Social media and networked te3chnologies research and insights
danah boyd – phd candidate at berkley
social media in context, historical perspective
web2.0
tech crowd sees it as a shift in deployment, perpetual beta, user generated content
business crowd – hope, came after tech bubble crashed,
rise of the social network sites – certain things are consistent across them
does not say social networking – just social network bc what makes these sites unique is that they have to do with the public socialization of your actual social network
profiles – physical world, dress up, do hair etc, online have to do dress up formally, dressing up your profile is a way to make yourself known online, you create a profile you think expresses who you are to the ppl around you
most ppl lie about their age onilne, adults decrease, young ppl increase, adults are descriptive young ppl think no one needs to know
dress up profile as they would their bedroom or backpacks
Friends – are you my friend yes or no? Have to publicly answer that, the term friend means something different to different ppl, some have lower level friends are using sites to connect with ppl they are really close with. Some pppl have hundreds, these are the connections with ppl they work worth, go to school with, went to school with
ppl who connect with as many ppl as possible, celebrities, politicians, and 14 year old boys
myspace top 8 dangling carrot for superficial acceptance, used to be if you let me play with you on play ground you can come to my bday party
young ppl have system for dealing with top 8, adults haven’t developed one yet
Third aspect is the the wall – comments on wall is social grooming, I like you, I like you too, similar to chit chat over coffee but online
status updates on facebook, myspace similar to twitter, microblogging
creating a culture of peripheral awareness, duplicating the peripheral awareness you have when yore in the same room with someone
why are ppl spending so much time on these sites
gossiping, flirting, sharing info, connecting
this is an important process
social network sites are the mall, or the parking lots of our teenage years, in part because kids are not allowed outside as much as they used to be, there is data on who much we have decrease the mobility of young ppl, so online is very important, fear is part of the restriction, upper middle class over structuring of kids lives, is part, lack of mobility is part,
if you are not on myspace you don’t exist – you have to have a profile on these social network sites, if you are able to get out and get together, online becomes an archive of those outings
these sites have become public spaces
properties:
persistence – what you stay sticks around, every ephemeral act is now persistent,
replicability – can copy something from one channel to another, you don’t know the copy vs the original, you don’t know how its been modified or chopped up, makes Jon stewart fun but also how young ppl bully each other
scalability – potential for it to be ready by millions and millions of ppl, but the reality of reaching nobody, the average blog is read by 6 ppl
searchability – ppl don’t know where you are in space, your not searchable when you’re walking around, but when you participate online you become serachable, even by those you don’t want, searchability is most deadly when its available to the ppl who have the most influence over you, bosses, teachers, etc
invisible audiences – if you are in front of a group you can see your audience, online audiences are invisible, even if we know who is there now, you dnot know who will see it later, by copy and paste, searching
public articulation of friends is a public articulation of the intended audience
collapsed contexts – can be socializing with your boss at the same time you are socializing with your kids, you act different
public = private
what does this mean?
Radical changes in ways info is spread and the ways ppl participate
tagging –
wikipedia – we are not teaching ppl to think about this in a way that is interesting, how is knowledge produced, american revolution page on wikipedia, american and british historians trying to come to a consnsus
breakdown of traditional forms of authorship and ownership, no distinction btwn comsumption and production – fanfiction
our traditional ways of informatin access can be modernized,
will work for attention sign
libs get the changes better than many ppl even when we dont like, have to remember we are just one player in a very broad system
4 key pts social forces, social norms, market, architecture, law
net neutrality – all bits are created equal, or does your isp decide what comes up, how do we deal with this? This is about the futre of innovation, the future of culture participation
DRM – defectivebydesign.org, about locking all forms for culture contribution, restricts ability to make new cultural artifacts
what do we mean by open access, how do we balance the orgnial intent of copyright against the needs of consumers
fair use – ppl say cant link to them, publishers say cant use more than 10 words, fair use is only a defense, its not proactive, only comes into play when youve been sued
flickr – creative commons at its best
we about to see all of this get much more mobile, we don’t have standards in mobile space, if you are not on the same platform, you cant use same apps as each other, phones cant connect
(de)locatibility – regardless of where yo uare in the physical world you can bring the digital to you, you can take what ever is in the physcial space relevant in the broader context, move physical space to internet, find nearby restaruants
technology is readically reshaping public as we know it
how do we ant to shape and move not just the tech but the ppl around it, guide ppl who are engaging with technology
Librarian by Day 