I have been thinking about how we develop and sustain personal and professional networks in relationships conducted mostly online. I was an active FB participant until a month ago when I formally “withdrew” from the everyday participation that takes place there. While I still maintain an FB profile and regularly read the “news” from network members, I don’t contribute anything from my life anymore. No photos, no comments on people’s news, no statements about my “status” (neither “Mary is full of chocolate chip cookies” nor “Mary is overwhelmed with big feelings”), no news from my life – inane or life-altering. Which feels not quite right somehow. I feel like I’m not meeting my “social” obligation, I sometimes feel like another “creeper.”
I’m wondering about the social norm of reciprocity in voluntary or informal relationships – the giving, taking and sharing of the self with an other. Reciprocity suggests mutuality, an equal or balanced sharing, required in relationships.
Social network analysis (SNA) is now a common method for studying "tie" intensity (strong and weak) including distribution of relationships in and outside organizations (Granovetter, 1973). One aspect of Granovetter's (SWT) thesis argues that we need weak ties to socially bridge us to other groups, other ideas, other people and that if we rely solely on our strong ties, we become insular, inflexible, and by some suggestion, poorer learners and participants in organizational activities. I think FB is "sold" to us as a way to express or enact these weak ties, and thus to build up our relational capabilities. But somehow, FB as a designed social space invites me to loiter but not to really participate in meaningful relationship - either strong or weak. I find myself drawn in by a perverse social curiosity – but finally also disappointed. I don't really connect with the people I know well, and I read only disconnected fragments among "weak" "friends" talking to each other. Are weak ties reciprocal in any way? “I share this online space or room with you, but I don’t actually engage with you directly.”
I’m wondering about the social norm of reciprocity in voluntary or informal relationships – the giving, taking and sharing of the self with an other. Reciprocity suggests mutuality, an equal or balanced sharing, required in relationships.
Social network analysis (SNA) is now a common method for studying "tie" intensity (strong and weak) including distribution of relationships in and outside organizations (Granovetter, 1973). One aspect of Granovetter's (SWT) thesis argues that we need weak ties to socially bridge us to other groups, other ideas, other people and that if we rely solely on our strong ties, we become insular, inflexible, and by some suggestion, poorer learners and participants in organizational activities. I think FB is "sold" to us as a way to express or enact these weak ties, and thus to build up our relational capabilities. But somehow, FB as a designed social space invites me to loiter but not to really participate in meaningful relationship - either strong or weak. I find myself drawn in by a perverse social curiosity – but finally also disappointed. I don't really connect with the people I know well, and I read only disconnected fragments among "weak" "friends" talking to each other. Are weak ties reciprocal in any way? “I share this online space or room with you, but I don’t actually engage with you directly.”
So why do we participate? And how is it that we can so easily mix our strong ties with our weak ties in the FB space, without the ability (or the need) to differentiate these ties? And finally what do strong/weak ties tell us about constructing meaning-full human-to-human relationships, something closer to what we might understand as sociality? Maybe being a FB “creeper” does nothing for my network of “weak ties” - but I'm also not sure enough to quit creeping just yet. What would I do without it? Wait for an opportunity for a more direct connection for one-to-one communication - post to a blog, send an e-mail or text, pick up the phone. Meanwhile you'll find me under my rock.
For some interesting theoretical perspectives on social networks and networking, check out this article by MIT professor Judith Donath, from the socialable media lab.
No comments:
Post a Comment