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SOCIAL NETWORK SITES
By Danah M. Boyd,
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Nicole B. Ellison
Social network sites (SNSs) are increasingly attracting the attention of
academic and industry researchers intrigued by their affordances and reach.

Since their introduction, social network sites (SNSs) such as
MySpace, Facebook, Cyworld, and Bebo have attracted millions of users,
many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. As of
this writing, there are hundreds of SNSs, with various technological

affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. While their
key technological features are fairly consistent, the cultures that emerge
around SNSs are varied. Most sites support the maintenance of pre-existing

social networks, but others help strangers connect based on shared interests,
political views, or activities. Some sites cater to diverse audiences, while
others attract people based on common language or shared racial, sexual,

religious, or nationality-based identities. Sites also vary in the extent to
which they incorporate new information and communication tools, such as
mobile connectivity, blogging, and photo/video-sharing.

Scholars from disparate fields have examined SNSs in order to
understand the practices, implications, culture, and meaning of the sites, as
well as users' engagement with them. This special theme section of
the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together a unique

collection of articles that analyze a wide spectrum of social network sites
using various methodological techniques, theoretical traditions, and analytic
approaches. By collecting these articles in this issue, our goal is to showcase

some of the interdisciplinary scholarship around these sites.
We define social network sites as web-based services that allow
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. The nature and nomenclature of these
connections may vary from site to site.

While we use the term "social network site" to describe this
phenomenon, the term "social networking sites" also appears in public
discourse, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. We chose not

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Boyd M. Danah Social Network Sites / Danah M. Boyd, Nicole B. Ellison. – Available
at : http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html