The Proper Definition Of A Social Network Site

The Proper Definition Of A Social Network Site The purpose of this paper is to educate you with the proper definition of a social network site, a brief overview of its history and how they have evolved to being used in almost every facet of life today. Social Network: Definition Social network site is a web-based service that allows individuals to (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 (Boyd, Ellison, 2007). While the term social network site is used to describe this concept, the term social networking sites is also commonly used, and both can be used back and forth. I refrained from using the term networking for two reasons: emphasis and scope. Networking signifies intent of a new relationship, more often than not between strangers. Although people do network on these sites, it is not the main attraction, nor is it what makes them stand out from other forms of computer-mediated communication. The term community refers to networks that are ethnically homogenous. The uniqueness of social network sites does not come in the fact that they allow individuals to meet new people, but rather that they allow users to identify and publicize their social networks. This usually results in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between latent ties (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some offline connection. On most of the popular social networking sites, members do not actually network or look to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them social network sites. As mentioned earlier, while social network sites may have a number of unique features to them, their background still consists of peoples profiles that display a list of their friends who are also members of the site. Profiles are a one page summary of an individual. When an individual newly joins a social network site, they are typically asked to answer basic questions that help to create ones profile. They typically ask for your name, age, sex, interests and location. There is also a section that allows one to upload a photograph and some networks even allow users to upload music and themes to enhance the look of their profile page. Once a user has joined a social network, the next step is typically to identify other friends on the system or network and request access to their profiles and/or networks via a friend request. The term Friends can be misleading, because the connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday vernacular sense, and the reasons people connect are varied (Boyd, 2006). At this stage, users can scroll through their friend list and view each friends profile and their friend list. Some networks may permit access to profile pages in the same network even though a unique connection has not been established while others may not. Some even allow users to restrict access to their page. For example, if you are not directly connected to another user, you cannot view or have limited view to their profile page. Another feature of most social network sites is messaging. There is usually a mechanism in place for friends to communicate with one another on the network. For example, if you like a friends profile photograph, there should be a way to tell them there and then. The most common lingua for such is comment. Friends comment on each others pages and pictures and some even have email-like services on the networks but not all started out like this. History of Social Networks According to the criteria used to define social network sites, SixDegrees.com was the very first social networking site. It allowed its users to create profiles, add their friends on the site and, beginning in 1998, view their friends profiles. Profiles existed on most major dating sites and many community sites. Some sites allowed users to list friends although no one else could view them. Others allowed members to join networks such as high schools or colleges and see others in their networks but they could not create profiles for years. SixDegrees was the first social networking site that allowed it users to do all these. Figure Although SixDegrees garnered much public acclaim, its attempt to be a sustainable business failed and as such, the service shut down in 2000. With hindsight, the developers believed that the site offered more than was required. Meanwhile at this time most people who began using the internet more often had no networks of friends who were constantly online. It brought about complaints of boredom online. There was basically nothing to do after adding friends because people were not interested in networking with strangers. If you take a look at Figure 1, you can see a table that lists almost all the communities and social networks that have been established over a ten year period from 1997 to 2006. Some of these networks and communities did not actually have all the features that qualify them as a social networking site. Some names appear more than once as the years went by, the latter occurrence signifies their re-launch as a full social networking site. From 1997 to 2001, AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly listed friends. They allowed their users to create personal, professional, and dating profile and they could identify friends on their personal profiles without seeking approval for those connections. In 1999 when LiveJournal came around, it facilitated single connections on user pages. On LiveJournal, users mark others as their friends in order to