural pattern of possessing tendencies to self promote experiences through the newsfeed (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). This increase of communication without any human contact has led to a number of uncomfortable etiquette issues in both the online and offline spaces. These issues include Facebook’s members addressing what is socially acceptable to know about each other when they meet in an offline space or the “real world”. This constant need for communication has led to people feeling as if they need to be able to communicate anywhere and at any anytime and this has seen the rise of the ‘smart phone’ (AIMA, 2009). As part of research for this conference paper, an online survey was distributed through social networking sites starting with my own contacts on Facebook, Twitter and email. There were one hundred and fifty three respondents with the majority of respondents located in Australia. This survey gathered information regarding how people communicate since the introduction of social networking sites. This conference paper will discuss how Facebook’s aggregated newsfeed has drastically changed the way society communicates.

Many people have argued that mobile space is similar to the internet with respect to its increased use and application. In recent past, this has been validated by the meteoric increase of sites dealing with mobile social networking. We can broadly define social networking as the process of producing and sharing media information which range from simple write-ups to major and complicated video feed, allowing people to connect with friends and establish relations with new users of the network. The act of using a mobile phone to bond with virtual communities is associated with social mobile networking which has been enabled by the proliferation of wireless networks (Balas, 2008). Content distribution through messaging and media intensive information has made it famous among wireless carriers who regard it as a chance for data revenue.

SIZE IS IMPORTANT

Is there an optimal size for online communities?

Hans Dusink

The rapid advances in communication technologies have enhanced our ability to stay in touch with our family and friends over greater distances than ever before. Prior to these developments, communication was only possible on a one to one basis. As Clay Shirky pointed out the Internet provided a medium that could be used to address whole communities or audiences (Shirky, 2002b). This ability to connect with a near unlimited number of people has led to the question of optimal community size.