Social Networking: An Age-Neutral Commodity – Social Networking Becomes a Mature Web Application emphasizes that social networking is driven by its users, not necessarily the system. Social networking’s rise emanates from frenetic growth, rapid acquisitions by large web companies, fast migration from specialist to generic audiences, and the dominance of a few players like Myspace and Facebook.  Moreover, social networking sites have attracted a wider range of age groups because of three reasons: older users are adopting technology at a faster rate than their ancestors; social networking sites with business skews (like LinkedIn) have generated legitimate appeal among major corporations who leverage the sites as corporate tools; and users congregate with like-minded types.

I would challenge the article’s assertion that social networking is driven – at least, initially – by its users rather than the system itself.  Myspace, for instance, began as a music-sharing service; therefore, it revolved around an object rather than organic community growth.  Additionally, social networks are only successful when the “volume of members and content results in the users obtaining tangible benefits.”  The proliferation of social networking sites dilutes their novelty (and the intrigue of their features), which will eventually exceed a critical mass of users who remain interested.