read their journals. Cyworld, the Korean virtual world site kicked off in 1999 and by 2001 it re-launched as a full social networking site with features such as friend lists, guestbooks and diary pages as did the Swedish web community LunarStorm. After 2003, the social networking sites hit it big time. Several began to pop up for different reasons. While the basic profile based structured remained their purpose diversified some were for friends meeting old and new ones while others sought to cater to a more professional and business minded demography. Care2 connected activists to one another, Couchsurfing networked travelers and people with couches and MyChurch brought together churches and their members. Gradually as user-generated content began to grow, attention shifted to sites like Flickr (picture sharing), Last.FM(music listening) and YouTube(video uploads). Now most of these upcoming social networking sites were being launched from Silicon Valley where a lot of angel investors were pumping money into them and as such any site that developed outside of that area barely got attention. This is why some sites developed in the U.S had better reception outside the country. Examples will be Orkut(Brazils number one) and MSN Spaces. The advent of MySpace was aided by the ailing Friendster. Rumors that Friendster would begin to charge its users only succeeded in putting the sword to the heart on the already ailing site. MySpace garnered most of its initial popularity from rock bands out in Los Angeles who were trying to get their names out. They used it to advertise their shows and club owners used it to advertise bands and ticket sales. The demographic for MySpace gradually shifted toward young teenagers and adults who liked music and wished to connect with their favorite artists. Another thing that the site had going for it was that it allowed users to customize their pages and add their favorite songs to their pages. This and the fact that some adults began using it to meet minors to solicit sexual interaction were part of the reasons that MySpace began to fall just shortly after it got purchased for about $540 million. Apart from these network sites, there were others whose primary focus was a particular group of people such as when Facebook began in 2004. Facebook began in early 2004 as a Harvard-only SNS (Cassidy, 2006). To be a member, you had to be a registered student of Harvard University and use your school email address to register. With time, the network expanded but the restrictions still applied. It went to other schools but still required that a school email be used to register. This gave most people the perception that it was more of a community than a social networking site. Benefits of Social Network Sites Today social network sites are being used in very different ways that benefit a whole lot of people. Everyone seems to find a way to use them to their benefit. Consumers and manufacturers use social network sites to give and get feedback on their products. By analyzing feedback given by consumers on social network sites, blogs and other means, manufacturers have the ability to improve their sales, know when to up-sell and down-sell, they also know how to minimize cost of acquiring new consumers and many other methods. In some countries, the leaders use social network sites as a means of getting closer to the people. Some representatives use it to get feedback from their people and listen to their problems. Leaders can explain to their people what exactly the implications of certain policies and they can also get input or public opinion on certain issues that may require voting in the house. It is an essential tool in modern day leadership and political campaign. The results of the last presidential elections held in the United States were predicted by analyzing feedback about the respective candidates on sites like Facebook and Twitter. It also helped the candidates in addressing campaign issues that concerned the people. Senator Obama even had a MiGente profile that he used to reach out to the Latin-American population during the course of his campaign. Educators are finding new ways to engage their students in the learning process as well as improve teaching methods through social networking sites. Students across the world interact with one another via Skype, Twitter and Facebook during classes as a method of learning about other parts of the world and how they learn over there. In January 2009, Silvia Tolisano, a teacher in Jacksonville, Florida developed a project that involved over 300 participants in schools across the globe. The goal was to prove how helpful social networking sites can be in student education. According to her, It creates a global awareness that there is a wider world out there and that we are not alone. They find its just as easy to collaborate with a class in England as with the class next door. Social network sites not only benefit the student, the educators as well benefit from sites like Twitter and Ning. While students havent become enamored with Twitter yet, it has become a hot spot for educators to find professional development and resources (Michelle R. Davis, 2010). One of the most popular types of educator events on Twitter are EdChats-one-hour conversations that take place every Tuesday around a particular topic. The chats are the brainchild of several educators, including Thomas Whitby, a co-creator of a 3,700-member Ning site called The Educators PLN, for professional learning network.

