This is a review of Social network for two (a song best listened to once only). It’s text – this blog post – and audio – this short MP3 - Social networking for 2.

The argument – such as it is – of the song is that social networking’s a poor substitute for real-life interaction and is premised on inauthentic identity performances. It reminded me of recent comments by Archbishop Vincent Nichols (see Facebook criticised by Archbishop) on the “dehumanising” effect of social media on community life. I was going to add a ‘what a shock, man in frock says something stupid’ comment but this would be an unfair generalisation; Lily Savage has said a lot of sensible things.

Both the song and the archbishop miss the point that social networking allows us to continue and extend real-life, offline relationships; it’s not a case of one (the unsatisfactory, derivative virtual) replacing the other (the real deal of meat space). Here are some quotes I’d use in my intellectual response to the song:

… we need to treat Internet media as continuous with and embedded in other social spaces (Miller & Slater 2000: 5).

The idea of space having been fractured refers to the emergence of cyberspace as a distinctively new space that co-exists with physical space. Cyberspace has not displaced physical space, of course, and will not displace it. Nor, however, can physical space dismiss cyberspace. For the majority of young people in so-called developed countries who are now in adolescence, cyberspace has been integral to their experience of ’spatiality’ since their early years. […] Co-existence is the destiny of these two spaces (Lankshear and Knobel 2006 :31-2).

The digital era has allowed us to cross space and time, engage with people in a far-off time zone as though they were just next door, do business with people around the world, and develop information systems that potentially network us all closer and closer every day. Yet, people don’t live in a global world – they are more concerned with the cultures in which they participate. (boyd: 2006)

References

boyd, d. (2006). G/localization: When Global Information and Local Interaction Collide. O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, San Diego, CA. March 6.

Lankshear, C. and Knobel, M. (2006). New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Classroom Learning. Maidenhead: Open University Press

Miller, D. & Slater, D. (2000). The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach. Oxford: Berg.