blog 13

Ellison, Steinfeld and Lampe (2007) support the proposal, through research, that social networking cites help maintain relationships that have formed offline as well as create new relationships online. They explain briefly the history of Facebook and how it started as a site for college students. As it has broadened its horizons, the direct affect on the social structure of our culture has morphed into a different type of realm. The authors research also focuses on the term social capital. They site within the article, “Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) define social capital as "the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition" (p. 14). The resources from these relationships can differ in form and function based on the relationships themselves.” The idea that social capital on the rise, according to the researchers, outweighs some of the negative light that is placed on SNS. Social capital lowers crime rates, increases public health awareness and helps citizens become more involved in the community. I believe that when people are “friends” with their community’s facebook account it is just one more way to stay involved. I know that personally I received schedules for my son’s baseball, what days our recycling has switched to, reminders to vote in our town’s elections and much more simply because I am friends with my city on Facebook. It is a steady feed of community connection. Blackplanet was also evaluated by Byrne (2007) in his study. Blackplanet, one of the very largest SNS for African Americans, also increases civil involvement among its members. In Boyd’s (2006) article he addresses an important question. What is friendship? Are these friendships real on SNS? Boyd covers a lot of ground in his work. He looks at friendship, choosing people to be friends on SNS, self esteem and even the affects of having the choice of top friends on some SNS. However, this excerpt near his conclusion stood out to me. “ In thinking about Friendship practices on social network sites, it is crucial to evaluate them on their own terms, recognizing the role of technology and social navigation rather than simply viewing them as an extension of offline friendship.” I agree with Boyd. These sites are often times connected to our real lives. We have friends that we have face to face that we have on SNS, however, there are many, dare I say most, that we don’t really have much to do with at all. Therefore, we must look at them separately because they are indeed two different types of friendships.