Social Media and Personal Relationships: Online Intimacies and Networked Friendship PDF
Preview Social Media and Personal Relationships: Online Intimacies and Networked Friendship
PalgraveMacmillanStudiesinFamilyandIntimateLife Titlesinclude: GrahamAllan,GrahamCrowandSheilaHawker STEPFAMILIES HarrietBecher FAMILYPRACTICESINSOUTHASIANMUSLIMFAMILIES ParentinginaMulti-FaithBritain ElisaRoseBirch,AnhT.LeandPaulW.Miller HOUSEHOLDDIVISIONSOFLABOUR Teamwork,GenderandTime DeborahChambers SOCIALMEDIAANDPERSONALRELATIONSHIPS OnlineIntimaciesandNetworkedFriendship RobbieDuschinskyandLeonAntonioRocha(editors) FOUCAULT,THEFAMILYANDPOLITICS JacquiGabb RESEARCHINGINTIMACYINFAMILIES StephenHicks LESBIAN,GAYANDQUEERPARENTING Families,Intimacies,Genealogies ClareHoldsworth FAMILYANDINTIMATEMOBILITIES PeterJackson(editor) CHANGINGFAMILIES,CHANGINGFOOD RiittaJallinojaandEricWidmer(editors) FAMILIESANDKINSHIPINCONTEMPORARYEUROPE RulesandPracticesofRelatedness LynnJamieson,RuthLewisandRoonaSimpson(editors) RESEARCHINGFAMILIESANDRELATIONSHIPS ReflectionsonProcess DavidMorgan RETHINKINGFAMILYPRACTICES EriikkaOinonen FAMILIESINCONVERGINGEUROPE AComparisonofForms,StructuresandIdeals RóisínRyan-Flood LESBIANMOTHERHOOD Gender,FamiliesandSexualCitizenship SallySales ADOPTION,FAMILYANDTHEPARADOXOFORIGINS AFoucauldianHistory TamSanger TRANSPEOPLE’SPARTNERSHIPS TowardsanEthicsofIntimacy ElizabethB.Silva TECHNOLOGY,CULTURE,FAMILY InfluencesonHomeLife LisaSmyth THEDEMANDSOFMOTHERHOOD Agents,RolesandRecognitions PalgraveMacmillanStudiesinFamilyandIntimateLife SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–0–230–51748–6hardback 978–0–230–24924–0paperback (outsideNorthAmericaonly) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to usattheaddressbelowwithyournameandaddress,thetitleoftheseriesand theISBNquotedabove. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS,England Social Media and Personal Relationships Online Intimacies and Networked Friendship Deborah Chambers UniversityofNewcastle,UK DeborahChambers©2013 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6–10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedherrighttobeidentifiedastheauthorofthiswork inaccordancewiththeCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2013by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-34933-3 ISBN 978-1-137-31444-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137314444 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. AcatalogrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 Contents SeriesEditors’Preface vi Acknowledgements viii 1 Introduction 1 2 TechnologicallyMediatedPersonalRelationships 21 3 ConceptualisingIntimacyandFriendship 40 4 Self-PresentationOnline 61 5 SocialMediaandTeenageFriendships 82 6 Home,FamiliesandNewMedia 102 7 DigitalDatingandRomance 121 8 VirtualCommunitiesandOnlineSocialCapital 142 9 MediatedIntimacies 162 Notes 175 Bibliography 178 Index 204 v Series Editors’ Preface The remit of the Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life series is to publish major texts, monographs and edited collections focusing broadly on the sociological exploration of intimate relation- ships and family organisation. As editors, we think such a series is timely.Expectations,commitmentsandpracticeshavechangedsignifi- cantlyinintimaterelationshipandfamilylifeinrecentdecades.Thisis veryapparentinpatternsoffamilyformationanddissolution,demon- strated by trends in cohabitation, marriage and divorce. Changes in householdlivingpatternsoverthelast20yearshavealsobeenmarked, with more people living alone, adult children living longer in the parental home and more ‘non-family’ households being formed. Fur- thermore,therehavebeenimportantshiftsinthewayspeopleconstruct intimate relationships. There are few comfortable certainties about the bestwaysofbeingafamilymanorwoman,withonceconventionalgen- der roles no longer being widely accepted. The normative connection betweensexualrelationshipsandmarriageormarriage-likerelationships is also less powerful than it once was. Not only is greater sexual exper- imentationaccepted,butitisnowacceptedatanearlierage.Moreover heterosexualityisnolongertheonlymodeofsexualrelationshipgiven legitimacy. In Britain as elsewhere, gay male and lesbian partnerships are now socially and legally endorsed to a degree hardly imaginable in the mid-twentieth century. Increases in lone-parent families, the rapid growth of different types of stepfamily, the de-stigmatisation of births outside marriage and the rise in couples ‘living-apart-together’ (LATs) allprovidefurtherexamples oftheways that‘beinga couple’,‘beinga parent’and‘beingafamily’havediversifiedinrecentyears. The fact that change in family life and intimate relationships has been so pervasive has resulted in renewed research interest from