What Is Social Networks?

A social network is a social structure made up by a person or an organization called "nodes",

which are connected by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship,
kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of
beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of network theory consisting of nodes
and ties (also called edges, links, or connections). Nodes are the individual personnel within the
networks, and ties are the relationships between the personnel.

Example

 Facebook

 Myspace

 Twitter

 Friendsters

Pro and Cons Of Social Networks

Pros
 Connection with other people
 Use social networking sites to stay up to
speed with what your friends are doing.
 You may be able to track down old friends
and acquaintances and renew long-
forgotten friendships.
 Social networking sites to promote your
work.
Cons
 If you don't share any information, none of
your friends will be able to find you on the
site. That defeats the purpose of a social
networking site in the first place. On the
other hand, if you share too much you
may discover that someone else is
masquerading under your identity
 Scammers use social networking sites to
trick people into downloading malicious
software (malware).
 Social engineering plays on human nature
to get results. By promoting exciting video
applications but need to download maybe
a video first. But the video player is
actually a virus or Trojan horse program
that can harm your computer
 Social networking can be both
overwhelming and addictive at the same
time.