Personal

Connections in the
Digital Age
2nd edition

Naney K. Baym

polity
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Baym. Nancy K.
Personal connections in the digital age I Nancy K. Baym.
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 4

Communities and networks

After inventing one-to-one communication systems, it took the devel-

opers of what became the internet almost no time to develop
platforms for group communication. Among the first such groups
was SF-Lovers, a mailing list for science fiction fans. Accompanied
by influential bulletin board systems such as the Bay Area counter-
culture hangout, The Well (Rheingold, 1993), and early multiplayer
games, these group communication platforms were followed by
thousands, then millions, of topically organized mailing lists, Usenet
newsgroups, and websites. The advent of social network sites (SNSs)
in the late I990S provided another platform for groups and simulta-
neously posed challenges for them by foregrounding more loosely
bound networks of individuals. Yet communities continue, even if it
means creating Twitter hashtags.
Many online groups develop a strong sense of group member-
ship. They serve as bases for the creation of new relationships as
people from multiple locations gather synchronously or asynchro-
nously to discuss topics of shared interest, role play, or just hang
out. Participants have extolled the benefits of being able to form
new connections with others regardless of location and to easily find
others with common interests, the round-the-clock availability of
these groups, and the support they provide. Members of these groups
often describe them as ((communities." Internet proponents such as
Howard Rheingold (I993) touted a new age of "virtual community"
in which webs of personal connection transcended time and distance
to create meaningful new social fonnations. My own research on the
newsgroup rec.arts.tv.soaps (r.a.t.s.) conceptualized the group as a
community.
Given its emotional force, it's not surprising that this use of
 "community" generated strong counter-reactions from those such as the digital services company Sparta Networks (n.d.) boasted on their
Lockard (1997: 225) who warned that "to accept only communication website that they built a client "a highly scalable, function rich, flexible
in place of a community's manifold functions is to sell our common online community ... in less than a third of the time it would have
faith in community vastly short." Early critics such as Stoll (1995) taken them to build the community internally?" These technological
raised fears of a 'Isilicon snake oil" that replaced genuine and deep definitions of "community" appeal to developers and also to market-
connections with shallow and inadequate substitutes. The specter ers (Preece & Maloney-Krichmar, 2003) who can create a site, call
of people isolated indoors substituting Gergen's "floating world" it a "community/' and hope to reap the benefits of the term's warm
of connection for meaningful contact with their neighbors sends connotations without having to deal with questions of what actually
a shudder through those concerned that, as Robert Putnam (I995, happens on-site. Different technological platforms do lend them-
2000) famously put it, we are already doing far too much "bowling selves to different sorts of group formations, and differences in digital
alone." affordances lead to differences in group behavior. Yet one need only
If you hear echoes of the hopes and concerns about mediated inter- peek below the surface ,of anyone online platform to see that tech-
action that have reverberated through the history of communication nologically based definitions of IIcommunity" fall apart in the face
technologies, you should. As we've seen in previous chapters, people of variety. YouTube, as Burgess and Green (2009) show, is far from
tend to doubt the authenticity of social connections sustained through a single collective. Instead it is comprised of many subgroups, each
new media and question their impact on interpersonal, civic, and with its own practices and purposes, which are sometimes at odds
political engagement. Historical changes occurring in conjunction with the other groups. Thus, when Oprah decided to join YouTube,
with and facilitated by communication technologies have led many to many of the amateur media producers resented her and her fans'
worry that people are losing connections to their local communities, presence, just as the female vloggers resented the sexist comment-
with towns, cities, and nations suffering the consequences. Digital ing practices of male subgroups with which they had to contend. The
technologies have potential to engage us more closely in communal mere existence of an interactive online forum is not community, and
connections but, if they take us away from embodied local interac- one platform can host many different groups.
tions, they could threaten the real thing. Whether you are willing to consider any digitally based group
In this chapter we'll look at how people organize into groups and a "community" depends first and foremost on which of many
networks online. First, we'll ask what is meant when people label an definitions of "community" you choose. No one has ever been able
online group "community. n We turn then to social networks, explor- to agree what exactly "community" means. "Ever since sociological
ing how these more recent platforms have afforded more personalized theorist Ferdinand Tonmes declared community to be an essential
and diffuse yet centralized connections. In closing the chapter we1ll condition for the development of close, primary social bonds," wrote
look at how digital media connect with participation in geographically Mary Chayko (2008: 6), ('sociologists have not been able to agree
grounded communities. on how, or whether, definitions of community should be updated."
Despite (or perhaps because of) the term's openness to a variety
Online community of interpretations, it remains useful. Chayko conducted electronic
interviews with 87 people who self-identified as active users of group
What did it mean when YouTube, with its millions of users, promi- communication online, in order to explore their perspectives of
nentlyfeatured the term "community" on its navigt.i2n bar, as though mediated social dynamics. Although she did not use the word Ilcom·
its millions of users were united int9 a common through mere munityJl in her interview questions (2008: 212-13), her interviewees
use of the site? What kind of "community" was being invoked when repeatedly invoked it to describe their online experiences, saying
things like "I feel I am part of a tight-knit community" and flyou can I993 book The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic
definitely feel the community on the board" (2008: 7). Like Chayko, I FrDntier.
am reluctant to drop the term altogether. "Community" has provided The metaphor of space is particularly applicable in visual online
a resonant handle for members, developers, analysts. marketers, environments such as massively multiplayer online role-playing
and even critics as they've tried to understand online groups. Rather games (MMORPGs) where fictional worlds built through code are
than debate which definition is correct, and hence whether or not experienced as semi-physical realities. Second Life, in which users
online communities are urea!," I will identify five qualities found in create buildings, parks, and other emulations of physical spaces, also
both online groups and many definitions of community that make lends itself to spatial understandings ofllcommunity." The immersive
the tenn resonate for online contexts. These are the sense of space, graphics of World of Wareraft, combined with participants' organiza-
shared practice, shared resources and support, shared identities, and tion into guilds, shapes the sense of community or communities
interpersonal relationships. - in that environment (Nardi. 2010). Schuler (I996) organizes the
second chapter of his around Ray Oldenburg's concept of a 'lthird
place." Similarly. in their analysis of two MMORPGs, Steinlruehler
Space and Williams (2006) use Oldenburg's ideas to argue that these envi-
Those who argue online groups cannot be communities often con- ronments function similarly to the "cafes, coffee shops, community
sider common geography a necessary condition of "community." centers, beauty parlors, general stores, bars and hangouts that get you
From early on, geographical communities such as Berkeley and Santa through the day" in well-functioning cities and towns (Oldenburg,
Monica, California, turned to the internet as a means of building local 1989: front cover). Third places, neither work nor home. aTe vital
community, creating community networks to foster civic engagement sites of informal social life, critical to social cohesion. Steinkuehler
and provide access for those without internet connections. Schuler and Williams's analysis ofMMORPGs as third places shows how they
(1996) runs through several examples of efforts to create online provide sites of neutral ground, equal status, sociable conversation,
networks to support local communities. One of the earliest, Santa easy access, lmown regulars, playful interaction, (sometimes) homely
Monica's PEN system, had five objectives, includinl1lWoviding city aesthetics, and a homelike atmosphere.
