Blog # 2

An amazing communication technology called social networking became a huge online hit as I was growing up. I remember when I was growing up I had a MySpace account, and then Facebook came in and changed the game. I believe I was in middle school when Facebook was a huge thing. It was crazy to me, as well as my parents, that you could find and message people so easily. And also, you could start posting things about your life and people could be updated. To this day, my parents are still mesmerized by social networking. I do understand it though because when they were growing up technology was way less advanced than it is now. According to the lecture, social networking sites must allow users 3 things: (1) Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system – (2) Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection – (3) View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. Many social networking cites nowadays include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, etc.  The best explanation for social media is that it's word of mouth on steroids, and people are sharing more than words. They also share ideas, pictures, video, and audio: Then other users share that content — in turn, through personal connections — at an unprecedented rate.

Social networks have changed overtime. In the present day, many social networks are used for political actions or human activism. Scholars have extensively theorized how citizens' political discussion networks have implications for elected political actors and can affect political and civic participation and knowledge (Saffer, Yang, & Qu) Especially today, with coronavirus, George Floyd, etc social networks are being used at an all time. And with the election right around the corner, Twitter is full of political sway.

Saffer, A. J., Yang, A., & Qu, Y. (2019). Talking Politics and Engaging in Activism: The Influence of Publics’ Social Networks on Corporations in the Public Sphere. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 63(3), 534–565.