Reference Shelf: Social Networking

This volume contains reprints of articles, excerpts from books, transcripts from speeches, and studies of social trends in the United States and other countries. These sources provide background information and discussion from various points of view that illuminate the subject of social networking. This work traces its history, weighing its pros and cons, and raising some of the key questions that the 2010 film The Social Network asks us to consider. This work includes a primer course on social media past and present and an exploration on how companies are using social-networking sites to promote their products. The editors have included information pertaining to how activists, nonprofit organizations (NPOs), and candidates for offices big and small are taking their messages on-line and also the educational benefits of social networking. The kinds of personal troubles that can result from joining an on-line network are presented as well as a look at how social media has shaped and been shaped by society. Authors of the included articles offer both positive and negative criticisms of on-line social networks.