residents with: easy electronic access to public an alter- Textual groups can also be metaphorically based on space, as
native means of communication, delivery, and creating awareness of was the case in the official board for fans of television show Buffy
public services; and the opportunity to learn about computer technol- the Vampire Slayer documented by Stephanie Tuszynski (2007) in
ogy. The PEN system also sought "to provide an electronic forum her ethnographic film IRL: In Real Lifo. This board was called "The
for participation in discussions of issues and concerns of residents Bronze" after a hangout in the television show. Members Tuszynski
in order to promote an enhanced sense of community" (quoted in interviewed frequently referred to the board as a place, one even laugh-
Schuler, 1996: 120). ing at herself for saying goodbye to her partner before walking down
Most online groups are not so tied to geographical space, yet people the hall to go to The Bronze, as though she were leaving the apartment
who are involved in online groups often think of them as shared to go elsewhere. Furthermore, online groups can be organized with
places. The feeling that online groups meeting on software and reference to geographical location. People form groups to discuss
hardware platfonns constitute "spaceslJ is integral to the language national and regional issues or to share the things that make their
often used to describe the internet. Consider the tenn "cyberspace," locations special to them (e.g. the Facebook group called l(MAN !!H
coined by science fiction author WJilli.am Gibson, or the western LOOK AT THIS THING I SAW IN A LAWRENCH, KANSAS ALLEY
United States metaphor in the subtitle of Rheingold's now classic rW). People also form groups to discuss cultural materials tied to
particular regions, as I've described in the context of Swedish inde· 2009. One defendant tweeted from the courtroom. With posts such
pendent music's international fans (Baym, 2007). With the rising use as "EPIC WINNING LOL" he quickly won the hearts of his followers
of social media in godal protests (to which I will return below), many (if not the court). who saw one of their own in his use of language.
ad hoc groups emerge throughout Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere, They did not win the trial, but the Swedish election of a member
enabling rapid organization but also governmental surveillance. of the Pirate Party to the European Parliament in the wal<e of their
conviction was evidence of the popular support they had gained. The
discussion of Black Twitter (Brock, 2012; FIorini, 20I3) in the previ-
Shared practice
ous chapter provides one example of playful language use that serves
A metaphorical sense of shared space is thus one criterion that to build a distinctive community. Image memes, which often emerge
people use when they label digitally mediated groups Ucommuni- on the site 4Chan and then move to Reddit and Imgur, and are old
ties." Community can also be found in the habitu-ltnd usually news by the time they appear on Pacebook, are another example of
unconscious practices - routinized behaviors - that group members shared practice that requires a sense of group identity (Milner, 20I2;
share. Communities of practice include occupational, educational, Miltner, 2014; Shifman; 2012).
and recreational groups as well as regional ones (e.g. Dundes, 1977; These terms and genres are markers of insider status and hence
Lave & Wenger, I99I). Because language is the primary tool through help to forge group identity (see further discussion of this below).
which digitally mediated groups cohere, the concept of "speech They also indicate groups' core values. 10AS did not just mean "it's
community," which foregrounds shared communication practices, only a soap opera," it also meant that the group valued soap operas
has been particularly useful for many of us studying online groups. and understood that one could be involved enough to find them frus-
Speech communities have distinctive patterns oflanguage use which trating yet not be the lifeless idiots represented by the soap viewer
enact and recreate a cultural ideology that underpins them (PhiHpsen, stereotype. The phrase simultaneously validated group members'
199 2 ). shared love of the genre, as intelligent, and their
Online speech communities share ways of spealdng that capture shared frustrations. Tweeters' use of "epic" demonsttates the shared
the meanings that are important to them and the logics that underlie values of humor and irreverence. Rage Comics' frequent representa-
their common sensibilities. Groups share insider lingo and literacies tions of socially awkward young white men, like the Socially Awkward
including acronyms, vocabulary words, genres, styles, and forms of Penguin meme. speak to the shared masculine geek culture of sites
play. In my book Tune In, Log On (Baym, 2000), I wrote about a soap like 4Chan and Reddit (Milner, 2012). Summer postings of "hot dog
opera fan group (r.a.t.s.) on Usenet. I spent years reading the group legs" on Instagram demonstrate the values of leisure, luxury, and the
and conducted close analysis of the ways in which language created body amongst young female Instagrammers.
a sodal context alan to community. Members of r.a.t.s. used many Shared practices entail norms for the appropriate use of com-
terms comprehensible to insiders, including the acronym "IOAS" for munication. In a piece on norms and their violations on Facebook,
'iIt's Only A Soap" and numerous nicknames for characters. McLaughlin and Vitak (201I: 300) define norms as "'a framework
Though I would not consider Twitter a single community, any through which people determine what behaviors are acceptable and
more than YouTube, its users do share some practices, shaped both unacceptable." Norms can be explicitly stated. but they are often
by technological affordances (the I4o-character limit) and by other implicit, negotiated without discussion. Ongoing groups develop
internet trends such as LOLspeak (see chapter 3), The power of standards that guide members' behavior. The 'tNSFW" (Not Safe For
being able to speak like a Twitter jn4':lider was evident when the four Work) Tumblr community Katrin Tiidenberg studied (e.g. 20I4) had
founders of Swedish file·sharing site The Pirate Bay went on trial in distinct norms about sexiness, emphasizing that every woman's body
 t.
can be appealing, and training one another in the aesthetics of what Social norms also emerge in social network sites (SNSs). Fono
constitutes a sexy image. Violations of these nonns are often met with and Raynes.Goldie (2006) interviewed users of LiveJournal about
critical response from other users. In an early study, McLaughlin, their reasons for friending people on that site and the issues that
Osborne, and Smith (1995) collected messages from Usenet in which arise around friending. boyd (2006) interviewed users of MySpace
participants had been castigated for misbehavior. Analyzing those and Friendster. Both studies found friending nonns, although they
instances, they identified several issues that spanned Usenet groups, were not unifonn and, as we will return to in chapter 6, caused con-
including incorrect use of technology, bandwidth waste, network·wide fusion and interpersonal conflict. Donath (2007) argues that SNSs
conventions, news group-specific conventions, ethical violations, inap- develop norms for what constitutes truth in tenns of "the mores
propriate language, and factual errors. Online groups that discuss of our community." Humphreys (2007) observed the short·lived
television shows and movies often have a norm that the word "spoil- location-sensitive SNS Dodgeball for one year and perfonned in-depth
ers" should be included in the subject lines of posts which give away interviews with users in seven American cities. She found that there
the story ahead of time, This enables those who don't want the show were nonns regulating things such as how often one should post
spoiled by this advance infonnation to avoid such posts. other groups one's location to the network. Just as the norms around friending are
are devoted entirely to sharing spoilers. uncertain, "nonnative Dodgeball use is not only emerging but con-
In the last chapter, we saw groups differ in their attitude toward tested"; subgroups "may have different tolerance levels, expectations.
