Introduction to social networks

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL NETWORKS

A social network is a social structure made of individuals, which are tied by different types of interdependency such as friendship, financial exchange, sexual relationships or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige. Precursors of actual social networks were “SixDegrees”, “Black Planet”, or “Asian Avenue” between 1997 and 2001, which allowed users to create their own profiles and make a friend's list. In recent years the internet's development has increased, social networks have become a daily point in our lives and they have taken priority to other major things. Today a social network allows you to create your own profile, in which you can publish as many of your photos, as you want. The main objective is to have lot of “friends” in your contacts list, so that you can share your photos with them. However you do not only share photos, you can also share videos, opinions, feelings, interests, hobbies... and you have the opportunity to make comments on any of the photos you want as well. According to the privacy of each user you might be able to visit the profiles of friends of your friends, so it is very common for the users to spend time watching profiles about people they don't even know. However, the most attractive factor of these kinds of websites is the later point, looking at the photos of others. In this way you can know what they have done recently, what kind of lives they have, who they meet etc. In other words: you can find out about anyone’s life, which of course, has lots of advantages but it also has many drawbacks.