Networking Socially(a)|社群网络的世界

by Marcus Maurice

While Facebook is the current leading social network, there is a new one that has gotten a lot of people interested.

What do Six Degrees, Friendster, Bebo, and MySpace have in common? They were at one time the most popular social networking sites around. Facebook is now the undisputed king of the social networking world, with one billion members and an IPO that valued the company at more than US$100 billion on the first day of trading. The question many people are asking is why social networking is so popular.

The first and easiest answer is that these websites make it easy to keep in contact with close friends and family members. Since everyone is on Facebook, all you have to do is go to one place to make an important announcement or share some photos. Classmates that haven't seen each other in years pop up as surprises, and people can reconnect with other long lost friends all the time.  

A second reason why social networking is so popular is that deep down inside, everyone is a narcissist. People inspect digital images right after they are taken to make sure they look good in them. They post pictures to social networking sites in hopes of getting likes and comments. Conversely, if they don't like a picture someone posts of them, they will either remove the tag or ask the poster to take down the photo.

Another reason why people sign up to join sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn is that they want to meet new people. On Facebook, it's easy to chat with others. On Twitter, if you are funny, more people will follow you. On LinkedIn, if you need a job, search through your business contacts and you might find someone who needs an employee. While social networking hasn't replaced face-to-face contact yet, it's slowly starting to feel that way.

社群网络的世界

虽然脸书是目前社群网站的领导者，但有个新的社群网站已引起了许多人的兴趣。

Six Degrees、Friendster、Bebo和 MySpace 有什么共通点？它们都曾经是最受欢迎的社群网站。脸书目前毫无疑问是社群网站世界的龙头，它的会员有 10 亿人，且在首次公开募股的第一个交易日市值就超过 1 千亿美金。许多人都在问为什么社群网站会这么受欢迎。

首先也是最简单的答案是，这些网站让人们可以很轻易地和好友及家人保持联络。由于大家都有使用脸书，因此你所要做的事就是到一个地方去发表公告或是分享图片。好多年没见的同学令人惊讶地突然出现，人们便可以不断地和其他失联已久的朋友重新取得联系。

第二个社群网站如此受欢迎的原因是，人们的内心深处都是很自恋的。一拍完数字照片，人们就会立刻检查以确保他们的影像拍得很好看。他们把照片发布到社群网站上，希望有人按赞或是留言。相反地，如果他们不喜欢其他人张贴那些有他们在内的照片，他们要不是移除标记，就是要求发布者把照片删除。

另一个人们会注册加入诸如脸书、推持和 LinkedIn 等网站的原因是他们想认识新朋友。在脸书上，和其他人聊天相当容易。在推持上，如果你很有趣，就会有更多人关注你。在 LinkedIn 上，如果你需要工作，可以透过商务联系工具来寻找，你可能就会找到某些在找员工的人。虽然社群网站还没有取代面对面接触，但这种状况已慢慢开始形成。