Social Networks Online Research
This piece of research intends to delve into the beginnings of social networks and social networks online. As I have covered an adequate amount of primary research into this project which has formulated a clear idea of what I am about to produce I felt it necessary to better comprehend social networks online and to put them into context with any surrounding and controversial debates that exist. I will first of all research into social networks generically before carrying out another piece of research specifically on MySpace, the platform I intend to use as my host for the social experiment of bringing Chalkhill to life online. An essay entitled “History of Communications” quite rightly suggests that in an age of technology which is readily changing each day to make our lives more convenient many of us have forgotten the processes and development that these technologies have gone from and arguably come from to reach us today. Communication between people, whether through speech, body language, the clothes you wear, the place you may be or your actions brings people closer together. Once a person knows a person on friendly terms I think it is safe to say they are then friends. When people introduce themselves to each other and realise that the same people you know, your friends know as well you begin to see an invisible web emerge and it is this which we call a network. Hypothetically a network can be as small as three people but I’d argue that less then three people is merely a conversation between two people where has three people have the ability to open three separate channels which will grow exponentially the more people you add to the network. Before the age of travel social networks were more then likely very small and consisted of your family and those who lived near and around you and who you worked with. When people started travelling I’d assume their social networks were able to grow but it probably wasn’t until the dawn of a primitive form of postal network where communication could reach further and wider then the local area that social networks really started to build up. It was believed that the Chinese had the first form of public postal system as far back as 1111BC (some three thousand years ago) as stated in the online Encyclopaedia Britannica. As populations grew however and so did transport links, it was inevitable that people needed more consumables and products, would have to work in larger scale businesses and therefore would meet more people so networks would grow larger again.
In more recent years it has been the telephone and satellite network which has initially conquered time and space to bring humanity closer together, but without doubt the largest, most influential and accessible communication and networking device of all time thus far has to be the Internet and the World Wide Web along with its applications. In some earlier research which I carried out on this course, I discovered how the Internet was formed. It began by a simple networking of computer systems across America to form a defence and communication network. Soon enough the potential of this online networking was seen and it wasn’t until computers and technology became cheaper and more accessible to the public in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s that the home computer was developed and the desktop soon with the Internet was available to the everyday man and woman. The World Wide Web was the interface that was developed to make the internet more use friendly. Once this was established and the home computer became popular many business, companies, entrepreneurs and visionaries began to have ideas (if you’re interested in reading my own theoretical research one the Internet, it’s uses and a networked society, fundamental topics of this course, please contact me on mrandrewdavid@hotmail.com as once again this is indicative reading of my current knowledge and understanding). Bulletin boards were the first simple forms of communication on the web but this soon developed into emails, chat rooms and then the social networking websites. A wiki based site (wiki meaning others may contribute or edit the page/s) on the history of social networks places Classmates as the earliest form of social networking based site. It is a US based site initially based on when you left school. It has since grown to include jobs and even the military. You can create a profile and then share through various media your own life. These started to become popular and it wasn’t until the 21st century that sites began emerging and becoming ever more popular such as Friendster (2002), MySpace (2002), Facebook (2004) and Multiply (2004). Most of these sites were initiall developed with a smaller social network in mind but many grew into much larger scale networks.The web definition of a ‘social network’ has been summed up as;”
The personal or professional set of relationships between individuals. Social networks represent both a collection of ties between people and the strength of those ties. Often used as a measure of social “connectedness”, recognizing social networks assists in determining how information moves throughout groups, and how trust can be established and fostered.” Parliament Glossary
This being retrieved from a Parliamentary document puts a very interesting spin on both the idea of connectedness through similar interests and trust. It can often be found in an online world of so much potential that much time, effort and space is wasted or neglected and this goes as much for social networks as it does for anything else. For example some companies will set up a profile page on MySpace which will attract huge amounts of fans because they’re interested in the same ‘product’ and as a result this profile may have excess of a million friends. That doesn’t mean that the person or product actually has that many friends and if the company decides to neglect the website, and doesn’t upload any new information the site becomes little more then a bulletin board for those who have already joined to leave comments or for further people to join. Maybe one benefit is that people will be linked to other people who like something similar to them but let’s take a quick look at the definition of a ‘friend’;”A person whom you know well and whom you like a lot, but who is usually not a member of your family, someone who is not an enemy and whom you can trust”
Dictionary.co.uk
It is arguable that when it comes to artists, television shows and even some so called friends on many peoples profiles are not that well known, there is no level of trust that has been built but it simply boils down to someone or something you like a lot. MySpace also markets itself as “a place for friends” (see image on homepage) which could be greatly argued in the context of the entire network and what the network actually stands for (which I am beginning to discover is a huge advertising board for not only yourself but for your products, services and people worldwide).
The article publish in Wikipedia has a very succinct idea of what a social network is which includes links between ‘values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, kinship, dislike, conflict, trade, and sexual relations’. People are connected to others for many reasons and this has happened since the dawn of time. In another article on Wikipedia specifically looking at the social ‘web’ it defines these social networks as being a platform for ‘expressing and developing identity (especially for youth), relationships, trust and is user driven and generated’. I have to agree that particularly in youth, the web and these social networking sites are a place to define and mould either an actual or an online personae and it is for this reason initially that it would be very useful for my project as we can further develop television based characters using these applications. We can then not only build stronger more personal relationships through various profiles of different characters (and more interestingly links between different shows) but also build a more personal relationship between the characters, producers and the audience they serve which I believe is a key element in this project. Interestingly Wikipedia (which in itself is a user generated application) lists in an article of social networking websites some 101 social networking applications the world over. What’s interesting to note here is that there are social networks which cater for specific interests such as cars, books, and even Christian Churches. They also have a current list of membership which ranges from as little as 3,500 (Anima a private group for the Chechen community) to the gigantic 180 million of MySpace (these statistics can be verified at the respective sites and will no doubt have become much larger upon reading this). Social networks are also categorised as open, private, invite only, for over 18 and even for the USA only (and online website for Physicians in the USA called Sermo). Another website has a weblog entitled “Home of the social Networking services meta list” which contains more then a hundred different networking sites and categorises them. Without any doubt the social online network is an interactive and creative platform which is here to stay. It is something which was initially developed to bring back in contact old school friends but has turned into a platform to establish our own online identities which mirror our lives through pictures, blogs, videos and our own interests. We without doubt enjoy our lives much more when we share and with the aid of the Internet we now have the ability to share this with millions.
