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Content

1.  Introduction  

   3

2.  Introducing Social Networks On The Internet  

   4

3.  Development And Intention Of Social Networks  

   4

4.  How Social Networks Influence Our Lives  

   6

5.  Business Of Social Networks  

   8

6.  Weighing The Benefits and Disadvantages Of Social Networks  9

6.1  Potential Of Social Networks  9

6.2  Dangers Of The Use Of Social Networks  10

6.2.1  Consequences Of Giving Personal Information  10

6.2.2  No Privacy  11

   12

7.  Conclusion  

Bibliography   

Addendum   

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1. Introduction

In the past few years a great number of social networks have appeared on the internet. Though the term “social network“ seems to be something new, something, associated with the world wide web and new technologies, social networks have existed ever since men have. Any interacting group of people can be considered a social network and is defined by the relationships between the individuals. That makes it really interesting to find a system that was part of our lives from the cradle of humankind, being faced with such a young invention called the internet.

“Facebook“, “MySpace“, “Twitter“, “Bebo“, “Xing“, “LinkedIn“, “StudiVZ“ and “Friendster“ are just some of these recently established social networks on the internet. What they all have in common is that they try to connect people by providing a platform meant to help users communicate in the most convenient and entertaining way possible or by providing a matchless network service that specialises in a particular area (e.g. music or news).

Today, every fourth internet user is on Facebook ¹ - that is half a billion people. ² A survey I put out concerning the use of social networks by young people in Germany, showed that incredible 88% of the surveyed pupils are signed in on at least one social network and 81% of them log on daily. ³ So if Facebook users were a nation, it would be the third most populated country in the world after China and India (and there are still more users of other social networks) - that is quite astonishing. I decided to write a research paper about social networks on the internet because I could hardly distinguish whether my own use of such services is either beneficial or reprehensible. These days, new services on the internet that promise to be very entertaining or apparently have a high potential to improve or simplify the way we work and communicate seem to be very attractive to a wide range of internet users. While some people are quite sceptical about online services like social networks, others tend to use them without even considering any potential risks. Are they just blinded by the revolutionary possibilities based on the “Web 2.0“ ⁴ ,or do we actually not have anything to fear?

The social network Facebook will serve as my basic example for the analysis of social networks because it is the most used and thereby most discussed social network on the world wide web; its structure also generally represents other, similar networks.

¹ STEINSCHADEN, Jakob: „Phänomen Facebook - Wie eine Website unser Leben auf den Kopf stellt.“, Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Wien 2010, p.7

² Ibid. p.12

³ The corresponding graphs can be found in the addendum, “The Use of The Different Social Networks” & “How Often Do Young People Use Social Networks?”

⁴ The term “Web 2.0“ describes a new, more interactive Internet that is also more entertaining in comparison to conventional web content.

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These social networks are surprisingly entertaining, especially for younger people. But can we trust a completely new way of communication? Considering that almost all social networks are completely free, the question comes up how they can be financed. Do social networks help us organise our lives by providing virtual groups, calendars and event managers? Will these groups even be able to represent political interests? And what about the lack of privacy social networks possibly promote? Among other aspects, I want to deal with the above-mentioned questions by analysing the way social networks operate and weighing the benefits and disadvantages of social networks on the internet.

2. Introducing Social Networks On The Internet

Social networks on the internet are interactive web services that require a registration. In comparison to conventional web pages, they are similar to computer programs in that users can insert texts, upload photos and videos, and change particular settings. These networks are basically used to communicate with other members. Users mainly share messages on their own profile page, a section that has the function of a virtual noticeboard. This can also contain links to other websites, and photos and videos in that other members can be tagged. Friends, friends of friends, or any other members can comment on these notes or leave new ones. Who can access one's profile page depends on the privacy settings made. Personal information, a list of friends, and photos and videos of the profile's owner can also be displayed by selecting the according links on the profile page.

Users spend their time by making comments about how they feel and what they are doing, by commenting on others' photos, or just by browsing through other profile pages.

3. Development And Intention Of Social Networks

It was only about ten years ago that the first online social networks as we know them today emerged. ⁵ The rapid development of such networks did not take place by chance - in fact, it was based on the social network companies' ability to stay flexible, to develop high quality algorithms that were able to structure the mass of data ⁶ ,and to

⁵ WEIGERT, Martin: „Massenphänomen: Die drei Evolutionsstufen sozialer Netzwerke -Social Networks dominieren das Internetgeschehen wie nie zuvor. Wir werfen einen Blick auf die drei Evolutionsstufen sozialer Netzwerke“;

http://netzwertig.com/2010/04/21/massenphaenomen-die-drei-evolutionsstufen-sozialernetzwerke/ ; 21.04.2010 (accessed 04.03.2011)

⁶ Steinschaden 2010, p.13

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always come up with new, innovative ideas. Another significant reason is that these social networks could promote themselves just by providing their services that obviously aim to connect people via the internet. So the actual service itself was a way of promoting social networks, and thereby contributed to such a swift expansion of those.

Developers initially aimed to get as many new members as quickly as possible ⁷ simply by providing a platform that connects its users. But motifs changed over the years and other advancements became more relevant, as I will describe hereafter. The development of social networks can be divided into “Three Steps Of Evolution Of Social Networks“. ⁸ The first step is considered the “Walled Gardens“ ⁹ -phase. It describes social networks as isolated communities that simply aimed to grow exponentially and were not connected to any other websites or services on the internet. The second phase, launched by Facebook in 2007, gave external website operators the possibility to “enter the walled gardens“ by developing little applications to promote their interests. In this phase, the social networks started to develop application programming interfaces 10 . To a certain degree, it was now possible to surf specific web content, without even leaving the network site. Of course that brought along the side effect that users spent more and more time on these websites, so other social network operators tried to follow Facebook's innovation.

The third phase - “The Whole Web As A Platform” ¹¹ - that began about two years ago emphasises the social network companies' altered motifs that I mentioned before. Only Facebook and Twitter ¹² ever successfully reached this phase, while others are more or less struggling to catch up. In that last phase, major network services try to be part of the whole internet. Again Facebook played the pioneer's role - its developers introduced the “Like-Button” , a small piece of universal software (a “plugin” ¹³ ) that can be easily attached to a website to give visitors the opportunity to “like” the provided service or particular contents of it simply by clicking on this little button.

(...) it does not seem too unusual hearing Mike Schroepfer, Vice President of Engineering for Facebook, say: 'It is quite possible, that one day there will be no thing called Facebook.com any more.' 14

⁷ Weigert 2010

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Ibid. (meaning a bounded domain)

¹⁰ A programming interface that allows external programmers to integrate their own software into another system (also called: API).

¹¹ Weigert 2010

¹² A social network service on the internet that specialises in news.

¹³ A set of software components that adds functionality to another, larger piece of software (e.g. a website).

¹⁴ Steinschaden 2010, p.34