Stay Connected: A Genealogical Investigation of the History of Social Network Technologies

Abstract

Social Network Sites have experienced a rapid increase in popularity since their inception in the latter half of the 1990s. These sites however have also drawn heavy criticism; for example, they have been described as a threat to user's privacy and as not adequately addressing their users' needs. As a response to this alternative social networks have been started - however these enjoy relatively little success and have in turn been criticized for not addressing concerns effectively. Social Network Sites as they are known now have only existed since 1997 - as described by boyd and Ellison - and were preceded by a variety of other social technologies that often adopted a different paradigm with regards to software development and methods of user involvement. In this thesis, these older technologies (specifically IRC, USENET and Finger) will be described genealogically, to investigate whether their features and paradigms would be of use in addressing the issues with contemporary Social Network Sites. In this analysis the ecosystem – technological, social and political - in which these technologies were developed is key, and an important factor in determining how features found in older technologies would fare in the current ecosystem.