soci- ologistsandotherscholars.Increasingamountsofpublicfundinghave been directed to family research in recent years, in terms of both indi- vidual projects and the creation of family research centres of different hues.Thisresearchactivityhasbeenaccompaniedbythepublicationof some very important and influential books exploring different aspects of shifting family experience, in Britain and elsewhere. The Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life series hopes to add to this vi SeriesEditors’Preface vii list of influential research-based texts, thereby contributing to existing knowledgeandinformingcurrentdebates.Ourmainaudienceconsists ofacademicsandadvancedstudents,thoughweintendthatthebooks intheserieswillbeaccessibletoamoregeneralreadershipwhowishto understandbetterthechangingnatureofcontemporaryfamilylifeand personalrelationships. Weseetheremitoftheseriesaswide.Theconceptof‘familyandinti- matelife’willbeinterpretedinabroadfashion.Whilethefocusofthe serieswillclearlybesociological,wetakefamilyandintimacyasbeing inclusive rather than exclusive. The series will cover a range of topics concerned with family practices and experiences, including, for exam- ple, partnership, marriage, parenting, domestic arrangements, kinship, demographicchange,intergenerationalties,lifecoursetransitions,step- families,gayandlesbianrelationships,lone-parenthouseholdsandalso non-familialintimaterelationshipssuchasfriendships.Wealsowishto foster comparative research, as well as research on under-studied pop- ulations. The series will include different forms of book. Most will be theoretical or empirical monographs on particular substantive topics, thoughsomemayalsohaveastrongmethodologicalfocus.Inaddition, we see editedcollectionsas alsofallingwithintheseries’ remit, as well astranslationsofsignificantpublicationsinotherlanguages.Finally,we intendthattheserieshasaninternationalappeal,intermsofbothtop- icscoveredandauthorship.Ourgoalisfortheseriestoprovideaforum forfamilysociologistsconductingresearchinvarioussocieties,andnot solelyinBritain. GrahamAllan,LynnJamiesonandDavidMorgan Acknowledgements This book arose from a previous monograph that I wrote in 2006, New SocialTies:ContemporaryConnectionsinaFragmentedSociety.Theearlier bookexploredhowthediscourseoffriendshipfosterswaysofmanaging rapid change in social networks by focusing on personal relationships, communityandcomputer-mediatedcommunication.Atthetime,social media was embryonic. I wish to thank Philippa Grand, Publisher at Palgrave/Macmillan, for offering me the opportunity to address the transformations in social media and personal relationships since then. I also thank Andrew James, Commissioning Editor, for guidance to completion. I am grateful to Anne Graefer, Newcastle University PhD student, for providing research assistance. I thank the group of anony- mous college students in the North East England for discussing their viewsonsocialmedia.Finally,Iwishtothanktheseriesco-editor,David Morgan,forhisconstructiveadviceonearlierdraftsofthemanuscript. viii 1 Introduction Oneofthemoststrikingchangesinpersonallifeduringlatemodernity is the use of social media for conducting personal relationships. These changes entail a growing significance in the public display of personal connectednessandtheimportanceoftheterm‘friendship’inmanaging these connections. Digital communication technologies are contribut- ing to new ideas and experiences of intimacy, friendship and identity through new forms of social interaction and new techniques of public display,particularlyonsocialnetworksites.Thisbookexplorestheways people engage with social media to build, maintain and exhibit per- sonalnetworks.Theaimistoprovideanunderstandingofthemediated nature of personal relationships by developing a theory of ‘mediated intimacies’. The dramatic changes in rituals of connection brought aboutbytheexplosioninuseofsocialnetworksitescompelustorecon- sidertheconceptof‘intimacy’andextenditbeyonditsformer,narrow focusonfamilylife.Thisbookthereforeenquireswhetherdigitalmodes ofcommunicationaregeneratingnewintimaciesandnewmeaningsof ‘friendship’asfeaturesofanetworkedsociety.Keydebatesandresearch evidenceareassessedaboutemergingwaysthatpeoplesharetheirlives witheachotherinadigitalenvironmentandthemotivesfordoingso. Newopportunitiesbeingofferedbysocialmediatotransformidentities andgeneratenewmodesofself-presentation,interactionandetiquette areidentified. Withaparticularfocusonthewayssocialnetworksitesarebeingused tosupportorcomplicatepersonalties,thisbookexplorestheintersect- ingusesofarangeofsocialmedia.Socialnetworksitesconstituteanow well-establishedmodeofcommunication.Yettheyonlyemergedinthe first decade of this century. These highly popular forms of social and personalconnectioncontinuetobetreated,publiclyandacademically, 1
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