The social network phenomenon

Social interaction is a human need. From the very first years of life people develop social behaviour and learn what it takes to be an integral part of society. Trying to fit in, they employ various behavioral patterns so as to find out what kind of conduct is considered to be socially acceptable and what is not. During one’s childhood a person makes first friends and hence has an opportunity to broaden his/her experience in interpersonal communication. However, no longer are people interested solely in face-to-face interactions. Given the chance to communicate with others using social networks, such as Friendster and Facebook, a global society has paid its attention to impersonal communication as a new effective way of maintaining and acquiring relationships.

The success of social networks exceeded wildest expectations and captured the attention of a global audience. It became clear that once fascinated by the very idea of social networking, people will not give it up easily. At present, there are about 60 different social networking web sites with millions of registered users each, most popular being Facebook, which attracted over 300 million people. However, bearing in mind how well those sites caters to human curiosity and overwhelming need to know everything they possibly can about their fellow men, the number of users should not come as a surprise. On the contrary, it is obvious that presented the opportunity to connect so easily, people went for it. All that one has to do in order to become a member and enjoy new possibilities of the social networking trend is sign up and log in. After becoming a registered user, the websites allow a great deal of customization – pictures and videos can be uploaded and personal photo galleries can be created.

In addition, another thing that attracts a considerable amount of interest is passing comments and adding posts on one’s friends’ profiles. Nonetheless, the fact remains that, the prime objective of making an account on one of the social networking websites was to facilitate effective online communication and efficient information flow between their fellow members rather than spy on them.

Apart from that, it is also a strong desire to show off that motivates people to create a profile. Some of them tend to compete in collecting ‘throphy friends’ and friends in general. The more they gather, the more popular they feel. Undoubtedly, it is pure vanity and burning need to boast about one’s pseudo-celebrity status that prompts people to participate in pathetic activities of this kind. Overwhelemed by the social trend, users feel obliged to report on every detail of their lives. Not only do they share information about their age, domicile and workplace, they also publish some private holiday and wedding photos in order to show off their luxury yachts or designer wedding dresses.

Social networks have been a howling success. Trying to meet their users needs, the founders employed diverse range of methods to make communication between fellow members easier and satisfy their insatiable curiosity. By emulating natural interhuman interaction, the websites have engendered huge popularity, partly due to the fact that compared with face-to-face communication, social networking proves to be somewhat effortless. Therefore, constituting a golden opportunity to facilitate communication flow between people, the social networking fully justifies its  status as a global phenomenon.

Find More Friendster Social Network Articles