What are social networking sites and and how do they "work"?

“Facebooking”, “Friending”,“Twitting”, “Followers” and “Followees” are some of the nouns and verbs that have evolved out of the social networking site revolution and successfully wormed their way into generation Y’s lingua franca. Not to be left behind, the baby boomers and the generation X-ers have also embraced this revolution but with a bit more caution in their online performance of self, unlike the younger generation Y[1]. In his book, Friend Me if You Facebook, Westlake notes that the internet is a stage of performing oneself[2] and I think social networking sites are just another avenue to do so.According to a study done by the University of Dayton, only 8 percent of Facebook users surveyed reported exaggerating the amount of drinking or drug use in their profiles, the vastmajority of users do not exaggerate or highlight so-called deviant behavior[3]. Social networking sites offer the same template for everyone, but it’s the performance of oneself that varies from user to user. The generic template of these sites facilitates the user’s performance of self through pictures, status updates, comments and even the number of followers or friends.

Social networking sites also provide a forum for doing business, sharing information, keeping in touch with friends, ‘meeting’ new people and selling ideas. Synder, et al(2007) defines a social networking site(SNS) as “an Internet site based upon a traditional social network. One can join a SNS and meet friends of friends analogous to going to a friend’s house for a dinner party”[4]. All social network sites have legally binding terms of use which the users often enforce, along with the administration[5] but there are way too many examples of how loosely binding these contracts are. Myspace’s terms of use for example infer that using the information gained on MySpace.com in a negative manner (hiring decisions, grade decisions, promotion criteria) is a violation of the social contract one enters into when viewing the information contained on MySpace.com[6] but people have been arrested and denied entry into countries like Canada and China[7] because of information obtained from their Myspace pages. Despite the shared enforcement of the terms of use by both the users and the administration of social networking sites, users looking to protect their professional image are now more aware of third parties that could potentially use the information on these sites against them. Woe unto that 3.8 GPA student that forgot to untag herself in the “wasted wednesday” album her friend posted on facebook the day before a major job interview.

Social networking sites are definitely increasing the overlap between personal and professional life[8]. While the employee’s private life is legally off bounds on a job application, these ethical boundaries don’t apply to the cyberspace. Although most social networking sites are built around the ideas of “global connectivity”[9], “real-life social connections”[10] and keeping the people in a given network connected, the use of a given social networking site is largely contingent on the targeted audience of the user’s performance of self. Perhaps the increasing awareness of the surveillance through social networking sites will result in a more generic online performance as more people try to portray a certain image.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Untagging refers to the action a facebook user may take to prevent an image they may or may not appear in, or a text(note) they may or may not have authored, from showing under their facebook profile.

[1] Westlake E.J.(2008): Facebook: Friend Me if You Facebook. Generation Y and Perfomative surveillance. Page 31

[2] Westlake E.J.(2008): Facebook: Friend Me if You Facebook. Generation Y and Perfomative surveillance. Page 38

[3] Westlake E.J.(2008): Facebook: Friend Me if You Facebook. Generation Y and Perfomative surveillance. Page 32.

[4] Snyder, Carpenter, and Slauson (2007). MySpace.com – A Social Networking Site and Social Contract Theory. Information Systems Education Journal, 5 (2). Page5

[5] Snyder, Carpenter, and Slauson (2007). MySpace.com – A Social Networking Site and Social Contract Theory. Information Systems Education Journal, 5 (2). Page8

[6] Snyder, Carpenter, and Slauson (2007). MySpace.com – A Social Networking Site and Social Contract Theory. Information Systems Education Journal, 5 (2).Page 9

[7] Snyder, Carpenter, and Slauson (2007). MySpace.com – A Social Networking Site and Social Contract Theory. Information Systems Education Journal, 5 (2).Page 9.

[8] Snyder, Carpenter, and Slauson (2007). MySpace.com – A Social Networking Site and Social Contract Theory. Information Systems Education Journal, 5 (2). page 6.

This page has good diagrams that illustrate the overlap of personal and professional life. Some of my academic advisors and mentors are my friends on facebook too.

[9] Westlake E.J.(2008): Facebook: Friend Me if You Facebook. Generation Y and Perfomative surveillance. Page 25.

This is in reference to Myspace and its popularity among upcoming musicians and artists promoting their talent.

[10] Westlake E.J.(2008): Facebook: Friend Me if You Facebook. Generation Y and Perfomative surveillance. page 25

This is in reference to the concept behind facebook as outlined by its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.