The role of Computer Science in the development of Social Networks and their impact on the society.
The advent of the computers has marked enormous advancements in the interdisciplinary fields of Science revolutionizing some of the major inventions which have molded our society in more ways than imaginable. From the era of telegraphs and ENIACs to seamless multi-core super computers and mobile phones we boast of today are instances of the rapid development of computer science transforming every sphere of our lives in the history of humankind. The proliferation of computers have enabled people to connect to anyone, anywhere in the world by the click of few buttons making the world a smaller place to live in. This computer mediated communication between people have eventually resulted in complex human networks that are nearly impossible to decelerate in times to come.
What is a Social Network?
A Social Network is formed when a computer network connects a set of actors with a set of ties between them. These actors could represent individuals, social groups, organizations etc and the ties could be a common affiliation or links based on which they are connected to each other like friendship, business, etc. Alternately, social networks can be represented in the form of a graph where the vertices are the actors and the edges linking them represent the relationships.
Social Network Analysis and the influence of Computer Science in the development of Social Networks:
The study of such social networks requires analysis of local or global patterns, influential entities and network dynamics popularly known as Social Network Analysis.
Computer Science is a fast changing field and has shown tremendous potential in bolstering Social Network Analysis and has provided means to study them thoroughly.
In order to study such social networking groups, analysts concentrate on the larger social groups spread over locally or globally which involves collecting and storing humongous amounts of data, processing and studying them using graphs, mathematical models and a variety of appropriate complex algorithms and finally making a prediction or detection based on the consumed data by plotting them on a visually comprehensible graph.
The process requires collecting data, database management to store data and process such massive data with great efficiency therefore involving advanced computer techniques and systems as it is not feasible to process the data by human himself. Analysts argue that gathering data using electronic means replaces issues of reliability accuracy and issues of data management, interpretation and privacy. Hence the researchers opt questionnaires surveys, diaries or a combination of all of these to gather data.
Several microcomputer programs have been especially designed to analyze social network structure: UCINET, Multinet, Negopy, Krackplot, and Gradap, with the combination of UCINET and Krackplot being the mostly widely used. To use these applications, data often must be transformed into a matrix with rows and columns representing the units of analysis.
The collected data is sampled using certain algorithms to determine there homophily, betweenness, closeness etc. and are grouped into clusters.
Social network visualization is one of the most important keys to understand the acquired data. Many analytic software have modules for network visualization. For instance the collaborative graphs can be used to display the human relationships. A positive edge between two nodes represent the positive relationship like love, friendship and the negative edge represents a negative relationship like hatred, anger. Signed social network graphs can be used to predict the future evolution of the graph. In signed social networks, there is the concept of "balanced" and "unbalanced" cycles. The unbalanced graphs represent people who's opinions did not change and unbalanced showed the unpredicitability of the group. Similarly, the predictions could be made if a politician would win or loose an election, if the the meme would become popular or not, etc.
Impact of Social Networks on the society:
Social network analysis has emerged as a key technique in modern sociology. It has also gained a significant following in anthropology, biology,communication studies, economics, geography, history, information science, organizational studies, political science, social psychology,development studies, health sciences and socio-linguistics.
Let's contemplate on a few positive and negative influences of Social Networks on the society.
Positive:
*Social Networks connect minority groups and subcultures who otherwise wouldn't have the physical space/means to practice their beliefs.
*With our time being stretched thinner and thinner day by day, connecting with friends and family becomes tedious and mobile social networking sites offer a better chance to share ideas and exchange information on the go.
*Social media is a powerful tool for communication and organizing. Fifty years ago in the Civil Rights movement, people used phone trees and met at churches. Now, social media can organize mass amounts of people in a viral way, as it was evident in the Middle East.
The manner in which they are able to mobilize people are astonishing.
*TED (Twitter based Earthquake detection) system is known to detect earthquakes and warn the people much before the Geological systems by considering various parameters like place, time, affected people, photographs etc.
*Virtual space on the Internet is also used in business, to report bugs online, arrange client meetings, sharing slides, video conferencing etc.
*AI and Machine learning based tools make predictions about the people of a particular region and help the vendors understand the regional consumers better resulting in a notable improvement in the quality of the services.
*Certain forums and websites have built base for people sharing their agony and distress among social groups by simply being therapeutic and encouraging them in healing their disabilities and anxiety.
Negative:
*Although Social networks are envisaged to have brought people closer by connecting them on a larger scale, they have exerted detrimental effects on the privacy of the commons with unethical firms misusing the users personal information and statistical data about their personal lives and locations.
*Unmonitored children can be exposed to external threats by dis-appropriate pedophiles operating on the internet.
*Teenagers are among the most prolific users of social network sites (SNS). Emerging studies find that youth spend a considerable portion of their daily life interacting through social media. Clearly, SNS affect the demeanour of the adolescents largely with respect to privacy, youth safety, psychological well-being, and educational achievement.
*Even though studies say social networking may increase worker productivity, not all businesses are happy about their employees using these sites. The stigma of social networking as a time-wasting activity definitely seems to dominate most companies' perceptions as workers are found to spend more amount of time on the social networking sites than agreed upon.
*According to studies by a popular university, twitter is said to be more addictive than smoking cigarettes. The addiction of checking updates or notifications if not handled responsibly can prove to be an enemy of one's social life.
Conclusion:
Be it the US elections or the middle east movement, social networks have played a crucial role in collaborating and mobilizing the social groups with common likeliness. One cannot deny that fact that even though the researchers and analysts have been resisting the rapid expansion of the social networks, they have been gaining popularity among the social factions of the world.