Myth and Violence in The Waste Land Essay -- T.S. Eliot Waste Land Ess

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As evidenced by his writings, T.S. Eliot has a profound appreciation for the use of myth as a point of departure for maintaining a cultural or historical perspective. In "The Waste Land," his employment of myth is not simply an allusive and metaphorical tactic, but rather an attempt at relating his own ideas and tropes to universals in order to establish some external order for the chaos he is presenting: "The element of myth in his art is not so much a creative method, a resumption of the role of mythic poet, as it is an intellectual strategy, a device for gaining perspective on himself and on his myth-forsaken time" (Ellmann, 621). He draws from the ideas existing in the collective unconsciousness (which compose myth) and the differences in his representations present his own ideas about the human condition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The fact that mythic structures are repeated cross-culturally evidences them as the outcome of primitive, common thought. These structures include concepts of life and death cycles; degeneration, death, and decay; purgation, purification, and rebirth; and creation and destruction. A common thread throughout the various mythic structures is that of violence. Violence is necessary for the completion of mythic processes. A simple example of this idea is the axiom that destruction (an intrinsically violent act) is a pre-requisite for creation. Furthermore, myth entails specific, violent acts against the human form as means for purgation and purification.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On another level, creation is a violent exploit not only through its relationship to destruction, but also through its relationship to sexuality. The sex act, the animal process of creation, is an act of violence against the female for... ...t regenerate, and his very use of structured myth conveys through contrast Eliot's concern with the utter chaos of modern life.       Works Cited Eliot, T. S. The Waste Land and Other Poems. Harcourt Brace & Company: New York, 1958. Ellmann, Richard "The First Waste Land." In Eliot in His Time: Essays on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of The Waste Land." Princeton, Princeton UP, 1973. Vickery, John B. The Literary Impact of The Golden Bough. Princeton University Press, 1973.    Works Consulted Eliot, T. S. "Ulysses, Order, and Myth," from Selected Prose of T. S. Eliot. Frank Kermode, ed. London : Faber and Faber, 1975. 177. Ellmann, Richard and Charles Feidelson, Jr., ed. The Modern Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1965. Girard, Rene. Violence and the Sacred. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977.

Law and Freedom Essay

The concept of freedom has been a highly debated topic since the creation of the constitution in the 1700’s. Freedom can be defined in many different ways. In each definition, one commonality is apparent. Everyone is seeking freedom although has it ever actually been obtained? Is it possible to reach a state of being completely free? Of course not. Being free means having no limits or restrictions. In our world today freedom is only an idea, an unreachable concept that is constantly being chased. Freedom is not a distinct idea. Its meaning to one person may be completely different to another. â€Å"The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.†, and â€Å"Exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.† are two definitions that are given for freedom at Dictionary.com. To me, freedom is the capability to express oneself. To be able to make choices on where you live, what books to read, what music to l isten to, and which religion to believe in. Freedom can also be referred to as free hand and opportunity. Free hand is the freedom to act and make decisions. That statement helped me define my concept of freedom. With the absence of the ability to make decisions and act in favor of your beliefs, freedom would not exist. Opportunity is a synonym for freedom, and without it freedom would be inexistent. When someone is restricted from living their own life, fulfilling their own dreams, and making their own decisions, they are not free. The components of freedom are democracy, constitution, and citizens. A democracy must be put into place so the opinion of the citizens is considered, as well as maintaining a peaceful state. Having a democracy will also assure that the majority will rule and the minority will be heard. The United States has had many proposed bills shut down because they have violated the rights guaranteed to the people by the constitution. This is why I believe that a constitution is one of the main components to freedom; one of its main purposes is protecting it. Without a constitution, citizens of our country would have such a frightening lack of rights. The final component necessary for freedom are the citizens. Without the citizens, there would not be a point of having a constitution because there wouldn’t be anyone to establish or fight for freedom. These components help me live my everyday life. The constitution sets out guidelines for the government and for the citizens. The constitution gives the citizens a right to be free and express themselves without any kind of judgment or consequence. These three parts of freedom allow society to express ideas, beliefs, values, and be happy. Freedom is not the inability to express personal beliefs and nor is it easy to obtain. Freedom does not exist in communist societies were a person has to watch what they say about the government. Many people feel differently about the meaning of freedom. Some may believe that they are in fact free. Others feel that complete freedom is inevitable. In my opinion, a free state would only cause chaos and possibly destruction. The free citizen has the ability to make opinions and act according to his or her own free will to achieve happiness. It is impossible to allow every citizen of a country to be free because they would eventually infringe on the freedoms of others. Freedom is a concept, an idea, it is not tangible, nor is it a reality.