flaming (Lea et al., 1992); the soap opera group I studied would have and definitions of acceptable or 'correct' Dodgeball use" (Humphreys.
none of it, while other groups tolerate and even encourage it. The 2007). On Facebook, the undergraduates interviewed by McLaughlin
discussion board for my favorite band tolerated a great deal of rude- and Vitak (2012) voiced nonns regarding whether to accept or deny
ness, particularly when people violated norms, but attended carefully friend requests (accepting was generally preferred), not posting too
to an implicit norm that people must be thanl<:ed when they share many status updates, not writing overly emotional updates, fight-
materials with the group. Users of l.a.t.s. shared a commitment to ing. or tagging pictures of other people that reflect negatively on
friendliness, which could be seen in the details of how they disagreed them. How people responded to violations of those Facebook norms
with one another. Their disagreements were packed with qualification depended on both the nature of the violation and the relationship.
rl might be wrong but I thought that ... "), partial agreement ("I Community norms of practice are displayed, reinforced, negoti-
agree that ... , but I still thought that ... "), and other linguistic strate- ated, and taught through members' shared behaviors. They are also
gies designed to minimize offense and maximize affiliation (Baym, enshrined through FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions files). Early
1996). Group members do not have to think about these norms as on, these appeared as regularly occurring posts in message boards.
they formulate their messages. Instead, becoming a group insider Web boards often include them as a link Hansen and his conabora·
involves a process of being socialized to these nonns and values so tors studied a question-and-answer mailing" list for web developers
that they guide one's without having to be consid· that also maintained a wild repository that worked as a FAQ and as
ered. On Wikipedia, adherence to norms is critical to remaining an an alternative space that allowed members to keep the list discus-
editor or rising through the editorial ranks. In his analysis of the use sion on-topic (Hansen, Ackerman, Resnick, & Munson, 2007). They
of the word tlcommunity" by Wikipedians, Pentzold (20n) describes performed both qualitative thematic analysis and quantitative content
Wikipedia as an ethos-action community" committed to ideals of
li analysis of all the wild pages as well as samples from several thou-
openness, fairness, objectivity, consensus, and fonowing the guide- sand of the group's 90,000 emails, and conducted semi-structured
lines. No one enters the commun;i.ty with trust. but new editors are interviews. They found that the wilds selVed several nonnative func-
able to earn it by acting in accordance with that ethos. tions in the group. When people broached irresolvable disputes over
topics such as font size, they could be gently referred to the wild. Social norms are also rooted within the behavioral contexts in
This allowed the list to avoid irresolvable "holy wars," maintain the which users live, as we saw in the last chapter. On social network sites,
"friendly and professional tone," and socialize new members without where people may be aware that their friends and colleagues are
lt

losing old members who had been through those questions many looking," they are likely to feel pressured to conform to those groups'
times before. norms (Donath, 2007). Walther, Van der Heide, Kim, and Westerman
Online groups also share norms for what constitutes skilled (2008) conducted an experiment in which they first had focus groups
municative practice. The Pirate Bay founder who knew to use the describe what constituted good and bad peer behaviors. They then
phrase "epic winning" and the acronym "LOL" demonstrated not manipulated Facebook profiles to demonstrate those behaviors and
just his insider status, but also his Twitter skill. Participants in I.a.t.s. assessed perceptions of those profiles. They found that college student
valued humor and insight in their posts, and, in surveys I conducted, participants did rely on societal and peer group standards when
particularly funny posters were those most frequently mentioned as forming impressions online. Wall posts describing excessive and
"good" contributors. In fan communities) those who write particularly questionable behavior rc:;sult in more negative perceptions, although
good fan fiction might be celebrated, while those who give especially this was only true for women's profiles. In an analysiS of the metadata
helpful advice might be considered the best contributors to support from 362 million fully anonymized private messages and "pokes"
communities. Friends who post status updates at the right frequency exchanged by 4.2 million North American Facebook users through
with the right mix of humor, self.deprecation, and thoughtfulness that site, Golder, Wilkinson. and Huberman (2007) found that
might be most appreciated on Facebook. Good-looking people whose messaging was guided by strong temporal rhythms that were often
selfies best capture the aesthetic of celebrity photographs may achieve grounded in local norms. For instance, messaging took place at night
fame on Instagram (Marwick, in press). and peal<ed Tuesdays and Wednesdays and was at its lowest during
Normative standards always implicate power structures. the "college student weekend" beginning mid-afternoon Friday and
Hierarchies form online, giving some people more say than others in lasting through mid-afternoon Sunday. Studies of millions of images
creating and regulating behavioral standards within group contexts. posted to Instagram from different cities likewise demonstrate tem-
Stivale, for example, examined the variants of what counts as spam in poral and color patterns, displaying distinctive "visual rhythms" in
LambdaMOO and argued that "the ambiguity of what is appropriate each city (Hochman & Manovich, 2013; Hochman & Schwartz, 2012).
or not suggests once again the ongoing struggle between centrip-
etal and centrifugal forces, i.e. forces that seek some unified central Shared resources and support
'command' versus those seeking to contest such unification from the
margins" (Stivale, 1997: I39). Many groups are moderated, meaning Communities are often defined as ucomposed of broadly based
that power structures are both explicit and built into the group's very relationships in which each conununity member felt securely able
structure. Some of the norm-maintaining jobs that moderators do to obtain a wide variety of help" (Wellman, 1988: 97)· The sup-
include keeping the group on-topic, deleting posts that they deem portive exchange of resources is often implied when people use
inappropriate or distracting, and fixing problematic formatting. In the term "community" in digital contexts. Closely related to social
unmoderated groups, power structures may be implicit and emergent support is "social capital" (Coleman, 1988). Social capital, as Ellison.
(Preece & Maloney-Krichmar, 2003). The contrast between this and Steinfeld, and Lampe (2007) explain. is "an elastic term with a variety
optimistic predictions that the absence of social cues in online inter- of definitions." In essence, it refers to the resources people attain
action would eliminate hierarchy and. .render all participants equal because of their network of relationships. When people provide and
should be obvious. receive social support in online groups, they are contributing to one
 another's accumulated social capital. Social capital may be either
people access to bonding and bridging resources without the entan-
"bonding" or "bridging" (Putnam 1995, 2000). Bridging capital is
l
glements and threats of close relationships. These groups are also
exchanged between people who differ from one another and do not
important for those without local support groups.
share strong relationships. The internet and social network sites
The provision of social support is common even in groups that
lend themselves to and expand the potential for this kind of capital
are not explicitly designated as supportive (Wellman & Gulia, 1999).
