Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship

By D. boyd, Nicole B. Ellison. 2007

1,013 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Social network sites SNSs are increasingly attracting the attention of academic and industry researchers intrigued by their affordances and reach. This special theme section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together scholarship on these emergent phenomena. In this introductory article, we describe features of SNSs and propose a comprehensive definition. We then present one perspective on the history of such sites, discussing key changes and developments. After briefly summarizing existing scholarship concerning SNSs, we discuss the articles in this special section and conclude with considerations for future research.

Subfields: Communication, Sociology and Political Science

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Citations in the corpus

Social Data: Biases, Methodological Pitfalls, and Ethical Boundaries (2019, neutral): “These norms are shaped by factors including the speciﬁc value proposition of each platform, and the composition of their user base (boyd and Ellison, 2007; Ruths and Pfeﬀer, 2014; Newell et al., 2016b).”
Between the Lines: Reevaluating the Online/Offline Binary (2015, neutral): “In their survey of literature on social network sites, boyd and Ellison covered a variety of research on online identity, and described how technologies are often designed to encourage particular types of identity shaping [1].”
Communities in Networks (2009, neutral): “They allow users to construct a public or semi-public online profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users (called “friends”) with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their network of connections [16,122].”
PREDICTORS AND CONSEQUENCES OF DIFFERENTIATED PRACTICES ON SOCIAL NETWORK SITES (2010, neutral): “Despite the upsurge in research on social network sites (SNSs) (see boyd & Ellison 2007 for a review of related literature), most studies have tended to look at SNS usage as an either-or phenomenon by focusing on the use of just one such site or alternatively investigating the use of any such site”
Using online social networking for teaching and learning: Facebook use at the University of Cape Town (2009, neutral): “…studies explore the way in which race, ethnicity, religion and sexuality are affected by and enacted in social sites (boyd & Ellison 2007).”
A Survey of Facebook Addiction Level among Selected Nigerian University Undergraduates (2013, neutral): “As described by Boyd and Ellison (2007), Social network site is an online service for users to create a public or semi-public profile, build a network with other users with whom they share a common links, and navigate other users’ profiles and networks.”