Seth Keen

Authors: danah boyd and Nicole Ellison, Social Network Sites: Definition and Conception

In this special issue, we are using the term “social network sites” to refer to websites that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within the system and formally articulate their relationship to other users in a way that is visible to anyone who can access their profile. While we are using the term “social network site” to define this space, another common term that appears in public discourse is “social networking sites.” This term grew in popularity through press coverage of these sites after “social networking systems” and “social networks” failed to take hold. In public discourse, the term “social networking sites” been expanded to refer to any site that allows people to communicate with people that they don’t know: dating sites, chatrooms, community sites, bulletin boards, etc. What makes social network sites unique is not the ability to meet new people, but the ability to articulate one’s social network.