Social Networking: What Kind of Network Fits Best?

            When talking about the Social Network Analysis, there are three types of networks that able Internet users to distinguish one’s self when figuring out where they belong. When I began to think about the Social Network Analysis’ networks I hard a hard time distinguishing where I might belong. The first network group is the Centralized Network, where in a group, information from each member is individually given to one, and only one leader. This group, I would distinguish as being a part of a class taking an online course. You never meet your classmates or communicate because it is online. Instead the only one who really knows how well you do is your teacher. He or she is able to gather all the information about the class without letting anyone else know. I’ve only been in an online class once, and I do have to agree that this is exactly how it worked. However, in my class, which was a public speaking class, we were able to comment on each other’s videos and posts creating more of a decentralized group, a second group in the Social Network Analysis. A decentralized group is where everyone is sociable and has relationship with everyone else online. I believe out of all three, this is the group I would most assimilate myself with. The only time I tend to go online to communicate is through email with one of our classes, such as CAS 283, or on Facebook… with my mom… and grandmother. Being able to communicate with others and not be subjected to only talk to one person makes me feel good that my ideas and thoughts are able to be seen by others, even if they agree or disagree. The last group in the Social Network Analysis is the Chain Network, where a message goes through a setting sort of like starting from the top of a tree and going through its’ vines all the way to the roots. The only time I could associate myself with this is in high school when I was senior president, and my vice president would take all the ideas and suggestions, and present them to me to make choices at the end of every week.
     Not that I ever go on Facebook anymore, but when I was an avid user in high school, I use to tend to see more sights of dishibition, than cohesion than groups. A dishibition group, means that the group has a sense of anonymity; people feel less inhibited and have more self-confidence in self at what they type, when they know they would never say those things to that person’s face. For me, the one group I can remember where people just said anything that came to thought, was in our high school class’s group page on Facebook. When it came to our Homecoming Week skit ideas, classmates' ideas were thrown left and right. People argued with others saying how dumb some ideas were compared to theirs. However, although most of the time dishibition was shown, the communication and arguments in the group allowed success of interactivity, which allowed the class to come together in the end on one concept and agree. There is always going to be the positives and negatives when being in a group on social media, but in the end, there is a sense of camaraderie that forms as more communication occurs between members of the group.