Notes:
Tkacz and Kapczynski
The internet is one of the biggest advances in information transfer since discovery of printing
Kirby
The secret of facebook is its close mimicry to friendship
Facebook comes to feel like the electronic nourishment of your friends
None of this is real friendship- it’s electronic friendship. It passes via a keyboard and screen; flesh-and-blood persons are not involved, only accounts, no palpable items are exchanged as gifts. Friendship nourishes friendship but does not provide it.
Wood
Communicating in computer-mediated-contexts is somehow different than any other form of communication
Computer-mediated-communication is an integration of computer technology with our everyday lives. The field of CMC studies how human behaviors are maintained or altered by exchange of information through machines.
Thurlow et. Al
“ CMC is a process of human communication via computers involving people, engaging in processes to shape media for a variety of purposes – John December 1997”
“CMC is communication that takes place between human beings via instrumentation of computer – Susan Herring 1996”
CMC is usually concerned more specifically with human interpersonal communication
Nayar
Social networking sites: web-based services where people can host profiles, chat and communicate, social network sites are a kind of virtual social-public space
Social networking sites blur the distinction between the public and the private because one spills over into the other. An existing social relationship is affected, altered and reinforced by online “friending.” The converse- where online interaction leads to offline dating is just a true. SNSs therefore constitute a third space between public and private where online and offline identities and relations are merged.
The extent of communication online is dependent upon and informed by relationships offline.
Friendships are increasingly mediated and technologized through online interactions( one cannot imagine a social structure or situation that is not mediated). There is a recursive relation between offline and online relations. Offline relationships inform online ones and vice versa, because technology makes the difference between “being with someone somewhere” to “not being with someone” when one is (electronically) still linked.
Augmentation is the logic of the SNSs where we continue to be with someone even if physically separated.
Boyd
Social networking sites are web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public figure within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and transverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.
Networking emphasizes relationship initiation often between strangers. Though possible on sites, its not the primary practice on many of them. SNSs participants are not necessarily networking or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily connecting gwith people who are already a part of their extended social network.
History
First recognizable social network site launched in 1997: SixDegrees.com which allowed users to create profiles, list their friends and beginning in 1998, surf their friends lists. It was first to combine these features
Sixdegrees promoted itself as a tool to help people connect with and send messages to others. Though it attracted millions of users, the service closed and the founder believed that it was simply ahead of its time. Most did not have extended networks who were online
1997-2001 a number of community tools began supporting various combination of profiles and publicy articulated friends

Timeline: a history of social networking sites
Posted on February 11, 2010
Laura Davies communicating views http://lauramdavies.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/timeline-a-history-of-social-networking-sites/ 1995: Classmates.com is a social media website created by Randy Conrad. The website helps members find,