Digital Identities -- Tufts University EXP-50-CS Spring 2014, Social Media -- Lecture 2

D I G I TA L I D E N T I T I E S

E X P - 5 0 - C S C L A S S # 2 , 1 / 2 9 / 1 4

T U F T S U N I V E R S I T Y J E S S E L I T T L E W O O D A B O U T. M E / J E S S E . L I T T L E W O O D @ J _ L I T T L E W O O D

A G E N D A

• Twitter

• How To & Tips

• Links and Discussion

• Social Network Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship

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• Digital Identity

• Making Sense of New Media

• Class Administration

• Lightning Talks

• Next Week

# E X P 5 0

• Get Twitter Account

• Fill out Google Form

• Tweet out using #exp50

• Couple of helpful tools

• https://blog.twitter.com/2010/tweet-button-bookmarklet-share-links-any-page

• https://bufferapp.com

• What did you find interesting?

S O C I A L N E T W O R K S I T E S : D E F I N I T I O N , H I S T O R Y , A N D S C H O L A R S H I P

• Consistent technology features, different cultures

• Draw some boundaries around “social media” and “social networking sites”

• (1) Public or semi-public profile

• (2) List other users & connect

• (3) Traverse the list of connections

• “Network” not “Networking”

• Friend networks

• Some smaller/niche SNSs are designed to build connections

• Rise and fall

• Friendster

• MySpace

• What did they do right?

• What did they do wrong?

• What has Facebook done differently?

Source: http://www.danah.org/papers/JCMCIntro.pdf

T H O U G H T E X P E R I M E N T S : S M A L L G R O U P S

• You are a non-profit that wants to raise high-school graduation rates. Your target audience are small, medium and large organizations already working on education, but not working together. You have a successful yearly conference you want to build on.

• Existing SNS (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest)

• New semi-private SNS site

M A K I N G S E N S E O F N E W M E D I A

• Places social media in the context of history of personal communication technology

• Societal responses

• Perspectives to consider throughout this class

B AY M , C O N T I N U N E D

• Messages we use about technology are reflective

• Four major approaches:

• Determinism

• Social Construction

• Social Shaping

• Domestication

– M C I A D , 1 9 9 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioVMoeCbrig (Super Bowl 2007)

B AY M , C O N T I N U N E D

• Messages we use about technology are reflective

• Four major approaches:

• Determinism

• Social Construction

• Social Shaping

• Domestication

D I S C U S S I O N

• What is the approach have you seen the most of?

• From your family, from media, from technology evangelists?

• Which narratives about social media do you identify with?

D I G I TA L I D E N T I T Y

• In the beginning, it was just “the internet”…

W H AT I S I D E N T I T Y

• Individuality and/or group affiliations

• Self -> World

• Biological determination?

• Technical term in IT/security?

• Constructed

• Who we think we are

Source: http://facinghistoryandourselvesmhs.wikispaces.com/Unit+1+-+Identity

D I G I TA L I D E N T I T I E S

• Not the technical term

• 10010101001010101

• Data collected from us and from others

• Profile

• Photos, text, video

• Metadata

• Location, date and time

• Relationships

• Constructed by an algorithm as much as by ourselves

Is Facebook’s “Year in Review” an accurate portrait of my year?

D A N A H B O Y D

• Always-on lifestyle

• “Online is always just around the corner”

• Ecosystem

• Virtual reality is tired, augmented reality is wired

Credit: James Duncan Davidson/O'Reilly Media, Inc. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/49880384/in/set-1076331/

B R E A K - O U T G R O U P S

• Do you consider yourself “always on?”

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• Is here such a thing as being “too connected?”

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• Where do you draw the line?

– S H E R R Y T U R K L E

“What I'm seeing is a generation that says consistently, 'I would rather text than make a telephone call.' Why? It's less

risky. I can just get the information out there. I don't have to get all involved; it's more efficient. I would rather text than see

somebody face to face.”

http://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together.html

• Context

• Increase in solitary living

• Decrease in confidants

• Bowling Alone

• “Passive consumption” vs. “composed communication”

• What do you do?

• What would Baym say?

• What would boyd say?

• The more digitally connected we become, the more distant and superficial our offline relationships are. True?

• A lot of online conversation is “meaningless babble.” True?

• What is your experience like?

C L A S S A D M I N

• Lightning talks

• Next week’s class

• Etc

L I G H T N I N G TA L K S

• A brief, seven minute presentation on a specific example of social media that describes it, analyzes it, and critiques it.

• Live demo, slides or still images (4-5 recommended)

• Based on the topic we are discussing that week

• Starts week after next! Details and lottery will be posted on Trunk.

N E X T W E E K : S O C I A L N E T W O R K S A N D S O C I A L M E D I A C O M M U N I T I E S

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• Technological affordances: design and technology shape behavior.

• Community norms.

• Islands, or a global village?

N E X T W E E K : S O C I A L N E T W O R K S A N D S O C I A L M E D I A C O M M U N I T I E S• Reading:

• McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw Hill, 1964. pp. 3-11

• Norman, Donald. The Design of Everyday Things. Chapter 1, The Psychopathology of Everyday Things. Pp. 1-33.

• Kendall, Lori. Community and the Internet. The Handbook of Internet Studies. Ed. Mia Consalvo and Charles Ess. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. pp. 309-325

• No assignment except for Twitter