Allusions in Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville Essay

In â€Å"Bartleby, the Scrivener† the author, Herman Melville, uses indirect references to hint to many historical, literary, and biblical events. â€Å"Bartleby, the Scrivener† contains many allusions about important events that help connect this fictional story to actual events in Melville’s time period, before, and beyond. Melville uses allusions frequently throughout â€Å"Bartleby, the Scrivener† to help build connections with the real world and the fictitious world of this short story. One of the biggest allusions in â€Å"Bartleby, the Scrivener† is the comparison of Bartleby to Jesus. In the story the narrator is confronted by the new owner of the law offices. He asks the narrator if he knows who Bartleby is. The narrator replies with â€Å"I certainly†¦show more content†¦He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb. Then he went away† (NIV, Matthew 27:60). Cicero, a very successful Roman politician, also plays a very significant role in the story of â€Å"Bartleby, the Scrivener†. The narrator has a bust of Cicero in his office connecting the two cultures; the Western and Eastern cultures however are strikingly different. At around 100 B.C. Cicero led the Roman Empire in a very structured and civilized way. The Roman Empire’s governmental structure is very similar to the United Stated government because they both include three branches. The Judiciary, the Executive, and the Legislative branches are included in both civilizations; however the Roman’s devised this system more than 2,000 years before the United States. They also both have elected officials who are either elected or are appointed by the Consuls. The Roman Government was very orderly and organized, the exact opposite of how it was in Bartleby’s office. This small detail in the story creates more contrast and helps us better understand the changes that can happen in such a short amount of time. The law office was a very orderly place, it just takes one person to throw any well oiled system off balance. The inclusions of these allusions are very subtle and are not always obvious, however Melville took the time to add these into the story to further build connections with the story world and the real world to make the storyShow MoreRelatedThe Theme Of Herman MelvillesBartleby, The Scrivener1084 Words   |  5 PagesHerman Melville’s short story â€Å"Bartleby, the Scrivener† reveals different themes such as isolation and human morality test. In the story, the narrator runs a law firm and has a new Scrivener [Bartleby] who the narrator describes asâ€Å" the strangest I ever saw or heard of† (661). For the first few days, Bartleby is seen to be working fine, however, one day Bartleby just responds with â€Å"I would prefer not to† when anyone assigns a task to Bartleby (674). The real problems start to arise when BartlebyRead More Comparing Religious Archetypes in Moby Dick, Billy Budd, and Bartleby the Scrivener2226 Words   |  9 PagesReligious Archetypes in Moby Dick, Billy Budd, and Bartleby the Scrivener        Ã‚   Herman Melvilles use of Biblical overtones gives extra dimensions to his works.   Themes in his stories parallel those in the Bible to teach about good and evil.   Melville emphasizes his characters qualities by drawing allusions, and in doing so makes them appear larger than life.   In the same way that the Bible teaches lessons about life, Herman Melvilles stories teach lessons about the light and dark sidesRead MoreEssay on Bartleby the Scrivener1515 Words   |  7 PagesIn Herman Melville’s â€Å"Bartleby the Scrivener†, a story of â€Å"the strangest† law-copyist the narrator, a lawyer, has ever employed is told. The narrator experiences conflict with Bartleby when he â€Å"prefers not to† examine some law papers. Once Bartleby â€Å"prefers not to† once, he continues to repeat the statement on all request asked of him. This statement sends Bartleby into a state of tranquility, staying isolated in the cubical and refusing all as sistance by any means. This state results in him going