Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites

First Monday ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danah Boyd
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Tensions ◽  
Writing Community ◽  
Technological Limitations ◽  
Technological Affordances

“Are you my friend? Yes or no?” This question, while fundamentally odd, is a key component of social network sites. Participants must select who on the system they deem to be ‘Friends.’ Their choice is publicly displayed for all to see and becomes the backbone for networked participation. By examining what different participants groups do on social network sites, this paper investigates what Friendship means and how Friendship affects the culture of the sites. I will argue that Friendship helps people write community into being in social network sites. Through these imagined egocentric communities, participants are able to express who they are and locate themselves culturally. In turn, this provides individuals with a contextual frame through which they can properly socialize with other participants. Friending is deeply affected by both social processes and technological affordances. I will argue that the established Friending norms evolved out of a need to resolve the social tensions that emerged due to technological limitations. At the same time, I will argue that Friending supports pre-existing social norms yet because the architecture of social network sites is fundamentally different than the architecture of unmediated social spaces, these sites introduce an environment that is quite unlike that with which we are accustomed.

scholarly journals Composing Individuals: Ethnographic Reflections on Success and Prestige in the British New Music Network

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
HETTIE MALCOMSON
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
New Music ◽  
Disciplinary Power ◽  
Art Worlds ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scant Attention

AbstractIn contrast to established musicians, lesser-known composers have received scant attention in art music scholarship. This article, based on an ethnographic study, considers how a group of British composers construed ideas of success and prestige, which I analyse in terms of anthropological writings on exchange, Bourdieusian symbolic economies, and Foucauldian notions of disciplinary power. Prestige was ascribed to composers who created ‘interesting’ music, a category that eclipsed novelty as an aim. Individuality, enacted within a context of individualism, was key to assessing whether music was interesting. This individuality had to be tempered, structured, and embedded in the social norms of this and related ‘art worlds’. The article examines the social processes involved in creating this individuality, musical personality, and music considered interesting.

scholarly journals Political Humour in the Social Network Sites

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Ayşe Aslı Sezgin
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Political Views ◽  
The Social ◽  
Shared Social Values ◽  
The Arab Spring

“Social network sites” first began to be used as new tools of political communication during the 2008 Presidential Election in the United States, and their importance became even more apparent during the Arab Spring. In the course of this, the social network sites became a new and widely discussed channel of communication. In addition to its ability to bring together people from different parts of the world by removing any time and space barriers, creates a virtual network that allows individuals with shared social values to take action in an organized manner. Furthermore, this novel, versatile and multi-faceted tool of political communication has also provided a new mean for observing various aspects of social reactions to political events. Instead of voters expressing their political views through their votes from one election to the other, we nowadays have voters who actively take part in political processes by instantly demonstrating their reactions and by directly communicating their criticisms online.

Dynamical Aspects in the Adoption of Agri-Environmental Measures

1999 ◽  
Vol 02 (01) ◽  
pp. 11-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gérard Weisbuch ◽  
Gérard Boudjema
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Simple Model ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Environment Friendly ◽  
Local Characteristics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Network Topologies ◽  
Environmental Measures

We describe a simple model of the dynamics of adoption of agri-environmental measures by farmers in Europe. Farmers choices are based on their evaluation of the economic advantages of taking environmental premiums in exchange for environment friendly practices, plus imitation terms taking into account the information that they get from neighbours which have already made their own choice. We show that under a large set of social network topologies and hypotheses on distribution of farmers characteristics, the outcome of the social processes, namely premium uptake rate, depends upon local characteristics of farmers and their network. It is not directly related to average characteristics. Some conclusions and recommendations about policy implementation can then be driven.

