Social Network Sites :
In communities around the world, teenagers are joining social network sites like MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. Once logged into these systems, participants are asked to create a profile to represent themselves digitally. Using text, images, video, audio, links, quizzes, and surveys, teens generate a profile that expresses how they see themselves. These profiles are sewn together into a large web through ‘Friends’ lists. Participants can mark other users as ‘Friends’. If that other person agrees with the relationship assertion, a photo of each is displayed on the profile of the other. Through careful selection, participants develop a ‘Friends’ list.
The collection of ‘Friends’ is not simply a list of close ties. Instead, this feature allows participants to articulate their imagined audience - or who they see as being a part of their world within the site. While SNSes have millions of users, most participants only care about a handful of them. Who they care about is typically represented by the list of Friends. If an individual imagines her profile to be primarily of concern to a handful of close friends, she is quite likely to have very few ‘Friends’ and, if the technology allows it, she’ll keep her profile private. If she wants to be speaking to her broader peers, her Friends list is likely to have hundreds or thousands of Friends who are roughly the same age, have the same style, listen to the same music, and are otherwise quite similar to her. She is also quite likely to keep her profile publically visible to anyone so that she can find others in her peer group.
Profiles and Friends lists are two key features on social network sites. The third is a public commenting featureThis feature allows individuals to comment on their Friends’ profiles. These comments are displayed prominently and visible for anyone who has access to that profileThese three features - profiles, Friends lists, and comments - comprise the primary structure of all social network sites, although individual sites provide additional features for further engagement. While SNSes allow visitors to wander from Friend to Friend and communicate with anyone who has a visible profile, the primary use pattern is driven by pre-existing friend groups. People join the sites with their friends and use the different messaging tools to hang out, share cultural artifacts and ideas, and communicate with one another.
