Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
backgrounD
Other terms such as “online social networking
site,” “networked social media” and just “social
network” have been used to describe these Web
2.0 technologies. For our purposes, we will use the
term online social network site (SNS) according
to boyd and Ellison's (2007) definition.
A growing body of survey research suggests
that youth's participation in online social network
sites may cross gender, ethnicity, and income
boundaries as teens once disconnected from the
Internet (e.g., low-income African-American,
Latino and other low-income students) now
largely have access (College Access Marketing,
2008; Lenhart, Arafeh, Smith & Macgill, 2008).
For instance, in our surveys with 600 urban high
school students from low-income families in the
upper Midwestern United States (i.e., median fam-
ily income at or below US$25,000), we found that
over 80% go online regularly from home and 77%
have a profile on an online social network site.
The majority use MySpace (65%) with Facebook
(37%) being the second most popular site, and
many students belong to more than one network
(Greenhow, Walker & Kim, 2008).
Adherents of social networking - including 70% of
today's 15- to 34-year-olds- utilize their preferred
social networking sites at all hours of the day and
night to fulfill a roster of needs as diverse as the
users themselves (February 2007, U.S. ComScore
data, ages 15-34 at all locations).
Social network Sites: a
unique form of ict
Since their introduction in the late 1990's, and ris-
ing to mainstream prominence with MySpace and
LinkedIn in 2003, online social network sites have
attracted millions of users. In the United States, a
majority of online teens have created a personal
profile on a social network site like MySpace or
Facebook and visit their social network site daily or
several times a day, devoting an average of 9 hours
a week to the network (Lenhart & Madden, 2007;
National School Boards Association, 2007).
According to boyd & Ellison (2007) an online
social network site is a 'web-based service that
allows individuals to (1) construct a public or
semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2)
articulate a list of other users with whom they share
a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of
connections and those made by others within the
system' (p. 1). What distinguishes social network
sites from other forms of virtual communities is
that they allow users to articulate and make visible
their social networks, similar to allowing others
to view your address book and interact with it
online. In this way your connections potentially
become the connections of your “friends.” Boyd
& Ellison (2007) suggest that these “friending”
behaviors through social network sites can re-
sult in more and different types of connections
between individuals that would not otherwise
be made (Haythornthwaite, 2005). In addition to
individuals, SNSs may include profiles of bands,
companies, events, non-profit organizations or
political parties (Childnet International, 2007).
use of Social networking Sites for
Social and educational purposes
Social Networking Sites can serve a range of
purposes, including helping users maintain exist-
ing friendships or forge new relationships based
on shared professional interests, political views,
a common language or shared racial, sexual,
religious, or cultural identities. In studying U.S.
Internet trends, Lenhart and Madden (2007) found
that 91% of SNS users employed these sites to
maintain relationships with existing friends with
whom they frequently socialize, and 82%, to
maintain connections to others with whom they
do not socialize; 72% used these sites to make
social plans.
Such relationship building can be accomplished
through a range of SNS features that accommodate
data-sharing in various forms (e.g., video, audio,
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