Critical though : Social Construction of Technology - Term Paper Example

In this paper, I will endeavor to discuss the development of social networking sites, and identify the underlying foundations which have shaped and continuously shaping its evolution. Since the beginning of mankind, social networking has already been a common activity between groups of individuals. People in the past formed groups and created social networks because it is the very nature of human beings to create and organize communities for the purpose of interdependency and mainly communication, which is another aspect of human nature.

According to psychology, individuals are motivated by instincts which are mainly desires that can only be fully achieved in a community and through communication (Curran et al., 2010). The construct of social networking, therefore, is not completely scientific by nature, but rather socially catalyzing in finding ways to resolve conflicts and move individuals towards achieving a common goal. The fundamental idea of social networking is to connect people who have acted together in the past for some shared intention or pursuit through forming groups in which members are constantly interacting with (Curran et al., 2010). Network membership may vary from being permanent, for instance relationships within a family, to flexible, and to short-term, for instance members can choose to continue or terminate their participation as their need and pursuits for membership vary.

Trust and value within the members of these social networks are then built and developed through the members collective undertakings and perceived mutual values and needs, such that people within these social networks are likely to depend on each other and considers collective information to be dependable and trustworthy (Clemons et al., 2007). From this fundamental activity of people—forming groups with members who have collective interests and purpose in membership—the