Social Media

SNS

social networking sites- ie Twitter

"Weak ties"

"loose acquaintances, people they knew less well." Weak ties increase with social media. Good for networking / solving problems - "Outsourcing life" Bad for intimate relationships / quality of relationships. People observe each other, but don't necessarily know each other.

Social Media

A group of internet applications that build on ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0 & allow the creation in exchange of user-generated content

5 Elements of Online Communities

A shared sense of space Geographical (snapchat geofilters, tinder radius, instagram locations, facebook groups, hashtags, mailing lists, snapchat maps) visual/virtual (video games) Textual Shared practice/shared culture Speech communities (lingo, shows insider status, enforced norms, acronyms) examples : YikYak, MOPS (moms of pelham), Games of Thrones Shared resources/ support Social capital- the power you have based on reach of your network (verified check) Emotional support Esteem support Informational support (thirst trap) Shared Identities Sense of "we", being part of a group People take on specific roles lurking/lurker as an identity (not interacting or showing your presence, but just observing silently) Lurking as a form of listening People posting consider lurkers to be part of their community/audience Lurkers do not consider themselves as part of the community Lurkers presence is always known in some capacity; it's all measured Interpersonal Relationships

Ambient intimacy

A way to feel less alone; a reaction to social isolation. News feed. Digital tools allow us to work alone, digital media allows us to reconnect socially

Social Cues

As social cues decrease, social anxieties increase

Disembodied identities

Bodies are separated from selves in the media world due to the fact that users lack the ability to size up others to determine if they want to talk to them. Photos play a big part in media in this regard because most people carefully select the photos they want to be seen which will in turn represent and show who they are. So although the photo says one thing about a person, in real life the person can be completely different from that.

A. Disembodied identities

Digital media seem to separate selves from bodies, leading to disembodied identities that exist only in actions and words. Disembodied identities presented online can also be multiple -have different identities online with different ages, locations, and names This can be seen as inauthentic, damaging to self and relationships

Social Media Platforms

Dynamic objects that are tweaked in response to their user's means and owner's objectives

Online Relationships

Exhibit early idealization → because of a lack of social cues, people fill in the blanks of what is not known about the person. Early idealization is us filling in/ imagining who we think they are. More space to control our self presentation → can edit and revise yourself -Get into a positive feedback loop → self disclosure- sharing stuff about yourself to that person, more forms/lines of communication mean more sharing and self disclosure Self disclosure is an affordance that is enabled by social network sites - it is built into the design -- "Sharing is not necessarily caring" Different media platforms have a different symbolic value → norms around different platforms

Trolling

Hate speech Humorous Harassment Trying to get reaction Prove a point Derail Corner someone Surprise Awareness Increase in negativity is because of awareness of norms and deliberate breaking of them Trolling follows real life cultures that are argumentatives Celebrity news -Politics

Web 1.0

Hypertext, less communication, offering channels for networked communication, providing utility

B. Disembodied audiences:

Identities are invoked and created in particular contexts for particular audiences -Rely on an imagined audience, "the mental conceptualization of the people with whom we are communicating" -"Social stenography: speaking in code by quoting movie lines they know their parents will read as cheerful but friends will correctly identify as expressions of unhappiness -"Silent Listeners": companies that own the platforms on which people represent themselves

network media- peer to peer

Instant feedback Often an echochamber Customizable- creates a certain perception of reality Sense of equality because of equal voice on platforms

Web 2.0

Interactive, user generated content, usability, providing a customized service Users moved more of their everyday activities to online environments Websites acting as conduits for social activity Encourages objective worldview- happening in real time, more democratic, transparency

7 Key Concepts that are Unique about social media

Interactivity: A .Social: talk to each other B. Technical: write code and alter websites C.Textual: write an article people can respond and you can respond back 2) Temporal Structure (timing) A. Synchronous (real timing) B. Asynchronous (delayed) 3) Social Cues A. Set norms dependent on social platform B. i.e. 'lol' and emojis 4) Storage A. Is it stored or can it disappear 5) Replicability A. Things online are not usually repeated 6) Reach A. Compression of time and space 7) Mobility A. Take it with us on the go

Baym Ch 6

Interpersonal Relationships Online

"Social graph"

Mapping of online social life/behaviors

Cues filtered out theory

Mediated Communication causes information to get lost The more mediated, the more work communication takes More democratic (harder to tell status) Increase negative communication because of fewer norms guiding communication

Judgement

Meeting someone online first may be more beneficial because of the lack of social cues. Social cues cause us to judge people before we get to know them. Shows that in reality people are more motivated to pursue communication or connections with those whose level of physical attraction matches their own. ("matching hypothesis")

Digital Media - mixed modality

Mix of writing/talking Unique features to digital communication Writing more Deliberate changes

Authenticity and Relationship

People try to make inferences and get a feel for another person using as few cues as possible. We give off as many cues as we get which is the basis for how we determine if we want to be involved with someone. People believe that individuals lie online so therefore you need to take a leap of faith to trust them, but the truth is that you need to take a leap of faith no matter if you met the person online or in person because people in face to face as well.

