The Evolution of Mobile Social Networks through Technological Innovation

Communication technologies have encouraged the acceleration of information flows as people share information and interact across temporal and geographic boundaries with their mobile phones (Humphreys 2010). People use mobile technology to connect with people both locally and globally through their social networks. Despite the increase in mobile communications, which enable social interaction to take place in any geographic and time location, many mobile phone users are socially selective in the people with whom they communicate (Matsuda 2005). This selectivity has enabled mobile social networks to be used to build social ties by enabling members to access their network of friends, which rearranges social practices (Humphreys 2008) . This change in social practices has influenced people to capitalize on their tendency to reinforce bonds among existing social ties (Sutko & Silva 2010). Social ties are increased by mobile social networks, which have the advantage of offering potential value creation to businesses that seek like-minded individuals that are in the current Internet-led communication revolution (Varnali et al. 2010). In addition, there is a social and technological shift in the ability of mobile communication devices to help build and connect new relationship ties (Sutko & Silva 2010). Humphreys (2008, p. 342) states that “new services for mobile phones have been developed that purport to create, develop and strengthen social ties” as a result of technological advancement. Therefore, recent mobile phone software has been designed to help people socially network in different geographic locations by encouraging people to build valuable contacts to source and share information or resources (Boyd 2004).