Evolution of the social network

Evolution of the social network

By Marc Cieslak Reporter, BBC Click



Andrea Sousa 207530405
April 1, 2008

The article talks about the evolution of social networking on the internet and it dismisses recent reports indicating a decline in them but in actuality, they are not. Although users are tired of repetitive actions being sent to them from other users such as pokes and requests to join groups, this does not solely indicate that this is one reason or indication of a decline. The reason is not because this is a social fad which will eventually be exhausted and then our attentions will shift towards a new one but rather there is a plateau of participation: there is only so many people that it relates to. Even though there is a plateau of participation rates, the users enrolled are in the millions from across all over the world. This ‘big player’ involved with social networking sites will tap into the million of users and try to make a profit out of it. There is big business in social networking sites which could revolutionize sites like Facebook in order to profit out of them: this means new features could be adapted into the sites in order to become more marketable. The article provides examples of new breed sites which have taken in the idea of social networking like brownbook where users can contribute business reviews for others to view and it’s for free. The big players own the sites where ideas are from the users and they also have the users so the combination of the two may spawn new social networking sites.
There is a geography about the internet in that it connects people from all over the world to one space whether it is in the real realm or in the fake realm such as the cyberspace. Even in a space that is un-grounded do we find commercialism at its best, trying to market their ideas for a profit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/7318288.stm