Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship

Social network sites are a growing phenomenon that is rapidly becoming embedded is everybody's daily life. This article gives the definition, history and scholarship of social network sites.

The article defines social network sites as "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." Which means a person can create a profile of themselves for either the public to see or just people they approve. They can make lists of people they know and distinguish them from others.

The first official social network site was sixdegrees.com which allowed users to create a profile and find friends. Then came sites for dating and finding classmates. It quickly evolved and became a major phenomena among the youth.

This article was a nice overview of how social network sites have evolved and came about. It was a very interesting read.

Boyd, D. M. and Ellison, N. B. (2008), Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 210–230. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x