Social networking has become heavily ingrained as a mean of mass communication in our world. Almost every large news syndicate has a twitter account where users can comment on news stories for the day, big corporations have Facebook pages where followers can talk and express themselves freely, Google updates Tweets on the fly so you can see what people around the world think about a topic. Social networking is more than a way to meet friends and stay in touch with relatives, it is mass communication in the blink of an eye.
Facebook was started with the idea that exclusivity would drive their website. The idea was that you could have friends on Facebook and only you can decide who your friends will be, ie. only people you select to be friends with you are your friends on Facebook. According to Facebook their mission goal is to allow people to share in real life interactions on the web. (Westlake, 2008) The idea is to almost create a virtual "you" where you control what everyone sees on your Facebook profile page and who can access the page. Facebook then takes it a step farther and allows you to join groups with other people who share similar interests.
Twitter is a seemingly different sort of social phenomena. While Facebook lets users create a virtual life on the internet, Twitter allows users to follower other Twitter users and read short text messages about any topic. The messages must be under 160 characters and can literally be about anything. What is so fascinating about Twitter is how its use has evolved. Google allows you to search for a topic and see live what people are Tweeting about an event. Its like news up to the second and you can follow along and see what people think about a certain event. This ability is what makes Twitter such a fascinating social networking medium. As a mass communication medium it allows anyone with a Twitter account to physically respond to news stories changing the one way flow of information into a bidirectional exchange of thoughts that you the user can read online.
The reason Facebook, Twitter and all the other social networking sites "work" so well is that the everyday user feels like they can interact and actually comment on things going on in society. It also seems likely that users could use these social networking sites as a way to escape the realities of everyday life. You can be a different person online all together. Perhaps that alone is enough for many people to use these sites, as a way to escape their real lives?
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.
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I like how you mention the sort of loss of identity that comes with social networks. With the internet you can be whoever you want to be and I think that makes users comfortable and gives them more confidence especially when it comes to social networks. For instance on twitter you can tweet at a total stranger and have a 140-character-at-a-time conversation with them, without knowing anything about them, from their looks to their personality. I see how this can make people feel more comfortable because it is like everyone is equal and there is no competition.
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