CHRISTIAN FUCHS - ICT&S - Universität Salzburg

Christian Fuchs: Social Networking Sites and the Surveillance Society9: Source of information and news10: Browsing other profiles, "spying" on others11: Free communication that saves money12: Reminder of birthdays13: Business communication, finding jobs, self-presentation for potential employers14: Being hip and trendy15: Mobility, access from anywhere16: Self-presentation to others (for non-business reasons)17: Flirting, sex, loveOur survey shows that communication is the most important advantage that thestudents in our survey mention. Communication for them is more important than selfpresentation,sharing images or videos, or getting information. Maintaining existingfriendships, family contacts, etc. with the help of social networking sites is the mostimportant advantage that the students in our survey mention. 59.1% of them consider itas a major advantage. 29.8% say that establishing new contacts is very important,19.9% mention finding and renewing old contacts and friendships as major advantage.17.8% say that communication in interest and hobby groups is very important. Thestudents in this context especially stress communication about their field of study,university courses, and exams with other students on studiVZ and the possibility ofjoining music fan groups, learning about new music, and communicating with fans ofmusic groups that one likes on MySpace. 13.7% say that communication in general(without any further classification) is the major advantage. 11.7% stress that socialnetworking sites allow them to establish and maintain international or global contactsacross large spatial distances. 8.4% mention sharing photos and other media withfriends and accessing such media as major opportunity. 5.6% say that an importantaspect of social networking sites is that they are fun and provide entertainment.Overall these results show maintaining existing contacts is more important thanestablishing new contacts or renewing old contacts on social networking sites.Maintaining the existing social network and broadening it together form core activitieson social networking sites. They are at the same time social network sites and socialnetworking sites. Maintaining the existing network is a reproduction process, each timeone communicates with existing friends and contacts, one reproduces autopoieticallythe existing network. The network lives through permanent renewed networking,therefore no clear distinction between network and networking can be drawn and onecan either speak of social networking sites or social network sites. Each network isbased on permanent reproductive networking, friendship work is needed for keepingones network working. Establishing new network contacts as process of expansivenetworking is embedded into existing networks. Networking makes a network workingas expanding community of social relations.Here are some characteristic examples of answers that were given to the question ofwhat the major advantages of social networking platforms are:Number Categories Answer (English)of dataset#40 2, 3, 10, 16 Finding old contacts, inspectingother people, self-propaganda,Answer (German)verlorene Leute wiederfinden, Leuteinspizieren können,90