A New Perspective on Social Netwoks: Research on Social Networks Theory Based on the Angle of Cost

Social networks have been critical areas of social science research. Researchers have focused mainly on how to make use of social networks, while giving little attention to social networks´ cost. To address this drawback, we adopt a new perspective of cost analysis to discuss social networks. A cost model is proposed in this paper, which demonstrates the origins of networks cost coupled with cost form and three phases of cost forming.