Online vrienden bepalen de overtuigingskracht van SNS-campagnes

2011 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guda van Noort ◽  
Marjolijn Antheunis ◽  
Eva van Reijmersdal
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Social Connections ◽  
Social Connection ◽  
Marketing Communication ◽  
The Social

Online Friends Determine the Persuasiveness of SNS Advertising Campaigns Online Friends Determine the Persuasiveness of SNS Advertising Campaigns Marketers more and more design advertising campaigns especially for Social Network Sites (SNS), with the aim that SNS users forward these campaigns to their online network. By means of a survey, this study investigates whether the persuasiveness of such campaigns is determined by the strength of the social connection between receiver and the sender of the campaign. The results support the idea that SNS campaigns are more persuasive when forwarded by close friends, than when forwarded by less strong social connections. Thus, the social context plays a crucial role in the persuasiveness of marketing communication activities within SNS.

When Our Changing Society Meets the Social Media Era

2014 ◽  
pp. 1102-1112
Author(s):  
Efi A. Nisiforou ◽  
Andrew Laghos
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
International Literature ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Media Services ◽  
Media Research ◽  
Social Media Research

The rapid growth and the popularity of Social Network Sites (SNSs) are increasingly attracting the attention of millions of students for many different purposes. The chapter reviews the background of the current social media research in relation to the international literature and tackles the most important findings. The practical part of the chapter outlines the results of a survey on social media services. The findings provide real research evidence on online social technology use amongst university students. The chapter has educational and theoretical significance and shapes future directions for research on this issue. A compendium of terms, definitions, and explanations of concepts is clearly explained.

Profiling “User Bases” of Online Social Contexts

2020 ◽  
pp. 113-126
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Current User ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
The Social ◽  
Common Practices

One aspect of profiling to enhance teaching and learning involves the various contexts in which learners will engage, such as particular social media ecosystems and their attendant microcultures (the social norms and common practices in these spaces), particularly if learners will be engaging with individuals outside of the formal classroom. Understanding the larger online social context helps define the affordances and constraints of what can be effectively taught and learned. This involves profiling the current user base of the online social spaces where the learners will be engaging and interacting and co-creating knowledge.

Is Gender-Based Violence a Social Norm? Rethinking Power in a Popular Development Intervention

2020 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-105
Author(s):  
Amy Piedalue ◽  
Amanda Gilbertson ◽  
Kalissa Alexeyeff ◽  
Elise Klein
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Critical Revision ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Control

Changing social norms has become the preferred approach in global efforts to prevent gender-based violence (GBV). In this article, we trace the rise of social norms within GBV-related policy and practice and their transformation from social processes that exist in the world to beliefs that exist in the minds of individuals. The analytic framework that underpins social norms approaches has been subject to ongoing critical revision but continues to have significant issues in its conceptualisation of power and its sidelining of the political economy. These issues are particularly apparent in the use of individualised measures of social norms that cannot demonstrate causation, and conflation of social norms with culture. Recognising that the pressure to measure may be a key factor in reducing the complexity of the social norms approach, we call for the use of mixed methods in documenting the factors and processes that contribute to GBV and the effectiveness of interventions. As social norms approaches are increasingly prioritised over addressing the non-normative contributors to GBV (such as access to and control over productive resources), awareness of the limitations of social norms approaches is vital.

Is Bigger Always Better? Potential Biases of Big Data Derived from Social Network Sites

2015 ◽  
Vol 659 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eszter Hargittai
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Social Network Sites ◽  
Biased Sampling ◽  
Methodological Challenges ◽  
Internet Skills ◽  
The Social ◽  
Race Ethnicity

This article discusses methodological challenges of using big data that rely on specific sites and services as their sampling frames, focusing on social network sites in particular. It draws on survey data to show that people do not select into the use of such sites randomly. Instead, use is biased in certain ways yielding samples that limit the generalizability of findings. Results show that age, gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, online experiences, and Internet skills all influence the social network sites people use and thus where traces of their behavior show up. This has implications for the types of conclusions one can draw from data derived from users of specific sites. The article ends by noting how big data studies can address the shortcomings that result from biased sampling frames.

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