Social Network Sites: The Science of Building and Maintaining Online Communities, a Perspective from Actor-Network Theory

Historical Overview

Etymologically, a network is a net; a tissue or an interlacement of threads. The word’s genealogical illustrations show that this original reference persisted till this very day, but it is “what you can do with the network threads is what has changed with time; corps-cosmos, nature and planet, society and organization” (Musso, 2003) . From the beginning to the end of the 17th century the term “Network” was used within the context of the language of medicine. At that time the word “Network” did not refer in any case to communication.