Is WordPress a blog or a social network site

Is WordPress a blog or a social network site? To answer this question, it is helpful to first understand what WordPress is, and what a blog and a social network site are.

WordPress

Reading the WordPress website, the original developers Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg in 2003 set out to create an “elegant, well-architected personal publishing system “and today the product can be described as software that is “designed for everyone, emphasizing accessibility, performance, security, and ease of use”. (WordPress 2019?) Throughout the WordPress website there also appears to be a tangible desire, possibly driven by altruistic reasons in ensuring that all people, including the nontechnical person (like myself) can create a website and express their views publicly, in an open and free source of information. (WordPress 2019?) The term “open source” is critical here as it embraces the principles of open exchange, that anyone can use, study, change and redistribute its source code. The WordPress Bill of Rights (below) contains the company’s values on creating content/information and its dissemination. (WordPress 2019?)

(https://en-au.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/about-us/)

Additionally, according to Jordi Cabot “WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS), powering up to 29 percent of all websites. A CMS is any system that facilitates the creation and publication of digital content.” (Cabot, 2018) In simplest terms WordPress is an easy way of creating an online blog or website. (Kinsta, 2019)

Blog

The word blog is short for the words “web” and “log” and it can be described as software that allows individuals to create an online journal, diary or newsletter that is accessible to the public. Generally, a blog is written about an individual’s interest, passion or hobby and gives the individual a forum to express their views. (Gray, Leon, 2013) Visitors to the blog site can leave comments and suggestions and even though it is designed to be text heavy it can include hyperlinks to other sites of interest, images and video clips. (Lagasse, 2018)

Social Network Sites

The meaning of Social Network Sites, I believe, is best expressed by Zizi Papacharissi in his work A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites. He states that it can “enable individuals to construct a member profile, connect to known and potential friends, and view other members’ connections” and following from this he further states, more simply and perhaps more succinct, social network sites are “who is talking to whom, who is communicating with whom and on a regular basis” (Papacharissi, 2010)

Another vital function of Social Network Site is that it is accessible, anyone can write and distribute content and as the name suggests these sites are designed for networking, meaning it allows for a free flow or exchange of information and ideas among people with similar interests. Some of the most popular social network sites are Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Snapchat, WhatsApp and LinkedIn (Maina, 2018)

Conclusion

I believe that by exploring these three individual words we are now in a better position to answer the original question, “Is WordPress a blog or a social network site?’ I believe that there is no definitive answer, however, I would argue that WordPress is closer to being a Blog rather than a Social Network Site. This is mainly due to the networking component of the Social Network Site. A Blog, to me, is about expressing your own views or Leon Gray states “Blogging gives you a voice” on specific topic/s that interest you, where Social Network sites can be about a multitude of subjects that you read, comment and share and as importantly networked to as many people that may or sometimes may not have the same specific interests as you.

References

WordPress 2019? About us, viewed 21 July 2019, https://wordpress.org/about/

Kinsta 2019, viewed 21 July 2019, https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/what-is-wordpress/

Corbat, J, 2018, WordPress: A Content Management System to Democratize Publishing, viewed 21 July 2019 , https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8354434/references#references

Gray, Leon, 2013, What Is a Blog and How Do I Use It? edited by Hope Killcoyne, Rosen Publishing Group, ProQuest Ebook Central

Lagasse P, 2018, The Columbia Encyclopedia, 8th edition, Columbia University Press, New York

Papacharissi , Z, A Networked Self : Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites, , 2010. Routledge, New York

Maina, A, 2018 Small Business Trends,viewed 22 July 2019, https://smallbiztrends.com/author/antony-maina