This article covers the definition and history of social networks, how they differ from blogs, and their impact on human relationships and social change, and explains why they play such an important role in modern society.
Social networks are one of those things that have become so deeply embedded in our lives that they have become indispensable. The term “social networking” is used all around us, but we often don’t know exactly what it means or how it fits into the category of services we use. So, in this article, we’ll take a closer look at SNS.
First, it’s important to understand how social network services (SNS) came to be. With the development of the internet, people needed a way to communicate with each other that was no longer limited by physical distance or time, and this need led to the birth of social networking services. In the early days of the Internet, people simply searched for information or sent and received emails, but as time went on, people wanted to share their lives and thoughts, and eventually make new connections. Social network services were born against this background.
According to Doosan Encyclopedia, the definition of social network service (SNS) is as follows. “Social Network Service” is a service that enables users to strengthen their connections with acquaintances such as friends, classmates, and coworkers on the web, build new connections, and form a broader human network. Sometimes it is simply referred to as “SNS”. It is a one-person media, one-person community that allows individuals to share information and communicate on the Internet.”
In short, a social network service is a service that allows you to organize human relationships over the web. The definition is so simple that it only takes a moment to realize that the category of social network services is very broad. It would certainly include services like Whatsapp, which was around before the term social network was even popularized.
With such a broad category of social network services, there are many services that are easily mistaken for social network services. One example is blogs. Blogs are a type of media that is part of social media, but they are not the same as social network services.
According to Wikipedia, the definition of social media is as follows “Social media refers to open online platforms that allow individuals to share their thoughts, opinions, experiences, information, etc. with each other and to create or expand relationships with others, based on the foundation of social networks, with the advent of the Web 2.0 era, which is summarized by the values of openness, participation, and sharing. Because social media grows like an organism in itself, the usual mechanisms of consumption and production do not apply, and it is characterized by its interactivity, where users voluntarily participate, share information, and create content. In other words, while traditional media such as TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, etc. have the characteristics of communication based on a one-to- many, one-way relationship, social media is based on a many-to-many, interactive relationship in which various types of content are created and shared by various users, so it can be characterized as a one-person media and a one-person community. Social media promotes the democratization and openness of information by transforming the one-sided monologue of broadcast media into a dialogue of social media and enabling its users to become both content consumers and content producers. Social media can be categorized into five types: blogs, social network services (SNS), wikis, user-created content (UCC), and micro-blogs, and generally includes any web-based platform that provides services that enable people to connect and interact with people or information.”
According to the above definition, blogs and social networking services are categorized differently. While they both use the web, the distinction seems to be that blogs are used to keep a record of one’s self and social network services are used to deal with one’s relationships. However, in reality, web services often provide multiple services at the same time, so even if a blog is not a social network service, the two often coexist. This is the same principle as how ballpoint pens and highlighters are classified as different writing instruments, but it is more convenient to use them together when writing. One of the best examples of a social network that offers both a blog and a social networking service is Whatsapp.
Social networking services have been around since the beginning of the internet. As soon as computers started connecting to the internet and exchanging information, there were attempts to extend the digital way of communicating between people by sending words over the internet. The basic purpose of Usenet and Apache, the prototypes of the Internet, was to allow users to communicate with each other, so it’s no surprise that the Internet and social networking services developed together.
If you look at the history of social network services, especially in the United States, where the Internet developed the fastest, early social network services were no different from online communities. Globe.com, Geocities.com, and Tripod.com, for example, were mainly used for chatting in chat rooms or creating personal homepages. Then, Six Degrees.com appeared, providing a service that distinguished users’ friends, and true social network services that revolved around a person’s relationships began to be provided, moving beyond the stage of a community that was simply a gathering of people. After that, various services were created, and MySpace, which started as a community for musicians, became popular, which was the trigger for the spread of social network services to the masses. And Facebook, which was originally used for university communities, expanded globally with the advent of smartphones, creating the current status of social network services.
Korea’s social networking services have a similar history to that of the United States. In Korea, alumni communities such as I Love School were popular for a while, and then a community called Pretzel appeared and became very popular. However, when Pretzel became paid, it was replaced by Whatsapp, and Whatsapp dominated social networking services in Korea until Facebook appeared.
But to understand the true meaning and impact of social media, it’s important to realize that it’s not just about making connections and maintaining relationships; it’s also about spreading personal opinions globally, sparking social issues, and sometimes being used as a tool for political movements. For example, the important role that Facebook and Twitter played in the Arab Spring protests demonstrates that social networks have an impact that goes beyond simply maintaining relationships. In this sense, social network services are more than just technological tools; they are important catalysts for change and evolution in modern society.
As the number of social network services has increased, so has the variety of services. To some extent, this is due to the fact that social network services have made efforts to improve the quality of their services by adding features and improving their services, but in many cases, other services have capitalized on the popularity and advantages of social network services to improve the quality of their services. First of all, the gaming sector, which is the most sensitive to consumer tastes and trends, has been the first to benefit from the integration of social network services. There are many applications of social network services in gaming, such as providing benefits and sharing game records with others through social network services. It’s also not uncommon to see games embedded within social network services in reverse. An example of this is the inclusion of Tetris on Facebook, where the positive interaction made it a huge hit. Even e-commerce, which is relatively quick to adopt different trends, hasn’t missed out on social networking services. Social commerce was created by combining collective purchasing with social networking services, and it has now developed into a large-scale business. Social commerce is a method of offering deep discounts when a certain number of sales are made, and it is important to spread the news quickly, so people use social networking services to spread the word.
Social networking services are services that help people organize their relationships on the web and are categorized as a form of social media, along with blogs. The most important thing in relationships is communication, and social networking services have evolved alongside the internet because they use the internet as a means of communication. Nowadays, they are deeply embedded in our lives, linked to various services that exist on or off the Internet. In the future, social network services will become more and more important, familiar, and commonplace in our lives and in our relationships, just like conversations. I believe that these social network services are a new way of managing human relationships that has emerged as the era has changed from analog to digital.
