I think the interesting thing about the term, social network is that it has existed long before the

concept of Web 2.0, the Internet, or even computers. A social network once referred to a group of people that are somehow linked by a common factor. Todays reference to a social network is essentially the same thing, but almost always refers to a network specifically built or displayed through the use of computers and the internet. It seems impossible to use the term, social network today without the assumption that you are talking about facebook. It is still possible for an individual to have a social network of co-workers, but not have a single coworker on their facebook. The greatest difference which is discussed by Boyd and Donath in Public Displays of Connections (2004) is that todays social networks have the ability to be extremely public. If someone decides that they want to participate in the Internets social network phenomenon, they are making a choice to link all of their friends to their other friends, and in some cases, to the general public. This is a drastic change from the old-fashioned social network to the new and advanced social network, and I think it makes a good choice for a research study. Even with profiles becoming more publicly hidden, most people still allow their friends to see their other friends. This kind of interweaving of networks where all of your connections can be seen by all of your real life friends, family, and co-workers is a situation where drama can occur. Certain friends may hold you accountable for what other people say on your personal profile and this could skew their impression of you (Boyd and Ellison 2007). People have gotten fired, dumped, suspended, and unfriended because of the public connections they have on social networks, regardless of whether they were a participant in any inappropriate behavior. Many of these types of situations have been described in the media and

the attention has caused many people to be more careful about who and what they allow on their personal profiles. Another view of public displays of connections is that they help verify identity (Boyd and Donath 2004). If user Z has a large number of friends and all of these friends accept that Zs information is true, it creates a sense of validity. However, if Z posts information about himself and people begin to question or even prove that the information is false, Z loses credibility. An individual who is simply trying to connect with friends, family, and co-workers will be more honest about their lives to avoid an embarrassing situation in which someone can inform their entire network that they have been lying. Social networks in the Web 2.0 world are still a new phenomenon, so research can be tricky. A complete study from beginning to end can take a long time, and by the time the study is published, there may have been many changes made to the way social networks operate. In the context of Boyd and Dontaths article (2004), I think the massive amount of media coverage has opened peoples eyes to the idea of privacy on the internet and many people are taking steps to hide personal information from the general public. In Boyd and Ellisons Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship (2007), they discuss a wide variety of studies, over a longer time period, and although things may have changed since the article was written, I feel that it has greater relevance. They create a better sense of growth and development among social networks by discussing the history and involving discussions about numerous studies on the subject and how different trends have changed since the inception of social networks into the World Wide Web.

Works Cited Boyd, Danah M., Nicole B. Ellison. 2007. Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11. <http//jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html> Boyd, Danah M., J. Donath. 2004. Public Displays of Connections. BT Technology Journal, 22(4): 71-82