Overview

• Preliminaries.
  • Admin.
  • Questions.

Preliminaries

Admin

• Edits due on Wednesday.
• Today's note takers: AF and LY.
• Different groups of students will get different readings for Wednesday.

Upcoming EC

• CS Extra Thursday - Edward Snowden.
• CS Table Friday - Edward Snowden.

Questions

Comments from LY

• Social media has started to be part of everyday life
• How has social media affected social interactions?

*What is social media? * 3 characteristics of social network sites: 1.) Profiles 2.) Visibility and connections 3.) Ability to have connections

• Comparing "Networks" v. "Networking"

  • Networking is different in it means to go out and make connections
  • Networks is more of an interaction between personal users

• Social media enables the user to make a profile, whether its private or public

• Social media has created an environment for context collapse

  • Why would anyone lie to college admissions if its so easy to find them online because of social media?

• We can use social media as a survival tactic

• Public scolding can occur from context collapse

• Technology can change what/who you look like

  • People can tag you without control

• There are numerous ways to create pages with unidentifiable information with sophisticated security

• How do people fill out their profiles?

  • Some aren't truthful
  • Security purposes have people lying

• Facebook is the most common social media outlet where context collapse occurs

• Social media networks all have their own unique motives and purposes, which is one of the great benefits of this industry

• People are always watching you with your social media account(s)

• It can be tricky to accurately build a profile that represents you correctly for you friends, family, and professional associates

• Anonymous comments enables you to protect your name from the web

  • the ability to do something that doesn't ties you to a particular identity

• Social media has changed the ways that we define ourselves as individuals

Professor Yoose

• Is our Discovery and Integrated Systems Librarian
• Has provided us with sugar technology to keep us awake
• Tweets a lot (20K since 2008, compared to 174 for Rebelsky since 2009)
• Rebelsky screwed up and had you read the Pew data even though it wasn't required.
• Quick survey ... Who uses [Twitter, Facebook, etc.]
• Has become a social mainstay.

Social Media

• How has it changed (and not changed) the ways in which we interact with other people?
• How has it changed (and not changed) the ways we present our identity?
• Let's walk through boyd and Ellison. So, what does a social network site consist of?
  1. A profile
  2. Ability to have connections
  3. Visability of connections
• That is, you can make connections and people can see them, so they can follow your connections.
• Relationship between "network" and "networking". Sometimes treated as the same "social network" and "social networking" are different things
  • "Social networking" - Meet new people
  • "Social network" - People you already know; extending existing connections online
    • E.g. LinkedIn provides a "How do you know this person?" question.
    • Of course, LinkedIn is also used for Networking.
• Any questions about these three core functions?
  • Is SnapChat social media?
  • Is SnapChat as private as it's supposed
  • Are blog sites social networks? Maybe LiveJournal, but no one remembers LiveJournal anymore.
    • Also depends on whether we accept connections of 'blogs vs. connections of people.
• Note that the three issues (profile, ability to have connections, visability of connections) happen in real life.
  • Our dress and body shape and attitude are our "profile"/identity
    • We may have different identities at work and at home (and elsewhere)?
  • Our connections are sometimes implicit (faculty at Grinnell are connected) and sometimes explicit (we see two people talking together)
• Social media lets you manage an online identity.
  • Example from Boyd: Two athletes, one who is negotiating an identity for recruiters, one who is negotiating an identity for freidns.
  • Chance for contact collapse
    • Story of gang member who wrote a college application letter explaining that he wanted to get out of the gang. But recruiters go online and see gang signs on MySpace.
    • "Why lie to an admissions committee when the committee can learn the truth online?"
    • Because he may still need to provide an identity for his current community, particularly for safety. Huge consequences.
  • Have you had a context collapse happen online?
    
    • Relatives commenting on posts intended for friends. (Friends then comment AFK.)
    • MBJames photo.
• In some ways, social media technology gives takes away your control over your identity.
  • E.g., if you don't manage your Facebook settings well, and forget to use privacy settings to prevent tagging, ...
  • Loopholes tend to allow things to be shared online that you don't intend to be shared.
  • How is it easier to explore different facets of your personality, in person or online? E.g., what if you are questioning your sexuality?
    • Online may be easier: Use different browsers and different IDs for different personas.
• Why do people lie in their profiles?
  • Under age and want to use a site.
  • Different perspectives: Some people assume that what's online is truthful and others assume that some mistruths (e.g., age) are expected.
  • Can lead to context collapse.
• Do you use your different social media sites in different ways?
  • Tumblr for pop culture - reposting and liking are mostly confined to here. Facebook for communication with close friends; puts much less out there.
  • GCPride Tumblr [Whoops ... Sam started to look.]
• Reinforcing identity creation and maintenance
• Define new aspects more efficiently and more safely.

Rainer's take on Foucault's panopticon

• Fortunately (or unfortunately), many people have encountered Foucault before.
• Foucault's panopticon
  • Circle of cells
  • Warden in the center who can, in essence, watch everyone at once.
  • Prisoners can watch the warden and (most of) the other prisoners.
• Even when prisoners leave the panopticon, they still regulate their behavior as if they are being watched on a 24/7 basis.
• Rayner explores this idea in the context of social media.
• Trying to make your intended audience see what you want them to see.
  • Play up your strengths
  • Edit out your weaknesses
• You may think your stuff is private, but there are likely to be friends who don't understand your boundary settings for privacy.
• There's a greater effect when your identity is tied to your name.
• E.g., Becky's Twitter feed
  • Librarians
  • Colleagues
  • Family and friends
  • How do you build an identity that plays to a majority of these audiences while limiting the number of context collapses that can happen?
  • How do you maintain some control?
• What's the difference between making anonymous comments and making comments as yourself?
  • Not much of a difference
  • Some things we would do online that we don't want tied to your identity (e.g., listening to album prereleases)
  • E.g., the folks in Anonymous will see lots of negative consequences.
  • We have an online version of a mask.
• More ways to manage
  • Some new
  • Some digital equivalents of things that are happening in real life.
• "It's a mixed bag"
• More movement toward private networks, which limits visibility of connections.
• You still have an audience to play to, whether you are online or offline.

Next class

• Ten minutes prep
• Five minutes to summarize article, including two-three main points.

• Then tie it together to the conversation today.

• Friendster: PG, ZS, CO

• LinkedIn and Facebook: LY, EL, and AF
• Subgroup use of Twitter DB, TD, and EG
• WOmen's use of Facebook: JV, DP, and MK, CC