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Social media networking is the activity of communicating and interacting with people online, often through shared interests, relationships, or communities. Social media is the broader category of websites and software that support this activity; a social network site is one kind of service, commonly organized around user profiles and visible connections.
What does social media networking mean?
In everyday use, social media networking means using an internet service to communicate with other people, especially people with shared interests. Oxford defines social networking as “communication with people who share your interests using a website or other service on the internet” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary).
The phrase combines two related ideas: social media are the tools and services, while social networking is what people do through them. That can include keeping in touch, sharing updates, taking part in a community, or forming new connections.
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How is social media different from social networking?
| Term | Meaning | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| Social media | The broad category of websites and software used for social networking. | The service or tool itself. Oxford defines the term in its dictionary entry. |
| Social networking | The activity of communicating with people online, often around shared interests. | People interacting through an internet service. |
| Social network site | A scholarly term for a service built around user profiles and connections. | Profiles, visible relationships, and ways to browse those relationships. |
What makes a site a social network?
In a widely cited academic definition, danah m. boyd and Nicole B. Ellison describe social network sites as services that let people create a profile within a bounded system, articulate connections to other users, and view or navigate those connections. The authors note that “The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site” (Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication).
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These connections do not have to be close friendships. A visible connection might represent a friend, family member, colleague, acquaintance, or someone followed through a shared interest. The label used by a service does not tell you how close two people are.
Does social networking mean meeting strangers?
Not necessarily. The term can suggest deliberately meeting new people, but many users instead maintain existing relationships or make their extended social networks visible online. People may also use a service to find communities around a shared interest or to start new relationships; those are possible uses, not requirements for social networking.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should social-networking statistics be interpreted?
Usage figures depend on when a survey was conducted and how it defined or described social networking. Pew Research Center notes that its question wording changed as services and common examples changed over time. Its retrospective cites Friendster and LinkedIn in 2005 and Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn in the July 2015 wording (Pew Research Center, “Social Networking Usage: 2005–2015”).
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Pew reported that 65% of U.S. adults used social networking sites in 2015. That is a historical figure, not a current adoption rate. The report compiled 27 surveys, including about 47,000 interviews among adult internet users and about 62,000 interviews among all adults, conducted from March 2005 through July 2015 (Pew Research Center).
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