social networking site

A website that provides a venue for people to share their activities with family, friends and colleagues or to share their interest in a particular topic. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are the leading social sites in the U.S. In China, it is WeChat. See Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and WeChat.

Members create an online profile with biographical data, photos and any other information they choose to post. They communicate with each other by making their latest thoughts public in a blog-like format or via email, instant messaging or video chat.

What began for personal use migrated to business. Companies use social sites to advertise products, gain brand recognition, as well as expand traffic to their main website.

How It Started
Named for "six degrees of separation," SixDegrees.com was the first social site from 1997 to 2001. It was followed in 2002 by Friendster and MySpace a year later. Started by two friends, MySpace became extremely popular, and its parent company, Intermix, was acquired by News Corporation for USD $580 million two years after MySpace was launched. See Myspace and Friendster.

Facebook came out in 2004 targeting college students, but when it opened to everyone, it grew exponentially to become the top social site. Two years later, Twitter was launched with a different approach but created its own revolution within a short time.

Social Site Trends

1. Prospective Employees
Employers can use information on social sites to learn about prospective employees. Reading profiles and perusing photos has become standard for human resources departments in some companies. One's job search could be affected accordingly.

2. Mobile Applications
Socializing via mobile devices is growing all the time, allowing users to continue their experience away from home, school or office. The GPS feature in smartphones adds the twist of knowing where friends are at any given moment.

3. The 21st Century Portal
Socially-established sites are becoming content-conscious. Pundits believe that in the future, all content portals will have characteristics of social networking. Moreover, beyond the sense of belonging that might be sought, people will visit these sites to be entertained or to find useful information. Social networking sites compete for attention much like the first Web portals did when the Internet exploded onto the scene in the mid-1990s. Variations are always emerging (see social networking websites).

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

"We want social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to take a pragmatic approach - if younger children are determined to use social networking sites for over 13 year-olds, the sites can't simply turn a blind eye.

Cyber bullies target a generation of children

Additionally, the new service automatically stores photos taken on mobile phones onto the internet and is a viable alternative to other social networking sites.

Breaking the monopoly

"As part of the approach a number of young people have received police advice in the presence of their parents around postings on their social networking sites or messages forwarded via social media."

British Police Intensify Clampdown on Social Networking Websites

In addition to the introduction of blog websites, Ryze hit the scene in 2001 with the first professional social networking site. Ryze enabled members to make contact with business connections by inviting professional friends and acquaintances to join their network.

Using online social networking

17 -- New research commissioned by Webroot, an Internet security service company, shows companies are becoming more vigilant when it comes to their employees' use of social networking sites. The survey of more than 1,000 businesses from the United States and United Kingdom with up to 500 employees found most (81 percent) have an employee Internet policy.

Half of SMBs Block Employee Access to Facebook

Seven out of 10 adults use social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, but many are revealing too much personal information, The Co-operative Insurance said.

Burglary risk on Twitter

Detective Inspector Rob Chitham said: "You can never be too careful using social networking sites."

Online perv poses as a schoolboy; FACEBOOK

Almost everyone has embraced social networking sites: now we need to control them.

Flexing the long arm of networking law: staff in sensitive jobs need a set of clear rules about how they can use social networking sites

"To the extent a social networking site permits a lawyer who may practice before a judge to designate himself or herself as a fan or supporter of the judge, this practice is not prohibited by Canon 2B, so long as the judge or committee controlling the site cannot accept or reject the lawyer's listing of himself or herself on the site," the committee said.

You can be 'fans' of judges you appear before, you just can't be their 'friends': JEAC hands down social networking rules for judges

Reports have been published showing teachers that have been reprimanded for inappropriate use of social networking sites. A high school art teacher from Austin, Texas, was fired for conduct unbecoming a teacher when nude photographs were found on a social networking site (Foulger, Ewbank, Kay, Popp, & Carter, 2009).

Use of social networking tools in secondary education

Myspace has confirmed that files which include millions of songs, photos and videos have been wiped out of the social networking site.

Myspace confirms 12 years worth of files wiped out