(Hampton, lee, & Her, 20II). In contrast, bonding capital is usually
There are several, often overlapping, kinds of social support (Cutrona
exchanged between people in close relationships. While the former
& Russell, 1990). Social integration or network support:
is a "sociological lubricant," the latter is "a ldnd of social superglue"
(Steinkuehler & Williams, 2006). Many online groups provide bridg- enables people to feel part of a group whose members have common inter·
ing capital, exchanged in relationships that are highly specialized, yet ests and concerns. Such relationships reflect more casual friendships. which
it is also common to find members of online communities and social enable a person to engage in various fonns of social and recreational activities.
networks providing one another with the sort of emotional support (Cutrona & Russell, 1990: )22)
often found in close relationships. Indeed, supportive exchanges
Online fans and hobbyist groups exemplify this, as their very exist-
between weak ties may be more stress-reducing than those between
ence is predicated on a desire to organize around common interests
strong ties (Wright. Rains, & Banas, 2010).
for social and recreational purposes. Consider the Survivor spoiler fan
Social support offers many benefits to its recipients. Documented
"lmowledge community" described by Jenkins (2006). Members of
positive effects include better psychological adjustment, higher per.
this group collaborated to figure out the identities of all the contest-
ceptions of self-efficacy, better coping, improved task performance,
ants and even the winner of the sixth season's contest before the
better disease resistance and recovery. and lowered risk of mortal-
entrants had been officially announced or the first show had aired.
ity (Burleson & MacGeorge, 2002). Some online communities are
In the short term, this group was "just having fun on a Friday night
explicitly support groups. Forums abound for people with medical
participating in an elaborate scavenger hunt involving thousands of
conditions, addiction, traumas, and other debilitating or stigmatizing
participants." In the long term, Jenlons posits that they were coming
life circumstances. Though one might be inclined to think of support
to understand "how they may deploy the new lands of power that are
as inherently good, there are cases that push or cross that boundary
emerging from participation within knowledge communities" {2006:
what Haas, Irr, Jennings, and Wagner (20U) call"online negative
29}. The recreational information exchanged amongst fans online
enabling support groups." The IIpIo-ana" sites they studied provide
becomes a form of subcultural capital that can bolster individuals'
support to those who view anorexia as a life-style choice rather than
status within and outside of the fan group (Kibby, 2010).
a disease. Extreme body modification communities support those
Emotional support represents lithe ability to turn to others for
interested in changing their bodies in ways practitioners embrace as
comfort and security during times of stress, leading the person to
self-expression, but which many consider mutilation and which may
feel that he or she is cared for by others" (Cutrona & Russell, 1990:
be illegal (Lingel & boyd, 20I3).
322). In one striking example, Heather Spohr. a prominent "mommy
Walther and Boyd (2002) conducted an email survey of a sampling
blogger, I, had been writing about her daughter since her premature
of people who had posted to Usenet support groups. Their research
birth at 29 weeks. She and her readers built strong connections.
identifies four motivations for people to seek this kind of support
When Spohr's daughter passed away unexpectedly at 17 months,
online, including the security provided by anonymity, the ease of
the Los Angeles Times (Bermudez, 2009) described an outpouring of
access to these groups, the ability to manage one's interaction within
support that crashed the servers and generated more than $20,000 in
them, and the social distance from others. Online support can allow
donations to the March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization working
 to help prevent birth defects. While emotional support may be more can feel threw the computer and threw your words that you need help ... but
common in explicit support groups, a content analysis of diverse ... if you keep focusing on him and never really try working this out for your-
online groups found that most demonstrate empathic communica- selL You are going to continue to stay sick!! And, you are sick ... he is like a
tion and provide emotional support (Preece & Ghozati, 199 8 ). drug for you. YOU got to make a step ... toward recovery! I He is an addiction!!
Esteem support bolsters "a person's sense of competence or self- (Phyllis g)
esteem" through the provision of "individual positive feedback on
Frosting I112later returned to the thread, offering emotional support:
his or her skills and abilities or expressing a belief that the person is
capable" (Cutrona & Russell, 1990: 322). McKenna and Bargh (I99 8 ) Hi again. Hope things are getting better for you girl.. You still sound a little
surveyed people who posted to Usenet groups for homosexuals. They confused and upset to me .. I hope and shall keep you in my prayers. And know
found that news groups contributed to "identity demarginalization.'J God will bring you peace if you let himl! (Frosting III2)

As people participated within the news groups and received positive In response, Brokenhearted girl provided the others in the thread with
feedback for their gay identities, their self-acceptance increased and esteem support:
sense of estrangement dropped. As a direct result, they were more
likely to come out to their loved ones. McKenna and Bargh concluded 1 wanted to thank you all for you beautiful reply. I could only hope to be as
that the anonymity of online groups allows people to engage in riskier beautiful as the sweet spirit that I know from all of you I!

self-disclosure and, when that is affinned, such groups can create pos- This exchange demonstrates the cyclical and self-reinforcing nature
itive changes in people's self-concepts. In contrast, the pro-ana groups of much supportive behavior in online communities, a point I'll
studied by Haas et al. (20II) supported one another in their negative return to in discussing people's motivations for providing strangers
self..appraisals, affinning one another by accepting without contradic- and casual acquaintances with resources. In groups supporting
tion their expressions of self-loathing and worthlessness. The men marginalized identities including extreme body modification and
Elija Cassidy (20IJ) studied in Brisbane, Australia, used Grindr and anorexia - infonnational support becomes fraught, as people simul·
Facebook to connect with other gay young men, but in so doing often taneously seek infonnation and seek to hide that infonnation-seeldng
came to abhor images of gay masculinity and to feel marginalized and from others in their lives (Haas et al., 20II; tingel & boyd, 20I3).
unattractive within that community.
Infonnation within such groups may be managed in ways designed
Informational support offers i1advice or guidance concerning pos. to keep outsiders out, or, as one of the body modifiers interviewed by
sible solutions to a problem" (Cutrona & Russell, 1990: 322 ). Advice Lingel & boyd put it, "keep it secret, keep it safe."
may be about topics as diverse as writing CSS or managing one's love When people support one another with money, by doing things
life. Much of the communication on Oprah's web board exemplified for them, and by providing them lodging and other services, Cutrona
informational (and emotional) support, as seen in this exchange when and Russell call this tangible aid. When one of the regular writers
Brokenhearted girl wrote about her ex·boyfriend's on-again off-again at Daily Kos, a left-leaning political blogging site, suffered extreme
affections for her. Phyllis g advised:
damage to his home, members of the site sent him money to help
Listen to what all frostinguI2 had to say to you today . .. she is wise and him to recover. People often provide traveling members of online
what she said is right·on!! I, too, think your ex-boyfriend is trying to keep you groups places to stay, or at least meals, when they visit their towns.
hanging onll Guys do this all the time. They will break your heart ... knowing In recent years, increasing numbers of artists and entrepreneurs have
that you love them. and then feel some sort of ... male uthing" when you cry turned to their online communities and networks to crowdfund their
about them .. It makes me sickl! Girl.. Maybe!! it's time you just start setting some projects through sites like Kickstarter and Indie Go-Go. The musician
of those boundaries for yourselfll Your pain is very genuine to me. I know and
Amanda Palmer, for inftance, was able to raise US$I.2 million for an
 "
". .

