Social networking service and social issues

This article is about the type of service. For the social science theoretical concept of relationships between people, see Social network. For a list of services, see List of social networking websites.

A social networking service is a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his social links, and a variety of additional services. Social networking is web-based services that allow individuals to create a public profile, to create a list of users with whom to share connection, and view and cross the connections within the system.^[1]Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging.Social network sites are varied and they incorporate new information and communication tools such as, mobile connectivity, photo/video/sharing and blogging.^[1] Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, pictures, posts, activities, events, and interests with people in their network.

The main types of social networking services are those that contain category places (such as former school year or classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and a recommendation system linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with American-based services such as Facebook, Google+,YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter widely used worldwide; Nexopia in Canada;^[2] Badoo,^[3] Bebol ^[4] VKontakte (Russia), Delphi (also called Delphi Forums), Draugiem.lv (mostly in Latvia), Hi5 (Europe), Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), iWiW (mostyin Hungary), Nasza-Klasa, Soup (mostly in Poland), Glocals in Switzerland,Skyrock, The Sphere, StudiVZ (mostly in Germany), Tagged, Tuenti (mostly in Spain), and XING^[5] in parts of Europe;^[6] Hi5 and Orkut in South America and Central America;^[7]Mxit in Africa;^[8] and Cyworld, Mixi, Orkut, renren, weibo and Wretch in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

There have been attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open Source Initiative^{[clarification needed]}). According to experts, the largest social networking users are Asian-Pacific regions with 615,9 million people.^[9] A 2013 survey found that 73% U.S adults use social networking sites.^[10]

Social issues (impact)

Main article: Social impact of the Internet#Social networking and entertainment

Web-based social networking services make it possible to connect people who share interests and activities across political, economic, and geographic borders.^[24] Through e-mail and instant messaging, online communities are created where a gift economy and reciprocal altruism are encouraged through cooperation. Information is suited to a gift economy, as information is a nonrival good and can be gifted at practically no cost.^[25][26]

Facebook and other social networking tools are increasingly the object of scholarly research. Scholars in many fields have begun to investigate the impact of social-networking sites, investigating how such sites may play into issues of identity, privacy,^[27] social capital, youth culture, and education.^[28]

Several websites are beginning to tap into the power of the social networking model for philanthropy. Such models provide a means for connecting otherwise fragmented industries and small organizations without the resources to reach a broader audience with interested users.^[29] Social networks are providing a different way for individuals to communicate digitally. These communities of hypertexts allow for the sharing of information and ideas, an old concept placed in a digital environment.

In 2011, HCL Technologies conducted resea

 rch that showed that 50% of British employers had banned the use of social networking sites/services during office hours.^[30][31]