Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

440 social networkingThere continue to be centralizing or antidemocraticpressures in the online world (for example, see censorshipand the Internet). There is also the conflict between thedesire to protect intellectual property and the free sharingof images and other media (see distribution of music andvideo, online and intellectual property and computing).Loss of privacy can also inhibit untrammeled politicaldiscourse (see privacy in the digital age). At the sametime, organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation,Electronic Privacy Information Center, and Center forDemocracy and Technology work to protect and advocatedemocratic expression.Isolation v. CommunityThere are many online facilities that allow individuals andgroups to maintain an ongoing dialog (see chat, onlineand conferencing systems). Students at a school in Iowacan now collaborate with their counterparts in Kenya orThailand on projects such as measuring global environmentalconditions. Senior citizens who have become isolatedfrom family members and lack access to transportation canfind social outlets online.However, critics such as Clifford Stoll believe that thegrowth of online communication (see also virtual community)may be leading to a further erosion of physicalcommunities and a sense of neighborhood. For many years,it has been observed that people in suburbia often don’tknow their neighbors: The car and the phone let them formrelationships and “communities” without much regard togeography. It is possible that the growth in online communitieswill accelerate this effect. Further, with people beingable to order an increasing array of goods and servicesonline, might the market plaza and its modern counterpartthe mega mall become less of a meeting place? Eventhe proposal to allow people to vote online might promotedemocracy at the expense of the contact between citizensand the shared rituals that give people a stake in the largercommunity.Thus, computer technology offers many opposing prospectsand visions. The social changes that are cascadingfrom information and communications technology arelikely to be at least as pervasive in the early 21st century asthe those wrought by the telephone, automobile, and televisionwere in the 20th.Further ReadingAssociation for Computing Machinery. Special Interest Group onComputers and Society. Available online. URL: http://www.sigcas.org/. Accessed August 21, 2007.Center for Democracy & Technology. Available online. URL:http://www.cdt.org/. Accessed August 21, 2007.Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. Available online.URL: http://www.cpsr.org. Accessed August 21, 2007.De Paula, Paul. Annual Editions: Computers in Society 06/07. Guilford,Conn.: McGraw-Hill/Duskin, 2006.Electronic Frontier Foundation. Available online. URL: http://www.eff.org. Accessed August 21, 2007.Kizza, Joseph Migga. Ethical and Social Issues in the InformationAge. 2nd ed. New York: Springer, 2002.Morley, Deborah, and Charles S. Parker. Computers and Technology ina Changing Society. 2nd ed. Boston: Course Technology, 2004.Pew Internet & American Life Project. Available online. URL:http://www.pewinternet.org/. Accessed August 21, 2007.social networkingToday, millions of people—middle, high school, and collegestudents, but increasingly adults as well—have pages onpopular Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Thesesites are significant examples of social networking: the useof Web sites and communications and collaboration technologyto help people find, form, and maintain social relationships.The origins of social networking can be traced to onlinevenues that arose in the 1970s and 1980s, notably Usenetand, later, online chat boards (see bulletin board system,conferencing system, netnews, and virtual community).In the late 1990s social networking Web sites beganto appear, including Classmates.com (helping people findand communicate with former schoolmates) and SixDegrees.com,which emphasized “knows someone who knowssomeone who . . .” kinds of links.By the mid-2000s the two biggest sites were Facebookand MySpace. Founded in 2006 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebookwas originally restricted to Harvard students, buteventually became open to any college student, and thenhigh schools and even places of employment. (The namecomes from a book given to incoming students in someschools to familiarize them with their peers.) As of late2007 Facebook had more than 55 million active membersand had become the seventh most visited of all Web sites.Facebook users have profile pages that include a “wall”on which their designated circle of friends can post briefmessages. (Longer or private messages similar to e-mail canalso be sent.) Users can also send each other “gifts” representedby colorful icons. Finally, users in a given Facebookcommunity can keep track of each other’s status (wherethey are and what they are doing).Beverly Hills, California-based, MySpace is an evenlarger site, near the top of the Web site popularity statisticsthrough much of 2007. Founded in 2003, the site was createdand marketed by a company called eUniverse (laterIntermix), and its launch was greatly boosted by being ableto tap many of eUniverse’s 20 million existing subscribers.User profiles are broadly similar to those in Facebook, butare less structured and more colorful, with uploaded graphicsand a blog for each user. Profiles can be elaboratelycustomized using a variety of tools and utilities. The sitehas also expanded into other areas such as instant messaging(MySpaceIM), video sharing (MySpactTV), and mobilephones (MySpace Mobile).Social network applications are also expanding behindthe linking of classmates or colleagues. Companies can usesocial networking software to set up user groups and providesupport and incentives. Medical professionals are oftenforming social networks to share knowledge and news—and not surprisingly, drug company representatives havemoved in to make their pitch as well. Business executivesand professionals can meet on LinkedIn, a site that linkspeople only if they have an existing relationship or an “invi-