album from her fans, though she initially requested $IOO,OOO. On a woman took on the role of welcome-wagon, greeting all new con-
more modest yet still impressive scale, Jill Sobule was able to motivate tributors with an enthusiastic response designed to encourage them
her online conununity to donate $74,000 for her album California to continue participating, a role seen also in The Bronze, where one
Years. (In the realm of absurdity, Zach Danger Brown of Columbus, contributor posted the "shout out" to new posters each morning. In
Ohio raised more than $60,000 on Kickstarter to make a potato salad the community of fans of Swedish music, a particularly powerful and
for which he had initially sought $IO.) recognizable identity was that of mp3 blogger, and the few who claim
As they share resources in public group contexts, people participat- this role gain status amongst the fans, as well as with the musicians.
ing in online groups collaboratively build a replenishing repository labels, and others professionally involved with Swedish independent
of public goods that can be used by unknown recipients one might music (Baym, 20°7: Baym & Burnett, 2009).
never encounter again and whom one can't expect to reciprocate Welser and his colleagues (2007) were interested in whether they
immediately (Kollock, I999). One might ask why people do this. It could identify people who play roles within U senet communities
makes obvious sense to take the time and financial and emotional from structural information alone. Based on a sample of almost
risks to support those you already Imow and love. but why provide 6,000 messages from three different newsgroups, they determined
this ldnd of support to people you hardly know or may not know at that several roles could be identified from metadata. U Answer people"
all? One reason may be what Cutrona and Russell (1990: 332) refer frequently responded yet never initiated, while "discussion people"
to as a sixth form of social support: supporting others gives people both initiated and responded. Furthermore, there was very little com-
the feeling that they are needed. Helping others online may give people munication amongst the individuals in the threads to which Uanswer
a sense of efficacy (Kollock, 1999). Offering support to others now people" contributed, while there was a great deal amongst partici-
may lead to receiving support should you ever go looldng for it in the pants in "discussion people's" threads. They conclude that roles have
future (Kollock, 1999). Being a sldlled provider of resources can also "behavioral and structurallsignatures'" (Welser et al., 2007). From
increase people's status and prestige within online groups (Matzat, the point of view of regular participants. these structural signatures
2004). are less visible than the fact that the answer person is a regular, one
who can be counted on to provide informational support when a new
participant asks for it.
Shared identities
The most common role in most, if not all, online communi-
The sense of shared space, rituals of shared practices, and exchange ties is that of "lurker, the person who reads but never posts. The
It

of social support all contribute to a feeling of community in digital Scandinavian music newszine, It's a Trap!, that served as a hub of
environments. Shared identities are also important. These include sorts for that fan community, had a message board. Of the 30 ,000
personalities and roles assumed by individuals. Identities also include people who looked at that board each month. fewer than 100 ever
a shared sense of who l'we" are that may be pre-existing or develop left comments or contributed. Most who do post to an online group
within a group. Many regulars take on specific roles. Some of the do so rarely. In I.a.t.s., mOle than half who posted did so only once,
most common roles are ulocal experts, answer people, conversation- while the top 10 percent of posters wrote half of all messages (Baym,
alists, fans. discussion artists, flame warriors, and trolls" (Welser. 2000). Hansen et a1. (2007) found that the top 4 percent of the CSS-L
Gleave, Fischer, & Smith, 2007). People assume roles by enacting mailing list wrote half of the messages. As Crawford (20II) has noted,
consistent and systematic behaviors that serve a particular function. lurldng can be better understood as listening, and, seen through that
In a music group I frequented, there-was a fan known for regularly lens; a valuable mode of participation in online communities. Though
hunting down and sharing photographs of the band. In r .a, t.s., one one might argue that some spealc far too much, few would argue that
 the quality of online discourse would be higher if everyone who read
intelligent and witty people. primarily women, who loved soap operas,
a message responded to it.
and who had rich, rewarding lives. This was a response to the domi-
Given the prevalence of this silent majority, Preece, Nonnecke, and
nant stereotype of soap opera fans as lazy, stupid women who watched
Andrews (200 4) investigated the reasons for silence. Their survey of a
because they had nothing useful to do with their time. This group
sample from 375 online groups found no differences between lurkers
identity was rarely made explicit, and only stated outright in response
and posters in tenns of age, gender, education, or employment. They
to trolls who attacked that self-image, as seen in this excerpt from a
did find that lurkers were less likely to read the group because they
post responding to one such flame:
sought answers and less likely to feel they attained the benefits from
group membership that they expected, felt a lower sense of group What do [lmow? I've only got a Burna cum laude BA degree, an MS in chemis-
belonging, and respected the other participants less than did the try, and in a few more than a few more months, a PHD in X-ray crystallography
posters. Ironically, posters were more likely to consider lurkers part (that's structural bio-physical chemistry). You say you are well read, Mark?
Let's discuss Same, Kuhn, Locke, Tolstoy, quantum VB. classical mechanics,
of the community than were lurkers themselves. The vast majority of
cloning, new advances 4t immunosuppression and drug design, Montessori,
lurkers had not intended to read without posting from the outset (only
James (Henry or William), Kierkegaard, Friedman, Piaget, classical or modem
13. 2 percent did). Their silence was motivated by a variety of reasons theatre, the pros and cons of recycling, the deterioration of the ozone layer,
which Preece et a!. (2004) collapse into five. First, many lurkers felt global warming, James Bay. the Alaskan wilderness crisis, hiking/climbing!
they were already getting what they needed from the group without camping, cycling, gourmet cooking, fitness and nutrition, or any other topic
contributing their own messages. Some felt they needed to get to in which you may feel adept. Feel free to reply in French, German, or Spanish.
know the group better. For instance, they may not have felt they knew Chinese or Japanese, I admit, will take me a little longer to handle.
enough about the group's norms or the topic of discussion, or may
People may also join groups because they already share a social
have felt shy. Several indicated that they believed they were contribut.
identity. Many online groups are designed for people who share a race
ing to the well-being of the community by staying silent when they
or ethnicity, a profession, or another affiliation. Many social network
had nothing to offer. Technical problems with posting were a fourth
sites too are designed for specific social identities such as BlackPlanet
reason for lurking. Some simply couldn't make the software work or
for African-Americans, Jake for gay professional men, Ravelry for
did not know how to post their own messages. Finally, people indi-
Imitting enthusiasts, or FanNation for sports fans (although these
cated that they lurked because they did not like the group's dynamics,
sites may have trouble staying in business - several mentioned in the
perhaps because the participants seemed different from themselves,
first edition ofthis book have since folded). Geography also influences
or because they feared aggressive responses.
the groups and social networks people join. Americans and many
Groups sometimes develop a sense of themselves as a group, a
Europeans may flock to Facebook, but in China it is Weibo where
social identity or schema of who they are that is shared amongst them
people congregate online, and, at least as of this writing, line is wildly
(Tajfel & Turner, 19 86 ) and which contributes to the feeling of com-
popular in Japan.
