It is interesting to observe the way people communicate on an SNS. I am going to use the example of Facebook. I use Facebook everyday and I am a pretty involved user.
I think one on the major elements that FB offers to people, Communication wise, is a very powerful freedom of self expression. As I surf on my FB homepage, I can see all the new updates of what my FB friends have been doing on there page. Adding friends, joining groups, posting pictures, videos and also if they have edited there status. I think the status area is a very powerful tool on FB. People use it a lot to express how they feel, to share a quote or even to give there opinon on current affairs and events. Among all those users some stay very suttle and don't put out much on there wall.
The basic principle of Facebook is to interact with other users, and in order to do that users use several different ways, of course they can interact with the chat, but in that case they are only interacting with one precise friend and the conversation is private. FB also offers a private messaging option, but this not what is interesting. What is I think the most interesting way users interact is there wall posting. When a user throws out something on his wall, he is basically starting a discussion with any user being potencially able to comment on the post.
The potential responder has two interaction options, he can either comment on the wall post or click the button "I Like", appearing after every post on FB. This to me the most inetesting way people communicate on FB, it gives life to the site and thats why people get so addicted to it.
To me this all lead by a strong need of recognition that we all have more or less. To explain my theory i am going to use a simple example. If a FB user posts a quote that means a lot to him on his status, that means he is sharing that feeling or thought with the other users, and if his quote get a lot of comments or a lot of "i ike" clicks, the user will feel recognized and interesting, on the other hand if no one reacts to his quote he might feel hurt or rejected. I truly think this real.
When a user writes something on his wall or shares anything he is calling for interaction or for action. He is seeking for recognition from other users.
This type of interaction has develloped so much on FB, that now with some very expressive users, you could tell how the person is truly feeling under his skin.
To conclude I'd say that FB really created a virtual world, in which people's profiles stand for there identity. And I'd even go futher by saying that by getting involved on Facebook you create a new identity. Your web identity.
Facebook is very involved in my daily life also. I use Facebook everyday to check what my friends doing. From your example, I do use "Like" tool on Facebook a lot."Like" tool is very interesting tool because last time my friend told me to "Like" some medical company's community. If we join that, the company will donate $1 per a "Like" to poor children. It was very interesting that the company was doing the event for poor children on Facebook.
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