[Air-L] Social network site nomenclature

[Kevin Guidry]

All,

Much of the available research refers to services such as Facebook and
MySpace as "social network(ing) sites/services (SNS)."  Let's ignore
for the moment the differences between those four permutations as I'm
more interested in learning about why some researchers use "online
social networks (ONS)."  SNS seems to be much more common,
particularly in the wake of the late 2007 JCMC special theme issue
focusing on SNSs.

Given that both terms are still in use, is there some sort of subtle
cultural or discipline-based divide of which I am unaware?  Or is this
just an oddity that isn't important or indicative of anything more
than personal preference?


Kevin