The Importance Of Social Networking

1 Introduction

Internet is the first and foremost communication technology with the potential to change people social interaction. Internet has become an essential part of our lives; many websites have facility ways for people to keep in touch in the form of social networking. Social Networking Sites (SNS) is a great boon in our life. It helps in every aspect s of life. It is a very large community which is using social networks for pure education and entertainment purpose. We have also a large number of people including majority of faculty members and scholars using social network such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Google+, LinkedIn etc. Social Networking is one of the Technological foundation of Web 2.0 which allow people to create,

People use social networking sites for communication personally as well as professionally to contact with others. It provides an unprecedented platform for them to dynamically farm, collaborative groups and creates, publish, exchange, share and cooperate any type of information.

1.3 Definitions

Social network site (SNS) has become the most dynamic Web 2.0 application which enables students not only to socialize with friends but also interact with lecturers (Hamat, et al. 2012). The growing popularity of the sites is further influenced by the free access for whomever that desire to interact with friends and lecturers with a view to generating collective knowledge.

Tenopir et al. (2009) showed that scholars ‘use of electronic information has increased substantially over time as academic libraries transit from print to electronic collections. The adoption of electronic information in academic settings has been extremely successful. Despite minor disciplinary differences - more related to the amount of electronic information available in each field than to substantial differences in scholars’ inclination towards the use electronic resources - electronic databases and journals have been rapidly adopted by scholars. Recent research in the United Kingdom (Nicholas et al., 2010) shows that academic journals are central to all academic fields and that the electronic form is the prime means of access. Similarly,

He found that most undergraduate students regard SNS as an entertainment feature, and most faculty members were not active users of this technology. He suggested making social networking site-based services tailored to them and the benefits emphasised to them in order to attract them to get involved in these activities. Kanagavel and Velayutham (2010) studied the impacts of social networking on college students in India and The Netherlands. They found that Indian students spend more time in these sites than Dutch students but they were mostly passive. Dutch students, on the other hand, participate more actively than Indian students by posting to these sites.

1.4 Background of SNS

According to the fact that, the first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and, beginning in 1998, surf the Friends lists. Each of these features existed in some form before SixDegrees, of course. Profiles existed on most major dating sites and many community sites. AIM and ICQ buddy lists supported lists of Friends, although those Friends were not visible to others. Classmates.com allowed people to affiliate with their high school or college and surf the network for others who were also affiliated, but users could not create profiles or list Friends until years later. SixDegrees was the first