What is a Social Network?

A Social Network is a Web site that focuses on building online communities of people who share the same interests, activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others, necessitating the use of the software.

Most social network services include various tools such as chat, video, file and picture sharing, blogging, discussion groups, and messaging that allows users to interact with one another.

Social Networks (communities) can be used to:

• Engage with not only students but also with coworkers
• Post projects and project team members so the entire company is kept informed
• Communicate with other departments
• Individual blogging, discussion groups, videos, file sharing, and messaging can be incorporated
• Socially-engaging

Watch this video for an explanation of Social Networks in plain English.



After registering with a Social Network, you can personalize your page with videos, music, pictures, and add some information about yourself. The main purpose of Social Networks is to network with others that share your interests and become their online friends. After you become friends, their pictures appear on your page and your picture appears on their page. Both of you have the option to leave each other messages, comments on their pages, read each others blogs, view pictures, and so on.

There are some Social Networks that are mostly used for keeping up with friends and family, and also for dating, such as MySpace, Xanga, HI5, Facebook, and Friendster. Then there are those that are business oriented like Linkedin and Ryze. These are used more to network with professionals in your field.