Sunday 2 October 2016


Online Social Networks: an essential part in today’s life

The world of web has witnessed colossal changes in the past decade. Web usage has seen a tremendous variation, from a mere browsing platform to a central hub of social interactions. Emails, blogs, and social networks form an indispensable part of daily life of an average individual, with social networking topping the list. The advent of Web 2.0[1] applications has made social networking the de-facto standard of communication among internet users across all age groups, worldwide. Usage of these social networking sites varies from online shopping (ex www.flipcart.com,ebay), online knowledge base (ex-Wikipedia), business profiles (LinkedIn), online journalism (blogs) to social interaction with friends, family and professional colleagues online. Every day, 41% of Facebook users and 27% of Twitter users log on to their pages, four out of ten doing so before they get dressed or have breakfast [2, 3]. Influence of these sites on human minds is statistically visible, 9 percent of digital news consumers follow the recommendations from Twitter and Face Book [4].

With the advent of social network it has become very popular trend for people to share what they are doing and what they are feeling regarding certain topics across various social network platform. Now a days we have vast amount of description, comments and rating for various services. This information is valuable as it provides individual spontaneous emotional realities.

A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

A network is defined as an object composed of entities interacting each other through some connections.Many systems represented in the form of networks, with sets of nodes or vertices connected together in pairs by links or edges. A natural mean, to mathematically represent a network is through a graph model.

Impact of Social Network

Social Networking has altered the level and style of societal bonding. It has affected the way we connect, share and build relationships with people and communities around the globe. Analyzing the current trends, it is obvious that the years to come will witness major changes in terms of connectivity, as the social web continues to evolve and adapt to our habits and technology. This dynamic scenario drives the research community towards development of innovative techniques to provide an enhanced amiable and hassle free social interactive environment. Efforts in this direction are already visible.

Social sites are primarily a major source of information exchange both personal and professional. The presence of SNS is being felt in every other sector for various activities example-: e-commerce, e-banking, e-learning, healthcare and travel.

The technological empowerment of the communication in Social Network has become vital for deriving optimum benefits from emerging change of communication. The popularity of these sites provides a unique opportunity to study the characteristics and dynamics of social networks at large scale.

References:
[1] Hendler, J. and Goldbeck, J., 2008, Metcalfe's law, web 2.0 and the Semantic Web. J. Web Sem. 6(1):14-20.
[2] Digital Surgeons, 2010. Social demographics 2010: A fresh look at Facebook and Twitter. Message posted: http://www.digitalsurgeons.com/blog/design/social demographics-2010-a-fresh-look-at-facebookand- twitter.
[3] Integer/iModerate, 2011, Social Networking and Brand Engagement Research.
[4] PEW Research center’s project for excellence in journalism 2012 state of the news media.

Ms. Puja Munjal
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Information Technology


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