Journal Review 23 : Online Social Network

Social networking sites are the latest online communication tool that allows users to create a public or semi-public profile, create and view their own as well as the other users’ online social networks (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), and interact with people in their networks.

A website or social network can be our own magazine or gallery where anything that can be put unto word, pictures, video or music can be put here. This is what making the Internet fantastic and it still is. According to Gauntlett & Horsley (2004), the web offers people an opportunity to produce creative, expressive media product (text, art works, anything that you prefer) and display them to a global audience.

According to Pfeil & Zaphiris (2009), a social network is a comprised of actors and ties that link to the actors. Actors here can be the people, nations, organizations and many more that are link by ties which indicate a relation between one another. The links between different actors can be based on different characteristics that based on the affiliation or the exchange of resources.

Boyd &Ellison (2007) also agrees that social network site is very unique that it not that they only allow individuals to meet strangers but they enable the users to communicate and make visible their social networks with each other around the world. We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share connections and the nature of these connections may vary from site to site.

Everything is now just a finger tips away. The uses of these sites have limited the use of the old media as the revolution has changed the view of the society in communication whereas they are now more comfortable using the online sites to socialize with each other, not necessarily meeting new people but they are primarily communicating with people who are already part of the extended network. However, there are some parents decide to place the internet connection in a public room in order to monitor their children’s internet use afraid that it could harm their children.

by: Tengku Rashidah