Boyd & Ellison 2008

An interesting article that takes you through the creation of the social "network" site phenomenon. A few things about this article that I found interesting were the distinction of "network" and "networking", and I agree that for the most part it is the former that applies to these sites. I also enjoyed the recognition that the term "friend" in terms of SNS is often times nowhere near its actual definition but I suppose "acquaintance" or "contact" isn't as warm and fuzzy. I do find it interesting how the academic community is clamoring over what is clearly a veritable cornucopia of basically free data. The article lists and references numerous studies, almost all of which I am unfamiliar with but that have been pulled from this new medium in just the past few years. The networks organization of personal data, preferences, contacts, and communications do much of the researcher's work for them, not that that is a bad thing. I also found the scope of academic fields that can use this data and the number of avenues that they investigate fascinating. I also notice some of the ideas presented were affirmed in the chapters we read in "CMC in personal relationships".