35 Different Ways of Looking at Social Networks

jg21 writes "Social Computing Magazine has just published a list of thirty-five perspectives on online social networking reflecting how protean and difficult to pin down the phenomenon is. It was compiled by Malene Charlotte Larsen, a PhD student at Aalborg University in Denmark, who has been doing research on Danish youngsters and online social networking. She ends with an open request for further perspectives."

The "surveillance perspective" - how true!

[Anonymous Coward]

Looking through TFA, looks like the list of alternative 'takes' ranges from the idealistic ("The love perspective") to the realistic ("The generation gap perspective") to the distinctly disquieting ("The bullying perspective"). It's still a work in progress, though, and there must surely be additional 'perspectives' that we could offer Ms Larsen.

How about "The nothing-new-here perspective" - to refer to all those who say Web 2.0 is just déjà vu all over again.

One she already has that seems insightful: "The surveillance perspective - Social networking sites are surveillance. Everything young people write online are saved and can be used (against them) by marketing people, future employers and so on."

Re:The "surveillance perspective" - how true!

[jg21]

Yes there are several articles about this aspect, the Law of Unintended Consequences in all its glory. For example "Indiscreet Photos on Social Networking Sites Can Hurt Career, Warns Expert" [socialcomp...gazine.com]. Although that cuts both ways of course: "Jobseekers Doing Online Background Checks On Employers, Too" [techdirt.com].

Re:Riiight

[Animats]

6. The paedophile and predator perspective
Catholic churches are an El Dorado for paedophiles and predators who want to harm young people. The people behind the churches are not in control of safety and do not put enough effort into keeping predators out of the churches.

That's documented reality, [wikipedia.org] established in hundreds of lawsuits.

Myspace, Facebook, etc. aren't losing multiple multi million dollar lawsuits for deliberately assisting in covering up child molestation by their employees. The Catholic Church is. Let the kids go online, but never let them enter a Catholic church alone.