computerized networks
Kleinberg and Lawrence’s paper gives an overview of how the web works. The authors explain the different components of the web, “the core, upstream, downstream and tendril regions” (1849) at the local level, and also how the web behaves like a network at a more global level. Based on the explanations and descriptions of how the web works, what are some of the ways in which people/users might use its structure to their advantage? The authors also mention that an “analysis of the Web’s structure can help to define topics and social groupings of interest to its denizens” (1850). What are some of the strengths and limitations that would come along from studying social networks and communities through the use of the Web?
In his article, Marks describes how the Pentagon’s National Security Agency has started looking at the information that people post about their social networks on the Internet, and what kind of implications this could have on our lives. Even though as of now the NSA can only connect people through the data that individuals post on the internet, with advances in internet technology, very specific and personal information, such as financial transactions could be tracked. However, it makes me wonder how feasible this really is. As long as people are careful and don’t make too much information available on the Internet, I feel that, at least as of now, the amount of “connecting the dots” that the NSA can do is limited. And, even if advances of the internet technology do make more personal information available, new technology also means new and/or revised privacy policies which might limit the level of access that the NSA can have. However, this is also depends on whether people are aware of these privacy policies and the rights that they have to protect their privacy, which are not widespread knowledge. If what Marks says is true and future advances will mean exposure of private information, would this have an effect on individuals’ social networks?
Ellison et al studied the role that facebook plays in the “social capital formation and maintenance, integration into college life and psychological well-being” of students at Michigan State University. The researchers found that facebook is being extensively used as a tool to maintain and develop current offline relationships as well as old relationships, such as high school relationships. These relationships can be both strong or weak ties, with facebook playing a special role in stimulating latent ties into weak ties. Why do you think that, unlike the articles that we read for last week, facebook is predominantly used to maintain ties instead of creating new ties?
One of the weaknesses of the study, which the authors admit as their limitation, is that it was only carried out at one school, MSU. Being a state university, this may limit the generalizability of the study results to other schools. Also, the article was published in June, 2006. Since then, facebook has undergone a massive change and included numerous features that let users “monitor and follow” what their friends and others are doing with their lives and facebook use. Do you think these changes would have an impact on the results found by these authors if the survey were to be carried out now? What kind of impact do would you say that these changes have had on users’ social networks and the way in which they relate to people, both online and offline?
Wellman extensively overviews the way in which “affordances in computer-supported interpersonal communication affect the ways in which people connect with each other” (229). He states that the technological advances have provided individuals with new resources that move networks from being place-based to person-based, developing “person-to-person connectivity” (238). His article brings up several questions and issues that have been raised with the expansion of technology-based relationships and how these would impact offline relationships.
I think that his comment that “cyberspace fights against physical space less than it complements it” (247) is a very accurate description of how computer mediated relationships are being integrated to offline relationships. Nowadays, these cyberspaces are filling in the gaps in time that we don’t spend physically at work, school, with friends or family. They provide alternative ways in which we can still interact with these people and organizations, allowing people to be constantly aware and on top of things that are going on around them. What kind of impact would this have on people’s existing relationship and in the formation of new relationships?