Social networking article

[owlmoose]

Really interesting article on friends and Friends and Friending in social networking sites:

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_12/boyd/index.html

It's from First Monday, which is an academic library science journal, so it's somewhat densely written. Still well worth reading I think. The focus is on Friendster and MySpace, but a lot of the dynamics discussed are very familiar. There is mention of a similar paper about LJ, which I would love to read. Doesn't seem to be available online, though; I'll poke around a bit.

Comments

[letters-to-ed.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting

[auronlu.livejournal.com]

Tis indeed a very interesting study.

Many sociology papers can and are being written on MUSH societies, chat, online communities. After my last 15 years of experience with various such communities, I find myself anthropologically very curious about the cycles and patterns I see repeating over and over again in so many of them.


The friends network thing on Myspace/Friendster sounds a little different, though, since it's contacts-based more than interest/activity-based.

[owlmoose.livejournal.com]

The friends network thing on Myspace/Friendster sounds a little different, though, since it's contacts-based more than interest/activity-based.

That was the original intention of those sites, but I think it's expanded, especially on MySpace where networks form around shared interests like music. I think it's one of those things where people will form communities whether they're "allowed" to or not, like the "Fakester" profiles that pop up as quickly as Friendster tries to remove them.

I am also very interested in the social cycles and patterns in online communities. Have you ever seen the article "A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy"? Fascinating look at how communities tend to pull themselves together and tear themselves apart over time. Worth digging up if you've never read it.