The link to the following article has been circulating around Second Life:
The online New York Times Magazine article uses anthropological and other social science theories to describe some of the micro-blogging, or social networking, services that have become so popular recently.
Those services allow people to publish a constant stream of activities, thoughts, and photos in the world-wide-web through computers and now also through mobile phones for their friends and sometimes even strangers to view from moment to moment. They are like instantaneous diaries, not only day by day, but moment by moment, instant by instant: incessantly.
A link from the article (p. 1, widget) takes us to the article author Thompson's own "pomeranian99" Twitter page, for example.
Principally, the article describes these popular tools: Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. The article, furthermore, mentions some other micro-blogging tools: Tumblr and Dopplr; it also mentions the location tracking software Loopt for iPhone.
While written in a lively manner for popular circulation, the article (pp. 2-5) refers to a number of anthropological and social science theories:
A note (p.1) tells us that a version of this online article "appeared in print on September 7, 2008, on page MM42 of the New York edition".
Thanks to Sarasvati Kohime for circulating the link to the article through the "SL Researchers" group in Second Life.
Thompson, C. (2008, September 5). "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy." New York Times Magazine. Retrieved September 7, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html
The online New York Times Magazine article uses anthropological and other social science theories to describe some of the micro-blogging, or social networking, services that have become so popular recently.
Those services allow people to publish a constant stream of activities, thoughts, and photos in the world-wide-web through computers and now also through mobile phones for their friends and sometimes even strangers to view from moment to moment. They are like instantaneous diaries, not only day by day, but moment by moment, instant by instant: incessantly.
A link from the article (p. 1, widget) takes us to the article author Thompson's own "pomeranian99" Twitter page, for example.
Principally, the article describes these popular tools: Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. The article, furthermore, mentions some other micro-blogging tools: Tumblr and Dopplr; it also mentions the location tracking software Loopt for iPhone.
While written in a lively manner for popular circulation, the article (pp. 2-5) refers to a number of anthropological and social science theories:
- “co-presence”, as formulated by the Japanese cultural anthropologist ("sociologist") Mizuko Ito.
- "modern American disconnectedness", as formulated by USA political scientist Robert Putnam.
- Dunbar's number, a "hard-wired upper limit on the number of people [any person] can personally know at one time", as formulated by British social anthropologist Robin Dunbar.
- "parasocial relationships" as described by USA social scientist Danah Boyd.
- "college-age users reacting to the world of awareness", as studied by University of Maryland sociologist Zeynep Tufekci.
A note (p.1) tells us that a version of this online article "appeared in print on September 7, 2008, on page MM42 of the New York edition".
Thanks to Sarasvati Kohime for circulating the link to the article through the "SL Researchers" group in Second Life.