munity. These group identities foster ingroup norms and resistance
or opposition to outgroups (Spears & Lea, 199 2 ). This is very striking
in the case of pro-ana groups, and is also seen in the extreme body Interpersonal relationships
modification groups, but is common elsewhere as well. Groups may
Online groups provide contexts for forming one-on-one relationships,
develop names for themselves, such as those in the Buffy fan group
which the next two chapters will consider in more detail. These friend-
who referred to themselves as ilBronzers." As I showed in Tune In,
ships and sometimes romances are made visible to the group when
Log On (Baym, 2000), the soap fans in r.a.t.s. defined themselves as
members post reports of having met or spent time with one another
 1
(Baym, I995)· The visible pairs of connections that form are impor. two will be identical. Thus, no two SNS users will have access to the
contributors to the sense of connectivity that Rheingold (1993= 5) same set of people or messages, giving them each an experience
Invoked when he famously described virtual communities as "social of the site that is individualized yet overlapping with others. U sel
aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people cany on
innovations such as hashtags on Twitter can help to increase the
those pUblic discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling,
overlap.
to webs of personal relationships." Interpersonal pairs provide Just as individuals organize themselves into networks online, so too
a sooal mesh that underlies and helps to connect the broader web of
do groups. Recent years have seen groups increasingly distributing
interconnection within the group more closely.
themselves through the internet in interconnected webs of websites,
blogs, SNSs, and other platforms. I call this networked collectivism,
Networks meaning that groups of people now network throughout the internet
and related mobile media, and in-person communication, creating
Thus far, I've focused mostly on groups which have clear boundaries a shared but distributed group identity. The fans of Swedish inde-
- they are located at one website or have the same mailing address. pendent music, for example, organized themselves into clusters on
Messages go to all members. One-on·one communication is backstage, music-based SNSs, blogs, news sites, other SNSs, sites developed
through private channels such as private messaging or around individual bands, and regular nights in local music venues
chat: Smce the 2000S, SNSs have become increasingly popular,
(Baym, 2007).
s.taking out a nnddle ground between private dyadic encounters and This development has empowered members of these communi-
tightly bounded group interactions. Wellman (e.g. I9 88; Wellman,
ties to share more kinds of media with one another, and to interact
Boase, Chen, Hampton, & de Diaz, 2003) argues that a in a wider variety of ways, but also challenges many of the qualities
SOCIal transformation of late modernism is a shift away from
that can make these groups cohere into something more than the
tightly bounded communities toward increasing "networked indi- sum of their parts (Baym, 2oo7). When there is no single shared
vidualism" in which each person sits at the center of his or her own
personal community. environment, the metaphor of space quickly unravels. Communities
organized through multiple sites do not feel like places. Shared prac-
Sodal network sites are designed to afford organization and
tices are less likely to develop when groups are spread throughout
access to such personalized communities. Ellison and boyd (20I3:
sites, especially since each site is embedded in contexts that bring
158) defined a social network site as a "networked communication
with them their own communicative traditions. Norms about what
platfonn in which participants (r) have uniquely identifiable profiles
constitutes appropriate behavior in comments on YouTube videos
that consist of user-supplied content, content provided by other users,
may be quite different from in fan websites. In-jokes and jargon are
and/or system-level data; (2) can publicly articulate connections that
hard to sustain when there are many places to be inside and outside at
can be and traversed by others; and (3) can consume, produce, once. The resources exchanged in supportive interactions may have to
with streams of user-generated content provided by be deployed repeatedly to reach all community members, and people
thel! on the site'" In SNSs, messages are only seen by who hang out in some of the online spaces but not all may miss them,
people tied to a user's individualized network, which is a tiny subset
while those who hang out in all of them may encounter too much
of all users. The only messages available to all users are those sent
repetition. Identities are also harder to develop. People may frequent
by the sites themselves. To the extent that members of different
and play roles in some interrelated sites but not others, with the
people's networks overlap and -are internally organized, they
consequence that a crowd of regulars who contribute in predictable
may constitute groups, but social networks are egocentric and no
ways may be harder to find or discern. A sense of group identity may
 be difficult to build. Interpersonal relationships may not be as visible It's not surprising, given the range of measures, that the results
to others, meaning that, although they are valuable to those in the of studies are mixed. As a whole. though, they do not support the
relationships, their existence may be less valuable for the coherence dystopian critique that time spent online detracts from social partici.
of the group as a whole (Baym. 2007). pation offline (Boulianne, 2009). The roles of the internet in civic and
political engagement are vast and well beyond the scope of this book
Engagement with place-based community (see, e.g., Dahlgren, 2005. 2009; Hartelius, 200S). so consider what
follows to be a cursory look.
Critics often view the widespread use of online media and social
network sites as a threat to geographical community. People are said
to be engaging their screens rather than one another (e.g. Turkle, Civic engagement
20II). I turn now to whether and to what extent participation in digital People are civically engaged when they act in ways that address "social
interaction affects engagement with one's geographical commwrlty. and/or community issues that are not political by nature but,
One of the defining qualities of communication technologies from theless, are conducive to the collective well-being" (Gil de Zuruga &
their beginnings in bone scratchings is that they rupture the other- Valenzuela, 20II: 399). One way to assess civic engagement is to ask
wise-mandatory connection between message delivery and shared people how many of their neighbors they know. Katz and Rice (2002)
space. The ability to communicate in the absence of shared space compared people who had used the internet recently to non-users
in real time invokes fears of separation from physical reality, hence of the internet and found that recent users knew the fewest, while
Gergen's (2002) concern about "floating worlds," Meyrowitz's (19 85) non-users were most likely to know them all. On the other hand,
worries about IIno sense of place, and Ioo·year·old arguments that
II
in a study of a suburb of Toronto built to be wired from the ground
the telephone would lead to a lost sense of place (Fischer, 1992 ). As up, Hampton and Wellman (2003) found that those who had the
we lose connection to space, do we also become detached from those high-speed ac.cess when they moved in had three times the local con-
nearby whose social support comprised communities of old and on nections and communicated more with neighbors both online and
whose interconnections civil society depends? offiine. They also stayed in touch more with long-distance friends
Testing this is not easy. Most of the data that we have about the and relatives who continued to provide them social support that the
impacts of digital media on people's local connections comes from non-wired residents did not have (Wellman et al., 2003). Hampton.
surveys. Many of these divide users into categories based on whether Lee. and Her (201I) found that. on average, people who used social
or not they use the internet, how much they use it in comparison to network sites knew fewer neighbors than those who did not. but they
one another, or how long they have been using it. There are serious also had more diverse social networks.
