Abstract
Since their inception in the early and middle Nineties, the issue of online identity formation and online sociality has received great attention within Internet Studies. However, this line of research has witnessed a relevant shift from an initial emphasis on the cluster of “disembodied/multiplicity/fantasy” to the contrasting interest on the cluster of “embodied/authenticity/reality” (Baym 2006: 41). This conceptual shift is embedded in at times radically different views of the internet, its relationship with the offline and, more in general, the relationship between technology and society, as well as in diverse concepts of both identity and community. At the same time, this re-framing mirrors the process of domestication (Silverstone/Hirsch 1992; Haddon 2004) of the internet, when it ceased to be “a special thing” (Wellman 2004: 125) in order to become an everyday practice for millions of users.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Though the study of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) among social pshychologists dates back to the 1970s, the “first age of the Internet Studies” (Wellman 2004) begun along with a increasing diffusion of the internet in the western societies in the middle of the Nineties.
- 2.
Door-to-door connectivity corresponds to the idealized community of the pre-industrial past, characterised by strong, place-based and face-to-face ties among members, and by exclusive belonging to the community.
- 3.
Place-to-place communities, instead, are community ties spreading beyond neighbourhoods and have the shape of networks rather than groups. The household is the base for relationships, in the sense that it is “what is visited, telephoned or emailed” (Wellman 2001: 234).
- 4.
However, this distributed organisation of online communities, Baym laments, implies an impoverished sense of place and belonging compared to “virtual” communities based on a single online environment, where shared practices, norms, values and identities could be embedded (2012).
- 5.
Though risks do not necessarily mean harm, offline meetings with online contacts are among the most dangerous online risks, together with cyberbullying (Livingstone et al. 2011). Research indicate that, usually, children adopt a variety of coping strategies, and especially social strategies such as relying on their intimate friendship ties, to protect from unwanted and potentially dangerous online contacts (ibid.).
References
Bakardjieva, Maria (2003): Virtual togetherness: An everyday life perspective. In: Media, Culture and Society, Vol. 25, Issue 3, 291–313.
Baym, Nancy (1998): The emergence of online community. In: Jones, Steve (Eds.): Cybersociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 35–68.
Baym, Nancy (2006): Interpersonal life online. In: Lievrouw, Leah A./and Livingstone, Sonia (Eds.): The Handbook of New Media. Updated edition. London: Sage, 35–54.
Baym, Nancy (2010): Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Baym, Nancy/Zhang, Yan B./Lin, Mei Chei (2004): Social interactions across media: Interpersonal communication on the Internet, telephone and face-to-face’. In: New Media and Society, Vol. 6, Issue 3, 299–318.
boyd, danah (2009): Friendship. In: Ito, Mizuko/Baumer, Sonja/Bittanti, Matteo/boyd, danah/Cody, Rachel/Herr-Stephenson, Becky/Horst, Heather/Lange, Patricia/Mahendran, Dilan/Martínez, Katynka/Pascoe, C./Perkel, Dan/Robinson, Laura/Sims, Sims/Tripp, Lisa (Eds.): Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 79–115.
boyd, danah/Ellison, Nicole (2007): Social Network sites: Definition, history, and scolarship. In: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 13, Issue 1, 210–230.
boyd, danah/Marwick, Alice (2011): Social Privacy in Networked Publics: Teens’ Attitudes, Practices, and Strategies. Paper presented at the “A Decade in Internet Time: Symposium on the Dynamics of the Internet and Society”, Oxford Internet Institute, 22 September 2011. Online at: http://www.danah.org/papers/2011/SocialPrivacyPLSC-Draft.pdf (Access on: 3. 5. 2012).
Bruckman, Amy (1996): Gender swapping on the Internet. In: Ludlow, Peter (Eds.): High Noon on the Electronic Frontier: Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 317–326.
Castells, Manuel (2001): Internet Galaxy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chandler, Daniel (1998): Personal homepages and the construction of identities on the Web. Online at: www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/webident.html (Access on: 3. 5. 2012).
Donath, Judith (1999): Identity and deception in the virtual community. In: Kollock, Peter/Smith, Marc (Eds.): Communities in Cyberspace. London: Routledge, 29–59.
Drotner, Kirsten (1999): Dangerous Media? In: Pedagogica Historica, Vol. 35, Issue 3, 593–619.
Gauntlett, David (2011): Making is Connecting: The social meaning of creativity, from DIY and knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Gergen, Kenneth (1991): The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life. New York: Basic Books.
Giddens, Anthony (1991): Modernity and Self-identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Goffman, Erving (1959): The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City: Doubleday.
Haddon, Leslie (2004): Information and communication technologies in everyday life: A concise introduction and research guide. Oxford: Berg.