Even though technologists expressed have provocative thoughts on the impact that rapidly expanding social media systems are having on individual lives and overall society in a survey conducted. While most respondents noted that the Internet has both positive and negative effects, 85 percent of the people participating in the survey said it has improved their own social relations and will continue to do so through 2020.
Contrary to popular concerns that people who use social media are somehow limiting their abilities to make real interpersonal connections, the research suggests that social media can catalyze close, supportive, civically engaged relationships.
What is a Social Network?
A Social Network is formed when a computer network connects a set of actors with a set of ties between them. These actors could represent individuals, social groups, organizations etc and the ties could be a common affiliation or links based on which they are connected to each other like friendship, business, etc. Alternately, social networks can be represented in the form of a graph where the vertices are the actors and the edges linking them represent the relationships.
Social Network Analysis and the influence of Computer Science in the development of Social Networks:
The study of such social networks requires analysis of local or global patterns, influential entities and network dynamics popularly known as Social Network Analysis.
Computer Science is a fast changing field and has shown tremendous potential in bolstering Social Network Analysis and has provided means to study them thoroughly.
In order to study such social networking groups, analysts concentrate on the larger social groups spread over locally or globally which involves collecting and storing humongous amounts of data, processing and studying them using graphs, mathematical models and a variety of appropriate complex algorithms and finally making a prediction or detection based on the consumed data by plotting them on a visually comprehensible graph.
The process requires collecting data, database management to store data and process such massive data with great efficiency therefore involving advanced computer techniques and systems as it is not feasible to process the data by human himself. Analysts argue that gathering data using electronic means replaces issues of reliability accuracy and issues of data management, interpretation and privacy. Hence the researchers opt questionnaires surveys, diaries or a combination of all of these to gather data.
Several microcomputer programs have been especially designed to analyze social network structure: UCINET, Multinet, Negopy, Krackplot, and Gradap, with the combination of UCINET and Krackplot being the mostly widely used. To use these applications, data often must be transformed into a matrix with rows and columns representing the units of analysis.
The collected data is sampled using certain algorithms to determine there homophily, betweenness, closeness etc. and are grouped into clusters.
Social network visualization is one of the most important keys to understand the acquired data. Many analytic software have modules for network visualization. For instance the collaborative graphs can be used to display the human relationships. A positive edge between two nodes represent the positive relationship like love, friendship and the negative edge represents a negative relationship like hatred, anger. Signed social network graphs can be used to predict the future evolution of the graph. In signed social networks, there is the concept of "balanced" and "unbalanced" cycles. The unbalanced graphs represent people who's opinions did not change and unbalanced showed the unpredicitability of the group. Similarly, the predictions could be made if a politician would win or loose an election, if the the meme would become popular or not, etc.
Impact of Social Networks on the society:
Social network analysis has emerged as a key technique in modern sociology. It has also gained a significant following in anthropology, biology,communication studies, economics, geography, history, information science, organizational studies, political science, social psychology,development studies, health sciences and socio-linguistics.
Let's contemplate on a few positive and negative influences of Social Networks on the society.
Positive:
*Social Networks connect minority groups and subcultures who otherwise wouldn't have the physical space/means to practice their beliefs.
*With our time being stretched thinner and thinner day by day, connecting with friends and family becomes tedious and mobile social networking sites offer a better chance to share ideas and exchange information on the go.
*Social media is a powerful tool for communication and organizing. Fifty years ago in the Civil Rights movement, people used phone trees and met at churches. Now, social media can organize mass amounts of people in a viral way, as it was evident in the Middle East.
The manner in which they are able to mobilize people are astonishing.
*TED (Twitter based Earthquake detection) system is known to detect earthquakes and warn the people much before the Geological systems by considering various parameters like place, time, affected people, photographs etc.
*Virtual space on the Internet is also used in business, to report bugs online, arrange client meetings, sharing slides, video conferencing etc.
*AI and Machine learning based tools make predictions about the people of a particular region and help the vendors understand the regional consumers better resulting in a notable improvement in the quality of the services.
*Certain forums and websites have built base for people sharing their agony and distress among social groups by simply being therapeutic and encouraging them in healing their disabilities and anxiety.
Negative:
*Although Social networks are envisaged to have brought people closer by connecting them on a larger scale, they have exerted detrimental effects on the privacy of the commons with unethical firms misusing the users personal information and statistical data about their personal lives and locations.
*Unmonitored children can be exposed to external threats by dis-appropriate pedophiles operating on the internet.
*Teenagers are among the most prolific users of social network sites (SNS). Emerging studies find that youth spend a considerable portion of their daily life interacting through social media. Clearly, SNS affect the demeanour of the adolescents largely with respect to privacy, youth safety, psychological well-being, and educational achievement.
*Even though studies say social networking may increase worker productivity, not all businesses are happy about their employees using these sites. The stigma of social networking as a time-wasting activity definitely seems to dominate most companies' perceptions as workers are found to spend more amount of time on the social networking sites than agreed upon.
*According to studies by a popular university, twitter is said to be more addictive than smoking cigarettes. The addiction of checking updates or notifications if not handled responsibly can prove to be an enemy of one's social life.
Conclusion:
Be it the US elections or the middle east movement, social networks have played a crucial role in collaborating and mobilizing the social groups with common likeliness. One cannot deny that fact that even though the researchers and analysts have been resisting the rapid expansion of the social networks, they have been gaining popularity among the social factions of the world.
Even though technologists expressed have provocative thoughts on the impact that rapidly expanding social media systems are having on individual lives and overall society in a survey conducted. While most respondents noted that the Internet has both positive and negative effects, 85 percent of the people participating in the survey said it has improved their own social relations and will continue to do so through 2020.
Contrary to popular concerns that people who use social media are somehow limiting their abilities to make real interpersonal connections, the research suggests that social media can catalyze close, supportive, civically engaged relationships.