theoretical problems with these strategies. They assume that simply When the internet is used to connect neighbors, it can enhance
using the internet or using it more than others may cause effects, their connec.tions to one another and to their communities. There
regardless of how it is used (Campbell & Kwalc, .l0II; ]ung et al., are more than 10.000 neighborhood groups in Yahoo!'s group direc-
2001). More sophisticated measures attempt to distinguish different tories. one of many sites that offer neighbors the means to connect
kinds and contexts ofintemet use. Hampton, Lee, and Her (20II), for (Hampton, 20IO). In a study of a neighborhood email list in Israel,
instance, use multiple measures including whether participants use Mesch and Levanon (2003) found that the list increased the size of
the internet or not, whether they use it frequently from home or from people's local networks and extended their participation in the com-
work. and whether they used Instabt Messenger, blogged, shared munity. In his III-Neighbors" project, Hampton (20IO) provided all
digital photos, or used social networldng services. online Americans with the means to create online groups for their
neighborhoods and then studied those groups. People created over mean that people are less engaged with their physical environments
6,000 neighborhoods; although 80 percent only attracted 1 or 2 and hence less likely to engage the diverse people found in public
participants. But 28 percent of the most active neighborhoods were realms. In an observational and interview study of four public parks
disadvantaged communities. People used these groups to organize with wifi in two countries (the USA and Canada); Hampton, Livia,
local activities such as cleaning up the yards of elderly neighbors. and Sessions (2010) found that wifi users did pay less attention to
Hampton concluded that the internet has the potential to increase the their surroundings. They kept their heads down and hence closed
collective efficacy of those who are economically and structurally dis- themselves off to interaction with others in the park. However, when
advantaged. However; it seems evident from these studies that simply asked, .2.8 percent of them said that they had met a stranger in that
providing a means of connection does not ensure that people take it park, and most were actively engaged with other people through their
up in ways that empower their communities. wifi connections.
In choosing the decline of bowling leagues to epitomize the decline Complaints about screen-obsession are often cast in contrast to a
of community in American life, Putnam (1995; 2000) emphasized past in which people spent more time engaged in face-to-face com-
engagement in clubs and organizations as a means of assessing civic munication, at least in space. In an ambitious study designed
engagement. Several surveys have looked at the relationship between to examine this, Hampton, Sessions-Goulet, and Albanesius (201 4)
internet use and engagement with clubs and volunteer organiza- filmed the same public places in Boston, New York City; and
tions in the United States and Canada (Cole. 2000; Gil de Zuniga & Philadelphia as did sociologist William H. Whyte in 1978-79- They
Valenzuela, 20II; Hampton, Lee, & Her; 20rr; Katz & Aspden, 1997; found that people in 2008-10 were less likely to be alone than their
Katz & Rice, 2002). Though differences are small, these studies find historical counterparts. They also found that there were more women
that internet and social network site users spend more time with such in public, and that cross-sex pairings were more common now.
civic associations. How people use a medium matters more than Despite the common perception that everyone stares at their phone
whether or not they do; those who use the internet for "information these days; the highest mobile phone usage they found was 9. 68
acquisition and community building" are more likely to be civically percent in one New York City park, and the average was considerably
engaged than those who use it for "entertainment and diversion" (Gil lower. With the exception of those on the steps of the Metropolitan
de Zuniga & Valenzuela, 20n: 401). In one of the few studies looking Museum of Art, most people they observed using a mobile phone
at mobile phone use and civic engagement, Campbell and Kwal{ were alone. In short, people are more likely to be with others in public
(2009) polled a stratified sample of Americans chosen to reflect their than they used to be and, when they aren't; a small percentage of them
representativeness vis-a-vis census data. People who used mobile 1001< at their phones. This hardly suggests a withdrawal from public
phones to exchange information and opinions were more ill(ely to lido life.
volunteer work. work on a community project, contribute money to a People who know one another use locative media - applications
social group or cause, go to a community or neighborhood meeting. and features designed to help people find each other in space.
and {work] on behalf of a social group or cause." Echoing the discus- Dodgeball (Humphreys • .2.007) was an early example of the ground
sion from chapter I about the importance of slcill in understanding now covered by Foursquare/Swann, Facebook places, and specialty
issues of access, Campbell and Kwak found that using the mobile networks like Grindr (CassidYI 2013). Such networks can be used to
phone for civic purposes was more likely when people were meet potential romantic partners and friends (Cassidy, 2013). Less
able with the technology. Designing technologies for ease of use is sociably; they are also used at times to avoid bumping into people you
important in enabling their use for civi<Ypurposes. know (Humphreys, 2010).
One can argue that the increases in public wifi and mobile media In times of crisis such as natural disasters, warfare, or social
turmoil. people create Uhashtag publics" to share infonnation and to activities, read magazines and newspapers, attend to campaign cover-
offer and organize support (Agarwal, Bennett. Johnson, & Walker, age in TV shows and interviews, and, perhaps most importantly, vote
2014: Bruns & Burgess, 20U; Potts, 2014). These loose collections of (Boulianne, 2009; Katz & Rice, 2002). Campbell and Kwak (20II)
people organize through use of a common hashtag, usually on Twitter, found that when people used their mobile phones to discuss and
though supplemented through other platforms. Monroy.Hemandez, exchange opinions on issues, they were also more likely to II attend a
boyd, Kleiman, De Choudhury. and Counts (2013) analyzed an enor- political meeting, rally, or speech, circulate a petition for a candidate
mous corpus of tweets using hashtags associ,ted with the narcowars or issue, and to contact a public official or political party."
in Mexico to map patterns of tweets onto lockl events and locations. A 20I2 survey of Americans (Brenner & Smith, 20I3) found that
They also interviewed residents who had made the potential! y danger· 66 percent of American adults who use social networking sites have
ous choice to serve as their community's primary warning system. used them to "engage in a range of activities around political or social
The Mexican government and news media have been intimidated issues," such as posting content related to political/sodal topics or
into silence, they argue, leaving local communities dependent on encouraging others to vote. Those who did this online, like those who
volunteers on social media who share real-time information on vio- did this offfine, were considerably more affluent and educated than
lence. This example of citizen journalism speaks to the innovative and those who did not. Brenner and Smith found that people who used
important ways people use social media to support their local envi- the SNS politically were "also likely to be engaged in other forms
ronments and to engage one another civically. Similarly, automotive of political and civic activity that occur somewhere other than social
enthusiasts in Kazakhstan. for whom explicit political engagement is networking sites." The survey found that 53 percent of American
risky, organize online and off in ways that blur boundaries between adults who engage with political or social issues on SNSs regularly
civics and politics (Shklovslci & Valtysson. 2012). talk about politics or public affairs with others in person, by phone, or
by letter; 63 percent involved themselves directly in political activities
or groups; and 53 percent used offline channels to speak out on politi-
Political engagement cal issues. These percentages are considerably higher than they are
The example of Mexican women who tweet crimes in their streets among adults as a whole.
that government and journalists are afraid to mention might seem These trends seem to have some international generalizability,
evidence enough that use of the internet does not simply displace real although. as we will see soon. it is complex. Time on Facebook didn't
political engagement. Nonetheless, critics (e.g. Morozov. 2009) warn itself correlate with political participation in a study of university
that the kind of activities that have political influence may be replaced students in Hong Kong (Tang & Lee, 2013), but people on Facebook
by ilslacktivism," in which reading political blogs, signing online who had more diverse networks, more direct connections to political
petitions, sending emails, sharing links. and clicking Like buttons actors. and were exposed to more political information on Facebook,
provides an ineffective substitute for effective action (Christensen, were more likely to have participated in political activities. Similarly,
20II). Chileans who used Facebook for news and socializing were more
As we saw in chapter 2, concerns about authenticity and pittings of likely to tal<:e part in political protests, in contrast to those who used
technologically mediated practices against seemingly more-embodied Facebook for self-expression (Valenzuela, Arriagada, & Scherman,
ones are endemic to the reception of new media. Some evidence 2012).
suggests that people who use digital media may be more likely to be New media are being used in many novel ways to engage people
politically engaged offline than those who do not. Internet users have in political processes. This is particularly evident in protest move-
been found to be more likely than non-users to engage in political ments such as those that comprised the Arab Spring and Occupy.