Hampton, Keith/Wellman, Barry (2003): Neighboring in Netville: How the Internet Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired Suburb. In: City & Community, Vol. 2, Issue 4, 277–311.
Haythornthwaite, Caroline (2005): Social networks and Internet connectivity effects. In: Information, Communication & Society, Vol. 8, Issue 2, 125–147.
Ito, Mimi (2008): Introduction. In: Varnelis, Kazys (Eds.): Networked Publics 1–14. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1–14.
Ito, Mizuko/Baumer, Sonja/Bittanti, Matteo/boyd, danah/Cody, Rachel/Herr-Stephenson, Becky/Horst, Heather/Lange, Patricia G./Mahendran, Dilan/Martínez, Katynka Z./Pascoe, C./Perkel, Dan/Robinson, Laura/Sims, Sims/Tripp, Lisa (Eds.) (2009): Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out. Kids Living and Learning with New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence Culture. New York: New York University Press.
Katz, James/Aakhus, Mark (Eds.) (2002): Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Katz, James/Rice, Ronald (2002): Social Consequences of Internet Use: Access, Involvement, and Interaction. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kollock, Peter/Smith, Marc (Eds.) (1999): Communities in Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
Ling, Richard (2008): New Tech, New Ties. How Mobile Communication is Reshaping Social Cohesion. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.
Liu, Hugo (2007): Social Network Profiles as Taste Performances. In: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 13, Issue 1, 252–275.
Livingstone, Sonia (2008): Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers’ use of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. In: New Media & Society, Vol. 10, Issue 3, 393–411.
Livingstone, Sonia (2009): Children and the Internet. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Livingstone, Sonia/Haddon, Leslie/Görzig, Anke/Ólafsson, Kjartan (2011): Risks and safety on the internet: The perspective of European children: Full Findings. EU Kids Online, LSE: London. Online at: http://www.eukidsonline.net (Access on: 3. 5. 2012).
Meyrowitz, Joshua (2005): The rise of glocality: New senses of place and identity in the global village. In: Nyìri, Kristóf (Eds.): A Sense of Place: The Global and the Local in Mobile Communication. Vienna: Passagen Verlag, 21–30.
Miller, Daniel/Slater, Don (2000): The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach. New York: New York University Press.
Paus-Hasebrink, Ingrid/Lampert, Claudia/Hasebrink, Uwe (2009): Social Network Sites – Challenges for Media Literacy. Paper presented at the EU Kids Online Final Conference, June 2009, LSE, London. Online at: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/EUKidsOnline/EU%20Kids%20I%20%282006-9%29/Conference%20Papers%20and%20abstracts/Home.aspx (Access on: 3. 5. 2012).
Peter, Jochen/Valkenburg, Patti M./Fluckiger, Cedric (2009): Adolescents and social network sites: Identity, friendship and privacy. In Livingstone, Sonia/Haddon, Leslie (Eds.): Kids Online: Opportunities and risks for children. Bristol: Policy Press, 83–94.
Reid, Elizabeth M. (1992): Electropolis: Communication and Community on Internet Relay Chat. In: Intertek, Vol. 3, Issue 3, 7–15.
Sheller, Mimi/Urry, John (2006): The new mobilities paradigm. In: Environment and Planning A 38, Issue 2, 207–226.
Silverstone, Roger/Hirsch, Eric (Eds.): (1992): Consuming Technologies: Media and Information in Domestic Spaces. London: Routledge.
Sunstein, Cass R. (2007): Republic.com. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Turkle, Sherry (1995): Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Urry, John (2002): Mobility and proximity. In: Sociology, Vol. 36, Issue 2, 255–274.
Van Alstyne, Marshall/Brynjolfsson, Erik (1997): Electronic Communities: Global Village or Cyberbalkans? In: Economic Theory, Vol. 6, Issue 17, 1479–1480.
Valkenburg, Patti M./Schouten, Alexander/Peter, Jochen (2005): Adolescents’ identity experiments on the internet. In: New Media and Society, Vol. 7, Issue 3, 383–402.
Wellman, Barry (2001): Physical Place and Cyberplace: The Rise of the Personalized Networking. In: The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 25, Issue 2, 227–252.
Wellman, Barry (2004): The Three Ages of Internet Studies: Ten, Five and Zero Years Ago. In: New Media & Society, Vol. 6, Issue 1, 123–129.
Wellman, Barry/Haythornthwaite, Caroline (Eds.) (2002): The Internet in Everyday Life. Oxford: Blackwell.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mascheroni, G. (2013). From virtual communities to social network sites: Changing perspectives on online identity and social relations. In: Wijnen, C.W., Trültzsch, S., Ortner, C. (eds) Medienwelten im Wandel. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-19049-5_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-19049-5_10
Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-531-18436-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-531-19049-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Science (German Language)