How do social networks "work"?

The term “social network” is used in today’s world to describe web sites like Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter. Yet, social networks have been around for thousands of years and can be dated back all the way to Socrates. In current times, web sites like those listed above are ways for people to have social interaction without ever leaving their couch. By joining just one of these sites, a person can stay updated on hundreds of peoples’ lives. For example, if a person is on Facebook, all they have to do is go onto the homepage to see what all of their friends have been doing since the last time they checked. Due to the fact that the current generation is all about getting everything and getting it fast, from fast food to the fastest internet provider, it makes sense that they would have a way to find out how all they’re friends and family are doing with one simple click of a button. This is much different than past generations, but this is most likely because of the advancing technology. “Generation Y people have a desire to connect, to join social networks, and to strengthen social bonds in ways that seem foreign to the more individualistic Boomer and X-er generations” (Westlake 31).
But all in all, social networking works because so many people are interested in these online sites. The fact that everyone has to have a Facebook or Twitter account to be cool is what makes these sites work. Twitter alone “consisted of a total of 309,740 users, who on average posted 255 posts, had 85 followers, and followed 80 other users” (Huberman, Romero, and Wu 3). Yet, Twitter is not the only site that attracts thousands of users. “While the past few months seem to be leveling off for MySpace.com, at its peak in February 2006, almost one in twenty-five Internet users went to MySpace.com” (Snyder, Carpenter, and Slauson 5). These statistics show that many people are on Twitter, which reinforces the idea that social network sites work because people want them to work. If they weren’t popular, they would have fewer users which wouldn’t let them work as well which would make them even more unpopular. The idea of a social networking site is a big circle, whether or not the site works. If it does work, it will continue working and if it doesn’t work, it won’t continue working.

Westlake, E.J. "Friend Me If You Facebook". The Drama Review. 52:4, (2008). p. 21-31. Internet.

Huberman, Bernardo A. Social Networks That Matter: Twitter Under the Microscope. Social Computing Lab, HP Laboratories. (2008). p. 1-8. Internet.

Snyder, Johnny/Carpenter, Donald/Slauson, Gayla Jo: MySpace.com. A Social Networking Site and Social Contract Theory. Information Systems Education Journal, 5 (2), 2007. p. 5. Internet.