Social Networking - Essay Example

?Topic What isn't new about social networking? Introduction People use social network almost every day because they are accustomed to it. A social network is a group of people connected for a specific reason. A good example of social network is a group of friends who have common interest. Social network comes in various forms and sizes and serve many purposes. Social networking is necessary for the survival and advancement of the society. The invention of telegraph, radio and internet have created and maintained social networking despite of the vast distance between the people. The ability of people to communicate across the planet has give way to different forms of social networking mediums. Friends can now easily connect with each other being thousands of miles apart. As per TechTarget,(2008)“The social networks we speak of today, such as Face book or MySpace, provide incredibly rich communications. Pictures, audio recordings, video recordings can be freely shared by anyone with an internet connection”. These facilities have given rise to a new category of social networking. Websites and internet now provide many opportunities that were not possible before. Social networking are application available on internet which has log – in page, user account and a bunch of games and tools to have fun with friends while we are logged in. The social networking sites has a great influence on today’s youth and give them different identity and interacting platform. The Social networking is not new concept The concept of social networking is not new even though people are only familiarized with it recently. Individuals can connect within a social network where they work together, study together, lived together or share certain interests. Individuals are usually drawn to people with whom they can relate to. According to Ronca(2009)“Social networking is not a new concept. In fact, it's been around as long as we have. A social network is simply the structure of relationships among individuals”. Everyone on the earth is a part of one social network and we knowingly or unknowingly engage in social networking. We are engaging in small sub networks which consist of our families, friends, colleagues, school and community. Our social networking multiplies consistently as we are all time in contact with people. Social networking is not at all new and can be traced to 1800s. In the article Larrivee(2011)writes that “Social networking is not a new concept in fact it is really quite old with formal recognition surfacing in the 1800’s yet if you consider ancient Rome and Greece, one might say that it really began in those times”, People in olden times use to socially and politically interact .Social networking in past happened in the same ways as today but only the platform where it took place was different. In the past, people met in real world, whereas in the present people virtually meet and interact. Social networking started since the early men started living in communities. It started before the invention of internet in villages and olden cities People in villages gather around trees in free time and discussed everything and anything. Social networking existed in olden days In olden times people gathered on festivals and social get together and interacted with each other freely. They met in churches and temples and shared their ideas and views about daily activities. People in olden days had their share of fun and relaxation whenever they met like the new generation. Human is a social being and he needs to be active in social life to make things pleasant. Today the internet has taken the place of other social gathering venues but social networking happened since ever.In ancient times, people where more of socializing nature as they were not much restricted to their homes. They always met people in outdoors and had more opportunity to interact with each other. In ancient times, festivals and fairs where the venues where people met each other and engaged in pleasurable acitivities.People used to meet and discuss their problems in temples and churches and also other places of interests in the villages. In early times, people of far away countries had n o option to meet like in today’s technological days. People met each other on religious events, marriages and other important events in the life of family members. The rich and middle class of the olden times interact with each other in social parties and pubs and clubs. As per Sasikanth(2011)“Social networking Web sites evolved from these face-to-face networks. The online sites, though, are powerful because they harness the strength of the Internet to manage and map out your relationships”. Social networking even existed in the olden times but in a primitive manner, prior to the mainstream internet, in the form of bulletin board systems, newsgroups and IRC chats. Even during those times, people were able to exchange information and files including g medial files. But the only difference was that one has to be a computer expert to do all these functions. As per Jerchovic(2010)“Although those days are long gone, the idea is still the same in the sense of social networking and information sharing”. Human beings are social animal and like to have friends, play games and share ideas. People have a notion that social networking is a concept created in the age of internet. According to Waddington (2011.pg 12-18)“Social networking is not a new Phenomena. In fact its root can be traced back to the 1970s when BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) was introduced”. This gave the users the opportunity to play games and handle files .In 1980s the AOL was launched which became extremely popular. It had features like instant messaging and viewing other people’s profile .Social networking existed even decades before but this idea received too much attention after the invention of internet .Generally speaking, there is not anything new with social networking as people since ages have been socializing in one form or another. In olden times socializing did not happen virtually but through physical interactions at a slower pace. Today everyone has an opportunity to access computer and hence interact people from anywhere at any time. History of Social Media Social media is not novel concept, but recently have been integrated into the business and cultural world. People were using digital media and social networking facilities even before couple of decades ago. As people think social networking was not started by the means of internet, but it was started through phone. These face book, YouTube and twitter are not really new, and yes the technologies are new but not the concept. Social networking has existed ever since in the form of pigeons that carried messages or information passed on written on wooden blocks or cloth material. In 1979, there was the prevalence of use nets which enabled people to post articles or posts. Usenet can be considered as the pioneer of RSS feeds now which is used to commonly feed blogs and news. Even first Bulletin Board system was launched in 1970s. BBs were the first kind of sites that allowed people to interact with each other but in a slower manner. Later CompuServe was the first corporate to start a chat service and this made online service much more affordable. Six degrees was the first social networking site launched in 1997 and allowed people to make profiles and generate friendship with each other. Live Journal which was introduced which was launched in 1999 was of a distinctive nature. It was a social network which allowed constant blogging facility to the users. However, the world of war craft was the most famous social networking sites where users could play games as well interact in community sites and forums. As per Danah,(2007,pg 21-30) “From 1997 to 2001, a number of community tools began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly articulated Friends like Asian Avenue, Black Planet, and Magenta”. Conclusion Today social networking has emerged to be a household name as face book has proved to be the most popular platform for social interaction. People of all age around the world connect with each other with the help of Face book and other popular online services. Although, social networking is an old concept, the technological advancement had made it more accessible and popular. In earlier times people had to arrange a place to gather and meet, like a place or meeting room. But nowadays, people can discuss social events or business from anyplace at anytime. The difference in today’s social networking is that what we do has remained same but how we do has changed greatly. Human beings are largely socializing beings and even since man existed they had been social networking in some way or another. Now social networking process has become sophisticated and fast, but this does not mean that it is a new invention. Any form of communication and interaction between people can be counted as social networking and there is nothing relatively new about the social networking concept. Ryan(2011.pg 23)“While social networking has gone on almost as long as societies themselves have existed, the unparalleled potential of the Internet to promote such connections is only now being fully recognized and exploited, through Web-based groups established for that purpose”. There is definitely nothing new about social networking but the way in which people interact has changed drastically. References Danah, M.B, 2007. Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship . Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication,, 13/1, 21-30. Jerchovic, J.I, 2010. SEO Warrior. 1st ed. California: O'Reilly Media Inc Larrivee,B. 2011. Social Networking: What's old is new again.. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/Social-Networking-Whats-old-is-new-again. [Accessed 08 September 11] Ryan, P.K, 2011. Social Networking. 1st ed. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group Ronca,D. 2009. Are social networking sites addictive?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/information/social-networking-sites-addictive.htm. [Accessed 08 September 11]. Sasikanth. 2011. Are social networking sites addictive?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://webupon.com/social-networks/are-social-networking-sites-addictive/. [Accessed 08 September 11]. TechTarget. 2008. social networking. [ONLINE] Available at: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci942884,00.html. [Accessed 08 September 11]. Waddington, J, 2011. Social Networking:The Unharnessed Educational Tool. Undergraduate Research Journal, 4/1, 12-18 Read More