 The internet and mobile media serve as information conduits {e.g.
attachments create feelings of community that may either reflexively
Christensen, 20n} that can change the dynamics of domestic protests.
drive a movement, and/or capture users in a state of engaged passiv-
In this regard they are not unlike the taverns of the Middle Ages where
ity." Furthennore, just as social media allow individuals and
people pooled information and let off steam (Briggs & Burke, 200 9).
who are unhappy with their governments to find and connect WIth
Political information shared online can serve as a mirror - reflecting
each other, it allows those governments to find and intimidate them.
a nation back to its citizens in a new way - or as a window - setting a
In Azerbaijan, for instance, the government has actively used
nation's policies within an international context of which people may
media to spread misinformation and to intimidate government cntics
not have been previously aware (Ballard, 2012). As Bailard found in a
into silence (Pearce & Kendzior, 20U). Even in the most visible cases
field experiment in Tanzania, internet use can "alter the cost-benefit
of people taking to the streets, such as the Tahrir Square protests in
calculus of political behavior by expanding the range of information
Egypt, the role of the internet and mobile media was int:rwo-
individuals have regarding their government's actual performance"
ven with face-to-face communication and other media. TufekCl and
(Bailard, 2012: 341). In that study, those people assigned to an internet
Wilson (20I2) interviewed 1,200 people at Tahrir Square during the
group were more likely to question the fairness of an election than
protest. Halfhad first heard ofthe protests face-to-face, followed by via
people in a control group who had not used the internet during or
after the elections. Facebook. Once at the protest, 82 percent of protesters used phones
for communicating about the protests, and almost everyone who had
Information distribution can also talce the form of culture jamming
a Facebook or Twitter account used those platforms to report on the
(Lievrouw, 2011) in which people playfully remix materials in order to
protests. A quarter of them used Facehook to disseminate pictures
convey social messages. The example of Pepper Spray Cop, a meme
and videos they had taken.
in which people took a photograph of a police officer spraying protest-
Even if one grants that political activity online can get people into
ing students with pepper spray and superimposed him on countless
the street, there is a concern that political interaction through new
other scenes (Milner, 20I2), is one example of how humorous remix
media serves to polarize rather than fadlitating discussion across
was used to build support for the students in this case and for pro-
diverse viewpoints. This is in keeping with the critique that online
testers in the United States at that time {including Occupy} more
generally. communities are homogeneous and limit exposure to diversity.
Gergen (2008) speculates that people are increasingly engaged in
When information is shared through online channels, it can serve
"monadic clusters," small groups that affirm one another's perspec·
many different functions. It can spread shared grievances, draw
tive and lead people away from political action. Anyone reading
international attention to domestic plights, broaden the appeal of
opposing political blogs cannot help but be struck by the of
social movements, and facilitate new connections between people
parallel worlds, in which the same events have completely different
and organizations (Howard & Parks, 2012; Lim, 2012). Social media
and irreconcilable meanings. Campbell and Kwal{ (2009) found that
exchanges do not necessarily mobilize people to take to the streets
the monadic cluster effect holds best when people are in small diverse
to demand change. For instance. online interaction functioned as a
sodal networks. When communication happens in a small social
safety valve for Chinese bloggers when they discussed issues already
circle of people who disagree, individuals are more apt to opt out of
covered in the country's newspapers, but as a pressure cooker when
political discussion and engagement rather than risk the peace.
those same bloggers discussed topics the mainstream media ignored
In recent studies, Keith Hampton and his collaborators have shown
(Hassid 2012). As Papacharissi and Oliveira (2012: 280) put it, social
J

that social network sites can lead to more diverse social networks
media uprovide a form of emotional relectse that simultaneously invig-
rather than more homogeneous ones (e.g. Hampton, 2.0U; Hampton,
orates and exhausts tension ... depending on context, these affective
Lee, & Her, 20II). Gil de ZUiiiga and Valenzuela (20II) also found
that social network users had more diverse ties and, as a result of tied to location even as people move around, and hence support local
having more interaction with weak ties, were more engaged citizens. civic engagement and social movements.
Pew data (Rainie & Smith, 20I2) show that nearly 40 percent of Technological determinism might predict either that these com·
Facebook users have learned their friends have different politics than binations of features usher in a new era in which people substitute
they thought, and 73 percent only sometimes, or never, agree with the simulated communities for real ones, or that they are democratizing,
political views their Facebook friends express. empowering people to participate and increasing civic engagement.
1he many complex ways in which engagement in digital interaction Social constructivism would focus on the social forces that influence
impacts civic and political life are not yet clear. New media are used to community online and off, including the social identities of people
spread information, to connect people and groups, to support existing who participate, the motivations that inspire their online actions,
communities of activists, to mobilize new people to become engaged, and the social norms they develop around how to behave and what
to motivate already engaged people to become more engaged, and counts as sldll and competence. Social shaping and domestication
to shape and foment opinion. Perhaps most of all, they "reinforce approaches would do as this chapter has, looking at both the tech-
participation in existing fod of activity" (Hampton, Lee, & Her, 20II: nological factors and the social ones that combine unpredictably to
1045) and serve as a "technology and space for expanding and sus- create practices and outcomes that have not yet cohered into clear
taining the networks upon which social movements depend" (Lim, consequences. What does seem clear at this point is that new media
2012: 234). The effect of the internet relative to other motivations for
do not offer inauthentic simulations that detract from or substitute for
political (in)action is small. but generally positive. Far from floating, real engagement. As we will continue to see in the remaining chap-
new media are part of a "hybrid complex system of sodal awareness" ters, what happens through mediation is interwoven, not juxtaposed,
(Papacharissi & Oliveira, 2012). with everything else.

Summary
In closing this chapter, lees return to the key concepts and theoreti-
cal perspectives identified in the first two chapters. New technolOgies
offer many affordances that influence what happens through and
because of them. 1heir combination of speed, interactivity, and reach
allow people to come together around shared interests, transcending
local communities in ways that may be personally empowering but
potentially polarizing. Asynchronous platforms in particular offer
people access to like-minded others and support, whether those
others are online simultaneously or not. Synchronous or near-
synchronous platforms like Twitter, combined with broad reach and
replicabiHty, can enable swift grassroots organizing. Minimal social
cues in some online groups can open doors for people to make riskier
self-disclosures, and hence to gain more social support, but may also
contribute to polarization, as people -may feel less pressured to find
peaceful middle grounds. Mobility can help new media be concretely