Revived and Refreshed

This study uses an online panel of Internet users to examine the degree to which those who visit U.S. political websites and blogs practice selective exposure as they construct their individual political networks. Specifically, the analysis addresses the extent to which individuals say they visit websites and blogs with which they agree and disagree. The findings indicate strong support for the detection of selective exposure in this context. Reliance on political websites and blogs as well as partisanship emerged as predictors of selective exposure for political information after controlling for demographic and political factors.

Conceptualizing Social Interactions in Networked Spaces

This chapter proposes the concept of “networked spaces” as a strategy for resolving the problematic binary of online and offline. Networked spaces are dynamic, and the contexts or narratives within them, relational. It is through the lived experiences of interactions in these spaces that the contexts of social interactions are suggested to be best examined.

Checking in at the Urban Playground

Taking its point of departure in a critical discussion of the imagined dividing line between physical and digital spaces, this chapter demonstrates a socio-spatial turn in Internet studies and sets out to explore the meaning of locative technologies as an illuminating example of how such spatial boundaries increasingly collapse. Being empirically grounded in an analysis of twelve qualitative interviews with users of the applications Foursquare and Gowalla, this chapter focuses on the interplay between what is termed electronic flâneurs and digital geographies, and demonstrates in what ways the use of locative technologies provokes changes at two levels in the social realm: first, by adding a communicative digital layer to the spatial organisation of physical space, and second, by adding a spatially bound layer to interactions in digital space.1

Networked Individualism, Constructions of Community and Religious Identity

This chapter offers a contribution to the ongoing research into networked individualism in late modern society from the perspective of religion online. Using a sample of weblogs created by Australians involved in the “emerging church movement,” this chapter will explore how the Internet has enabled individuals to seek relationships with others and discern a religious identity beyond the confines of local faith communities and denominational institutions. Here we will see how those who use blogs to form religious networks must negotiate constructions of communal identities, not just offline, but within the blogosphere. These negotiations represent a postmodern quest for authentic religious expression and practice, which is found in the flow of information among a myriad of traditional and new sources.

Net Gain?

This study examined the influence of motivations for, and reliance, on social network sites on selective exposure (purposely seeking agreeable political information) and selective avoidance (purposely dodging disagreeable political information). The results are based on an online survey that was posted during the four-week period surrounding the 2008 presidential election. The responses from 1,530 politically interested social network users revealed five primary motivations were found for accessing social network sites: (1) political information seeking, (2) anti-traditional media sentiment, (3) expression/affiliation, (4) political guidance/judgments, and (5) personal fulfillment. Of these five motivations, the latter three predict selective exposure but none predict selective avoidance. Reliance is not a predictor of selectivity, but gender and several political characteristics are predictors of both selective exposure and selective avoidance.

Invisible Interactions

A deep understanding of user social interaction in social network sites (SNSs) can provide important insights into questions of human social and relational behavior, as well as shape the design of new social platforms and applications. Recent studies have shown that a majority of user interactions on SNSs are latent interactions—passive actions such as profile browsing that cannot be observed directly by traditional research methods. This chapter presents a new technique to capture natural latent social interaction in Renren, the most popular SNS in China. As such, it offers a better understanding of both visible (e.g., comments and wall posts) and latent (e.g., passive profile browsing) user social interactions in SNSs than has been possible to date. We show that latent interactions are much more prevalent and frequent than visible interactions, are somewhat nonreciprocal in nature, and that visits by non-friends make up a significant portion of profile views. Our results augment earlier findings on such concepts as lurking and interpersonal electronic surveillance, and in some cases, shed new light on these phenomena.

Social Network Site Use among Dutch Students

This chapter compares the SNS use of Dutch students across time and platforms. Between 2009 (n = 194) and 2010 (n = 212), many users migrated from Hyves, the hitherto largest Dutch SNS, to Facebook. Comparisons between the two years showed that SNS use remained relatively stable over time; only self-disclosure increased remarkably. However, there were several differences between the platforms. Facebook users were more active, they disclosed more about themselves, but they reacted also more to their friends. There were no effects of time and platform on positive or negative consequences of social interaction on SNS, indicating that the preference for a SNS is more a question of the current trend. In contrast to the assumption that SNS are especially useful to stay in touch with acquaintances, the respondents used them mainly for conversation with close friends. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Registry Culture and Networked Sociability

The rise of individualism and the enhanced prominence of subjectivity that challenge inherited identities and references entail the achievement of wider margins for anonymity and personal fulfillment. On the other hand, increased registry habits generate tons of detailed information, which collides with an apparently rejected chance to better protect privacy. Identity and sociability are key concepts to understand this voluntary disclosure exerted in a context of networked individualism. New patterns of social interaction arise, and new models have to be designed to comprehend the space between individual and society. The circulation of such a great amount of information is often categorized as “surveillance,” but the control of others is just one of the possible benefits that individuals can obtain from these available flows.

Public Administrations and Citizens 2.0

The aim of this chapter is to describe how the use of social media, especially the use of social network sites, is influencing public communication strategies and online users’ interactions. We conducted an exploratory analysis of the prevalent use of Facebook pages by Italian municipalities examining the characteristics of the online interactions emerging in the communication strategies of four Italian provincial capitals: Rimini, Reggio Emilia, Modena, and Venezia. We compared the four municipality pages on Facebook looking at the number of users, age composition, and gender. Then we carried out a content analysis to describe the prevalent kinds of posts published in the municipality Walls on Facebook. We concluded that Italian municipalities are now adopting different communication strategies on Facebook: each municipality proposes a particular content mix that creates a specific communication flow addressed toward citizens.

Sociability in Social Network Sites

This chapter discusses the potential of social network sites (SNS) as sources for both social feedback and trial platforms for social behavioral patterns. With the findings of an online survey and 40 qualitative interviews of Facebook users, this chapter analyzes how social network sites are used for “communicative self-presentation” and how users provoke and handle positive as well as negative social reactions from other users that become part of their own identity presentations in the online network. Finally, the combination of studies shows that social feedback is not only one of the main motives for using SNS, but can also cause self-reflection processes in users. Additionally, it appears that men and women handle social feedback on SNS quite differently.