CHRISTIAN FUCHS - ICT&S - Universität Salzburg

Christian Fuchs: Social Networking Sites and the Surveillance Societypeople arbitrarily in order to increase the friend’s list, or if one adds people who shareone’s interests, but with whom one also does not communicate. In this case, the usageof ISNS remains on the web 2.0 level. Web 3.0 in the sense of a virtual community isthen a mere unrealized potential. It is likely that any concrete ISNS will consists ofmany loose connections and many virtual communities that exist in parallel. ISNS onthe technological level provide potentials for web 2.0 and web 3.0. Only web 2.0 isautomatically realized by establishing connections, the emergence of web 3.0communities on ISNS requires more sustained communicative work so that socialbonds emerge. Feelings of community can either emerge on ISNS or can be importedfrom the outside world. If individuals make use of ISNS for staying in touch with alreadyestablished friends and contacts more easily and over distance, then existingcommunities or parts of them are transformed into virtual communities that crystallizeon ISNS. If individuals make new social bonds with people whom they did not know inadvance and whom they have met on ISNS, then community emerges inherently fromISNS. One can speak of a virtual community in both cases. Web 3.0 is (besidescollaborative online labour, which can be found in the case of wikis, but is not anecessary condition) about the production of social bonds and feelings of belongingand togetherness. ISNS support web 3.0, but do not automatically realize web 3.0communities.It is clear that all ISNS are inherently used for communication and establishingconnections. However, it is not obvious if they are used primarily for maintainingalready established contacts, or primarily for establishing new contacts, or for bothendeavours. Some speak of social network platforms (for maintaining existingrelationships), whereas others of social networking platforms (for building newrelationships). However, all networks are based on the permanent reproduction ofrelations, i.e. on networking, new relations can emerge more or less frequently.Therefore networks and networking cannot be strictly separated and the terminologicalquestion can be resolved by arguing that ISNS have potentials for both contactmaintenance and formation, i.e. they have a reproductive and a productive role insocial relationships. Therefore one aspect of the case study is to clarify what studentssee as the primary task of ISNS. By asking them what they think is the major advantageof ISNS, we expect to find out how important various types of online contacts are forthem.10