The Social Network

A look into the world of social networking within digital culture

By Nicole WilsonCULT3020 - Digital Culture

Things have changed in the digital world that has made people accustomed to thinking of the online world as a social space.

(Donath & Boyd 2004, p. 71)

What is Social Networking?

“We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system”

(Boyd & Ellison 2007, p. 211).

These sites allow people to construct a public profile & connect with other users.

But is it really

social?

What do the users of these sites get out of it?

Do these public profiles give an accurateimpression of the user?

But also, have these social networks changed our culture and our society?

To properly answer these questions we need to learn how social networks fit into society and how they came about.

History

The first social networking site called SixDegrees.com launched in 1997, which allowed users to create their own profiles with a list of friends. However, it was closed in 2000 because it was not sustainable. There were many other websites that came about in this time, some were successful, but others, like SixDegrees.com could not sustain the websites. For example, Friendster was launched in 2002 but was not able to handle the fast popularity of the site.

(Boyd & Ellison 2007).

Myspace quickly grew in popularity because people were able to connect with bands and artists, it allowed users to personalise their profile page as well as accepting minors to join the site.

After 2003 there were many other social networking sites that were launched like Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn as well as Myspace.

Then along came Facebook in 2004, which was originally designed as a network system for colleges, but they began expanding their network to include high school students, other professionals and then eventually everyone.

(Boyd & Ellison 2007)

Facebook now has one billion active users with approximately 81% of these users outside of the U.S. and Canada.

(Facebook 2012)

These social networks are keeping everyone connected in the world of digital culture. However, does this mean that by being connected in a digital environment people are less involved in the real world?

“If you’re not on Myspace, you don’t exist”

Skyler, 18, to her mom (Boyd 2007, p. 1).

In some ways, people are less involved in the real world because they are constantly involving themselves in the digital environment on computers or phones. But they are also more connected in many other ways. People are able to interact directly with particular users or companies that would otherwise be out of their reach.

Most people use social networks as a means of entertainment because it provides insight into society as well as passing the time (Boyd 2007). Others use social networks “to explore themselves through feedback from others, to compensate for social limitations of shyness, and to facilitate social relationships”.

(Valkenburg, Schouten & Peter 2005 in Pempek et al 2009, p.

228)

But what do the users get from their participation in the social networks? Boyd discusses how these “social network sites are providing teens with a space to work out identity and status, make sense of cultural cues, and negotiate public life”

(Boyd 2007, p. 2)

Not only can social networks entertain people and help them learn things about themselves, but also it seems that most people who use social networks are not using them to meet new people but rather “communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network”.

(Boyd & Ellison 2008, p. 211) This is because social networks “provide an easy, accessible way to interact with peers and gather feedback”.

(Pempek et al 2009, p. 228)

Donath & Boyd believe that social networks are “sources of emotional and financial support, and of information about jobs, other people, and the world at large“ (2004, p. 71). As they suggest these social networks can be used to meet new people, or to contact a person from the past like an old school friend. As well as finding out information about events happening in the world or even to find a job or information about a possible career.

It is also interesting to see how people use social networking sites to express themselves to other users. Each user will do some sort of impression management to construct an online representation of themselves.

Erving Goffman discuses about how people use impression management when expressing themselves to others:Sometimes a person will intentionally and consciously express themselves in a particular way, but chiefly because the tradition of his or her group or social status require this kind of expression and not because of any particular response that is likely to be evoked by those impressed by the expression…The others, may be suitably impressed by the individuals efforts to convey something, or may misunderstand the situation and come to conclusions that are warranted neither by the individuals intent not by the fact. (Goffman 1959, p. 4)

But don’t be fooled as any representation or expressions online can be misinterpreted if taken out of context or taken the wrong way. As Boyd discusses users are “able to carefully choose what information to put forward, thereby eliminating visceral reactions that might have seeped out in everyday communication. At the same time, these digital bodies are fundamentally coarser, making it far easier to misinterpret what someone is expressing”.(Boyd 2007, p. 12)

Facebook is one example of how people use impression management on their personal profiles. The photos that a person shows on their profile can certainly express many things about a person as well as the information that is shown.

But the information that is shown can also say a lot about a person. For example, users are able to choose whether they express their relationship status to other users or not.

And even have the option to let other people see how old they are, where they live, places they have visited or how educated they are.

Zizi Papacharissi gives a great example of Facebook and how some “profiles may consist of a lengthy, cluttered, and disorganized page, containing endless lists of applications and postings which potentially communicate a careless or unkempt taste performance” (2009, p. 213). But this does not mean that this person is unorganised or messy, it just communicates this to other users because of the content on their profile.

It appears that the impression management of profiles can have an effect on offline social

online interaction, with people being aware of how they are being perceived and trying to change it.

interaction as well as,

“This customization makes daily life and network management more convenient. However, as taste cultures carry a distinct socio-economic component, or at least aesthetic commonality which may be connected to class somewhat, one cannot help but notice that a medium heralded as the great social equalizer gains meaning and relevance as it enables its users to construct not just mere self-performances, but performances structured around offline spheres of taste and culture”.

(Papacharissi 2009, p. 213)

Therefore these social networking sites can only give an accurate impression of a user to a certain extent; it all depends on the information that the user decides to make public on their profile. But for some reason people are quick to judge others on information from a social media website and this is why there are so many people who are aware of how they are being perceived and managing the impression they give off.

Of course there are advantages and disadvantages of having these social networking sites a part of our lives.

This is because it allows companies to engage with their audience at a low cost and at the same time promoting their company.

Many companies are using social networking sites to support the creation of brand communities, for marketing research and to promote (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010 p. 64).

But in todays digital culture social media is not just available on computers, it is now on mobile phones. Meaning the social network you are a part of basically goes everywhere with you. “Some would argue that while it enables the detailed following of friends halfway across the world, it can foster a society where we don’t know the names of our own next-door neighbors”.

(Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p. 67)

Having these social networks in our lives has also opened up questions of privacy. With all this information available on the Internet for people to view users are able to track other people in their extended network. With many mobiles now containing location detection features that are based on your position and tower location services (Hansen, Scheiderman & Smith 2010, p. 27), people are able to track your location. Although, while people’s privacy may be at risk on these social networking sites, the information is willingly provided by the users (Gross & Acquisti 2005, p. 3), as there are settings that can be modified to protect privacy for each users need.

So the ultimate question now is have social networks changed our culture and society?

Donath and Boyd believe “the types of social networks that develop in different communities have a profound effect on the way people work, the opportunities they have, and the structure of their daily life” (2004, p. 71).

And things certainly have changed in the way society functions from day to day. These days, nearly every child has a mobile phone, people organise major events using Facebook, they locate jobs online using different social networking sites, even major companies are creating public profiles on social networking sites to promote their company. The only way for society to keep functioning is by keeping up with the social networking sites. Although, they may be confusing at times with so much going on, they aren’t going anywhere.

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