Introduction to Social Networking
Social networking has been narrowly understood as a mobile-based or rather internet collective space where social groups can communicate and connect by the creation and sharing of contents through the established links between people. Social networking can also be broadly understood as a practice of the expansion of social contacts through person-person connection build-up. Social networking sites are the outcomes and aids in social networking.
Social networking has made the planet a common setting for social interconnections. With the unparalleled perspective of the Web, these social connections have been made very effective and efficient in the dissemination of the intended contents among the associates. Besides, websites have exposed the social networking system and made them recognized fully and exploited by users.
Development of Social Networking
The interconnected online communities, also known as social graphs set up by social networking, play a core role to the people by making contacts that are unique and hardly possible without social networking, but that can be used in a suitable way (Jackson, 2010).
These contacts are hardly or are unlikely to come across. This service has been greatly boosted by the six degrees’ concept. Social networking has made it possible for members of a social platform to share ideas and information through direct contact through a common connection (Collin, Rahilly, Richardson, & Third, 2011). Some platforms will require the affiliate members to contact each other strictly when they are connected via the same social wall. With such connections, communications or information pass-over is made possible even whenever the involved parties barely fathom one.
Types of Social Networking Services
There are two main formats of sites that preside over social networking services. For instance, the first format is where one is focused on the collection of content. The second format tends to focus on the users’ profiles. It is worth noting that social networking services differ, and if categorized, more than one category will be obtained. It can be seen, as users will focus on the main purpose of the social platform being used probably to ensemble their concern. For instance, the medics come up with private groups to utilize the collaborative space and perhaps the equipment.
Profile-Based Social Networking Service
As the name suggests, profile-based services concentrate on the members’ profile walls. It is where users come up with their own spaces and in turn, use the created spaces to help in building up or contributing towards other users’ spaces. Each profile has the commenting space that enables the impersonal communication and social interactions of the users of such networks (Kane, Alavi, Labianca & Borgatti, 2013). It is made possible by texting, embedding links, and contents on the space. Examples of profile-based social networking sites include Facebook, MySpace, and Instagram.
Content-Based Social Networking Service
In the content-based social networking services, during organization connections, the most fundamental thing is the users’ profile. The users’ profile in most cases plays a vital tributary role to the stationing of associated contents. These services are somewhat partly exposed to the public view, but they are partially privatized to assure the comfort and the feeling of secureness to the users (Kane et al., 2013).
An example of a content-based social networking service is Flickr. This site is associated with photos where the users of this site only give comments to the photo on display, and that is allowed to share. On the other hand, YouTube is an example of this service, and it enhances video sharing. The last.fm as another example of content-based service denotes and monitors music that users heed in most cases. Twitter is the social network that helps people to share thoughts and news easily in the format of short messages. The peculiarity of the network is the simplicity of content creation and sharing.
Significance of Social Networking
Social networking services are associated with a plethora of activities, varying significantly. Social networking services help individuals and groups in finding information through the viewing of content on social platforms like Google+, Facebook, and others (Collin et al., 2011). As a result, this will help in getting solutions to emerging problems or even discernments. Such contents may include blog posts and other write-ups done for public perusal. Social networking has helped in creating friendships where some are formed coincidentally while others are met through interaction.
As stated earlier, social networking has globalized the entire world and made it look like a small town full of people who know each other very well. They are free, and they disregard distances and other obstacles, allowing communication with other people from the different corners of the planet (Collin et al., 2011). In this case, social networking helps in posting messages to these people both in public and private occurrences. In the public form, Facebook can offer a good example where one posts some contents in the form of messages on his or her timeline, and perhaps the intended message is passed to the entire public. For the private affair, Facebook has a message page where one is in a position of contacting and chatting with the second party.
Conclusion
In general, the social networking perspective has helped in technological improvements in the whole world. Individuals and nations communicate with one another through the establishment of social networking sites. The effect of social networking on youngsters may become very detrimental due to access to unauthorized sites, but occasionally it does happen. For instance, Imbee.com offers a blogging service for young children. It demarcates how social networking can be transformed to become a good podium for nurturing social ties albeit being viewed as a menace to the younger generation.
References
Collin, P., Rahilly, K., Richardson, I., & Third, A. (2011). The benefits of social networking services: A literature review. Cooperative Research Centre for Young People, Technology and Wellbeing. Web.
Jackson, M. (2010). An overview of social networks and economic applications. In J. Benhabib, A. Bisin, & M.O. Jackson (Eds.), Handbook of social economics (pp. 1-73). Stanford, CA: Elsevier Press.
Kane, G., Alavi, M., Labianca, G., & Borgatti, S. (2013). What’s different about social media networks? A framework and research agenda. University of Kentucky, LINKS Center. Web.