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A social network service lets people create profiles, connect those profiles to other users, and see or navigate those connections. What counts as a connection—and whether it must be mutual—depends on the service.
What defines a social network service?
In their influential 2007 scholarly definition, danah m. boyd and Nicole B. Ellison describe a social network site as a bounded online system where a person can create a public or semi-public profile, articulate a list of other users with whom they have a connection, and view or traverse those connections. The key idea is that the service makes a user’s network visible and navigable.
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The authors chose “social network sites” rather than “social networking sites” because “networking” can suggest that meeting strangers is the main purpose. A service can fit the definition even when people chiefly use it to maintain relationships with people they already know or with whom they share an extended connection.
What features are essential, and what can vary?
Profiles and visible connections
A user profile and an articulated connection structure are the defining elements in this framework. Profiles may be public, semi-public, or restricted according to the service’s design and a user’s settings. The connection list might be visible in full, in part, or only to selected people.
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Connection labels and reciprocity
Services use different labels, including friends, contacts, fans, and followers. Some connections require both users to agree; others can be one-way. A label does not necessarily mean the people are friends offline. As boyd and Ellison put it in their 2007 article, Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship, “The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.”
Optional communication and sharing tools
Messaging, comments, blogging, and photo or video sharing may accompany the profile-and-connection structure, but none is required by the definition. A service can qualify without offering every one of these tools, and an app does not become a social network service simply because users can message or share content there.
Is a social network service the same as social media or an online community?
Everyday usage overlaps: people may call a service a social network, social networking site, or social media platform. The terms are not always used with precise boundaries. In the scholarly definition above, however, interaction or user-generated content alone is not enough. The profile and articulated connections between users are central.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →An online community, messaging app, or content-sharing service may include social network features without being organized around them. Services can also add profile and connection features after launch, so a product’s current features need not match its original purpose. When comparing two services, look at whether users have profiles, how those profiles and connections are displayed, whether connections are mutual, and which communication or sharing tools are available.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How do legal definitions differ?
Legal definitions are written for particular rules and jurisdictions; they are not universal definitions of the technology. South Korea’s online platform business-conduct guidance lists online social network services among the platform-service categories it names. Vietnam’s Decree 147/2024/ND-CP, in an English translation, describes a social network as an information system on a website or online application that provides tools for users to provide, exchange, interact, and share information. These examples serve different legal contexts and should not be treated as controlling elsewhere.
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