Essay on Social Networking Sites
Essay on Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites peaked the year 2007. These sites encouraged online social connections. Early sites such as SixDegrees.com and Friendster allowed people to manage a list of friends. One drawback to these sites was that they did not offer users the ability to publish content like blogs.
Social networking sites begin with a group of founders sending out messages to friends to join the network. In turn the friends send out messages to their friends, and the network grows. When members join the network, they create a profile. Depending on the site, users can customize their profile to reflect their interests. They also begin to have contact with friends, acquaintances, and strangers.
Founded in 2002, Friendster used the model of friends inviting friends to join in order to grow its network. It quickly signed on millions of users. Unfortunately, as the site grew larger, technical issues surfaced. Painfully slow servers made it difficult for users to move around the site. Additionally, management enforced strict policies on fake profiles. These false profiles, or "fakesters," as they were known, were deleted by the site. This approach turned off users. Eventually, Friendster began to lose members in the United States.
Fellow networking site SixDegrees.com closed its doors after the dot-com bust in 2000. Within a few years, these early social networking sites found their popularity declining. At the same time, a new social networking site called MySpace was beginning to take off.
THE RISE OF MYSPACE
MySpace brought together the social features of networking sites and the publishing capabilities of blogs. The combination of the two tools struck a home run with teens. Young people were looking for a more social way to blog. MySpace provided the solution.
In 2003 Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe launched MySpace in Santa Monica, California. As music fans, the pair designed the site as a place to promote local music acts. They
Social networking sites peaked the year 2007. These sites encouraged online social connections. Early sites such as SixDegrees.com and Friendster allowed people to manage a list of friends. One drawback to these sites was that they did not offer users the ability to publish content like blogs.
Social networking sites begin with a group of founders sending out messages to friends to join the network. In turn the friends send out messages to their friends, and the network grows. When members join the network, they create a profile. Depending on the site, users can customize their profile to reflect their interests. They also begin to have contact with friends, acquaintances, and strangers.
Founded in 2002, Friendster used the model of friends inviting friends to join in order to grow its network. It quickly signed on millions of users. Unfortunately, as the site grew larger, technical issues surfaced. Painfully slow servers made it difficult for users to move around the site. Additionally, management enforced strict policies on fake profiles. These false profiles, or "fakesters," as they were known, were deleted by the site. This approach turned off users. Eventually, Friendster began to lose members in the United States.
Fellow networking site SixDegrees.com closed its doors after the dot-com bust in 2000. Within a few years, these early social networking sites found their popularity declining. At the same time, a new social networking site called MySpace was beginning to take off.
THE RISE OF MYSPACE
MySpace brought together the social features of networking sites and the publishing capabilities of blogs. The combination of the two tools struck a home run with teens. Young people were looking for a more social way to blog. MySpace provided the solution.
In 2003 Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe launched MySpace in Santa Monica, California. As music fans, the pair designed the site as a place to promote local music acts. They