Almost all Internet users today are members of one or more Online Social Networking websites. We exchange a lot of information, share knowledge and seek online contacts in these forums. Because of popularity of Web 2.0, such online Social Networking forums are mushrooming day by day. New dimensions of using these networks are emerging for everyone in individual and business life. If you are not part of any network, it looks like you are missing a lot.
Social Computing Magazine recently published a very comprehensive article listing many perspectives on Online Social Networking. I thought it will be interesting to my readers too. Thanks to Malene Charlotte Larsen for such the great research article. I have listed the part of the article here:

1. The consumer perspective
   Social networking sites are money-making machines creating a need for added value among young people causing them to spend all their pocket money on extra features such as VIP profiles, widgets, gifts for friends and so on.
2. The youth perspective
   Social networking sites are places that help young people be young and let them “practice” youth. Therefore, the sites are mainly a reflection of youth culture.
3. The friendship perspective
   Social networking sites are places where young people can maintain and nurse their existing (offline) friendships and create new (online) friendships.
4. The identity perspective
   Social networking sites are spaces for identity construction. Here, young people are continuously constructing, re-constructing and displaying their self-image and identity. Also, the network sites make them co-constructors of each other’s identities.
5. The body and sex perspective
   Social networking sites are sexual playgrounds for young people where they portray themselves in a provocative or soft porn-style manner. It is all about appearance and body making the youngsters superficial and shallow.
6. The paedophile and predator perspective
   Social networking sites are an El Dorado for paedophiles and predators who want to harm young people. The people behind the sites are not in control of safety and do not put enough effort into keeping predators out of the sites.
7. The bullying perspective
   Social networking sites are places where young people bully and threaten each other and the sites are reinforcing and urging bullying between young people.
8. The reassurance perspective
   Social networking sites are forums for reassurance and confirmatory messages between young people constantly reminding them that they are all right and someone likes them.
9. The genre perspective
   Social networking sites are places where young people imitate and copy different genres, e.g. fashion magazines, music videos, song lyrics, commercials etc. which can be found in their profile texts.
10. The branding perspective
    Social networking sites are places where young people learn the mechanism of branding and learn to sell and brand themselves in a positive manner.
11. The network perspective
    Social networking sites are places where young people learn the crucial importance of being able to network which they can benefit from in their future professional life.
12. The love perspective
    Social networking sites allow young people to express themselves in a loving manner, thus creating a space for a love discourse that do not exist outside cyberspace.
13. The source critique perspective
    Social networking sites force young people to be sceptical of what they see and read online. They know that people can create faker profiles which make them extra aware of the identity of the people they communicate with.
14. The sincerity perspective
    Social networking sites make young people present themselves in a sincere manner in order to avoid being mistaken for a faker. This also creates a sincerity discourse among the users and people who do not follow this are disciplined.
15. The democratic perspective
    Social networking sites are places that allow young people to have a voice in society. Here, they can be heard and express their opinions.
16. The materialistic perspective
    Social networking sites are all about materialism and about having the right brands. Youngsters need to be successful with the right clothes and things in order to be accepted on social networking sites.
17. The language perspective
    Social networking sites aggravate the written language of young people. They develop bad habits of misspelling on purpose, which makes them unable to write correctly. On the other hand, their online language is really creative and they do know how to tell right from wrong.
18. The public perspective
    Social networking sites are “open diaries” of young people, but they do not think about the fact that the whole world can read their text and see their pictures online.
19. The surveillance perspective
    Social networking sites are surveillance. Everything young people write online are saved and can be used (against them) by marketing people, future employers and so on.
20. The group work perspective
    Social networking sites reinforce group work mechanism and young people often work together on profiles and are often willing to help each other.
21. The time consuming perspectives
    Social networking sites are places where young people spend way to much time preventing them from performing healthy spare time activities such as sports and outdoor time.
22. The anti-social perspective
    Social networking sites make young people anti-social and incapable of communication with others face to face. They lose important social competences.
23. The social perspective
    Social networking sites make young people more social and help them communicate with others. Especially, the sites help youngsters cope with shyness or loneliness.
24. The generation-gap perspective
    Social networking sites are creating a greater gap between young people and adults such as their parents and teachers who do not understand the youngsters’ need to be online all the time.
25. The learning perspective
    Social networking sites are places where young people gain important IT competences such as HTML design, layout and graphics.
26. The entertainment perspective
    Social networking sites are places young people use for entertainment just like any other medium. Here they watch videos, play games, upload pictures, listen to music etc. Thus, for many youngsters social networking sites have replaced the function that the tv set had for previous generations.
27. The communication tool perspective
    Social networking sites are merely a communication tool for young people and they use the sites similar to how they use their mobile phones. In this connection I can mention that the most frequent message I have seen displayed in young people’s guest books is “Hi, what are you doing?”
28. The creative perspective
    Social networking sites allow youngsters to be really creative and mix and play with different types of content. My colleague Thomas Ryberg refers to this as ‘patchwork’ or ‘remix’ culture in his upcoming PhD thesis on young people, ICT and learning.
29. The space and place perspective
    Social networking sites are spaces that allow young people to create their own place(s). And those places are as real and important as the offline places where they meet. Also, young people talk about social networking sites as places referring to them as e.g.. “in here”.
30. The Nexus of Practice perspective
    A social networking site could be seen as a ‘Nexus of Practice’. This concept comes from Ron Scollon and it “simultaneously signifies a genre of activity and the group of people who engage in that activity.” (Mediated Discourse: The Nexus of Practice). People are rather loosely connected in a ‘nexus of practice’ and I think it is a good metaphor for social networking. (I used the term defining Arto in my thesis.)
31. The Community of Practice perspective
    Social networking sites are therefore not communities in the original sense of the word. However, they do provide the possibility that young people can join in more closely connected interest groups which in Etienne Wenger’s terms could be labelled Communities of Practice (CoP’s). Thus, a social networking site could be viewed as a ‘Nexus of Practice’ with numerous ‘CoP’s’ incorporated.
32. The collection perspective
    Social networking sites are places for young people’s collection mania. Here they collect friends, guest book messages, picture comments etc. (Thanks to Jette Agerbo for pointing out this perspective on her blog.)
33. The fun perspective
    Social networking sites are “just for fun”. Jette Agerbo also mentions this perspective calling it the ‘play perspective’. However, I must say that I do not include the more game or play oriented websites (like Habbo Hotel or Netstationen) in my definition of social networking sites. But of course some youngsters could be using a social networking site as a way of playing or just having fun.
34. The technological perspective
    Social networking sites are part of the Web 2.0 and social software technology generation in which case focus on the technological possibilities is predominant.
35. The hardcore business perspective
    Social networking sites are hardcore business for the big corporations behind the sites (like Fox).

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