Connectivity

Process of making connections and connecting online Coding (using algorithms & computer codes) our sociality, almost materializing sociality → makes sociality technical Important because people's connectivity is the main source of economic value (*data) More connections = more value Collect data on us and market to us

Affordances

Qualities of an object/ an environment that allows individuals to perform actions- it is important to think about affordances different platforms provide us with Facebook = sharing pictures, likes/shares, status updates, groups/events unattended affordances are also prevalent on different platforms such as catfishing and trolling

Baym Ch 2

Relationship between technology and society:

Relationships

Relationships have always been monetized through movies, restaurants, hallmark holidays, etc. But now with social media sites the scale is much larger.

Who uses digital media?

Rural v. urban: broadband Economic class distinction: who can afford it? Digital divide: "Global"

Identity Cues

Self-Presentation The Influence of Others The Influence of Platforms Self-Perception

Relationship Maintenance

Social media offers the potential to maintain relationships but it's not actually caring.

Sharing

Social network sites want you to keep sharing because it benefits them economically. Economic value is an affordance to social network sites. An interpersonal interaction online is monetized So platforms are designed to get people to share stuff.

Social Cues

Takes away social cues, social anxiety increases

Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)

Technology arises out of the social world Humans are in control Technologies become gendered

Baym Ch 1

Technology breeds anxiety domesticated and no longer need to freak out about new media Technology has worked to compress time and space (quicker and in an instant)

Technological determinism

Technology determines society -Changing how brains are wired -Inability to have real relationships - authenticity is in question -dystopian vs utopian

Online Identity

The idea that our IRL (In real life) identity may inform our online identity, but IRL and online identity are not entirely the same. Rather, our several interests/identities that we have IRL inform our different online identities. Online identity is dependent on imagined audience. Imagined audience is a way in which we curate order out of chaos. Examples of imagined audience are things like strategic blocking, "Finsta" vs "Rinsta", and things like subtweeting

Identity

The issues that shake people the most about forming relationships online center on identity. Personal identity: aspects of ourselves that distinguish us from others -values, traits, tastes, and biographies Social Identity: Actions of ourselves that define us as group members -can be involuntary or by choice

Anonymity

The sense of anonymity people feel online helps with honest self-expression that may be difficult to do in face to face communication.

Web 1.0-Web 2.0

There was a shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 in the 2000s (while web 1.0 was a poor attempt to connect people on the web, web 2.0 -coined in 1999- revolutionized the way the Internet was used/new form of communication)

Baym Chp 5

This chapter discusses the process of meeting new people and discusses in terms of presentation of self. The digital world of interaction might lower inhibitions which then makes it easier to find shared interests, as well as make "friends". We are also forced to consider whether the people we interact with are who they say they are. We can rely on identity cues, such as screen names, photos, displays of technical skill, or lists of "likes" to understand one another, but only to a certain degree. It can become easier to make it easier to lie to create varied identities. People often show idealized representations of themselves online. This chapter also features a brief overview of the ways in which differences of gender, culture, and race persist in online identities.

Social Media and the Public

Through social media casual speech acts are now released into a public domain where they can have far-reaching and long-lasting effects

Brands

Twitter, Youtube) have become synonymous for microblogging/chatting/sharing A brand's success is when it turns into a verb

UGC

User generated content- often a platform of creativity- ie youtube, vine, etc

Ideology

Widely held beliefs Gives us a subjective POV on events, "gatekeepers" Sense of democracy

Affordance

a design feature for how something should be used. It's a quality of an object/environment that allows individuals to perform actions.

Put cues back in

emojis (movie came out July 28th) humor (high-quality memes) immediacy

Flaming

insults

Gender

norms online women use more qualifiers Use digital to perform gender

Ambient awareness

small, arbitrary updates that are insignificant on their own, but when combined over time form a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of our "friends'" lives. Has some benefits: networking, connection, etc. Posting can help someone vent / think more thoroughly about situations Can spread emotional energy too thin. Lives become curated.

Social shaping of technology

society → technology → society

Technical

the operability of social media Speed Multiple different devices/platforms Cameras have been revolutionized (front-facing camera)

Affordance/Consequence of social media sites

they generate/encourage self-branding. Can see popularity metrics, retweets, impressions, followers, etc. - these features encourage self-branding. Self-branding - selling yourself No correlation between the most common media site used in a relationship and the closeness of that relationship. Social media augments already existing relationships and does not always isolate people. example: we see coworkers everyday at work but that face-to-face relationship is probably less strong than family members that we see very little face-to-face but skype or share info through facebook/other social media sites

TMS

trading and marketing site- ie ebay, craigslist, etsy

Neoliberal Economic Principles

unfettered competition (popularity, followers etc), hierarchy, winner take all beliefs. Continuous pressure to "expand competition and gain power through strategic alliances" -->pressure comes from technologies themselves AND peers AND economic trends, such as the casualization of the workforce