Understanding the role of Social Media in Contemporary Society by Chris Hine - a presentation from the BSA Teaching Group Regional Conference at the University of Surrey on 31 May 2014.

1. 09/06/2014
1
Understanding the role of social
media in contemporary society
Christine Hine
Department of Sociology, University of
Surrey
c.hine@surrey.ac.uk
http://www.theguardian.com/housing-
network/2012/nov/05/social-housing-tenants-free-broadband
http://www.pewresearch.org/2013/03/04/twitter-reaction-
to-events-often-at-odds-with-overall-public-opinion/
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/111710.html

2. 09/06/2014
2
Understanding the role of social
media in contemporary society
Internet research connects with two core A Level
themes
– Socialisation, culture and identity… The Internet
as a site for identity formation, political action,
cultural expression…
– Social differentiation, power and
stratification…The Internet as a site of
inequality, reflecting and exacerbating social
divisions
Socialisation, culture and
identity: the Internet
Internet as culture
– A site where significant, complex, meaningful social
interaction happens
Internet as cultural artefact
– A technology with meaning within wider society
– A focus of diverse cultural symbolisms and
connotations
Socialisation, culture and
identity: the Internet
• We do not use technologies only for their straightforward
functionality. We use them also for what they do for us
socially in terms of identity and belonging
• We learn how to use technologies as part of peer
networks for whom the technology has come to have a
particular meaning
• Those meanings can vary…
Teen socialization – networked
publics and bedroom culture
• Teenagerhood experienced as a process of “becoming”
– developing a sense of identity and learning expertise in
social relations
• Teenage “hanging out” very important in allowing for
these processes of socialization
• Public discourses of risk and danger surround teenagers
• Teenagers’ need for private spaces away from adults
often conflicts with adults’ need to keep them under
surveillance in the interests of safety

3. 09/06/2014
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Teen socialization – networked
publics and bedroom culture
• “Bedroom culture” emerges as the safe space in which
teenagers maintain some privacy and exert control over
their physical surroundings
• Increasingly, the bedroom has become media saturated,
and connected to an outside world via social media
• Experiences and practices in social networking sites can
substitute for hanging out in physical space. Here, as in
the bedroom, a space for identity formation separate
from adult influence can be maintained
Teen socialization – networked
publics and bedroom culture
• Teenagers can hang out in virtual space, just as their
predecessors hung out in shopping malls etc
• In the context of an ongoing identity project, apparently
trivial social interactions are significant
• However, unlike hanging out in physical spaces, online
hanging out does carry some risks
• Online interactions can be persistent, replicable,
searchable and performed to invisible audiences… so
sometimes they can have unexpected consequences
Social differentiation, power
and stratification
• There are enduring inequalities in access to and use of
the Internet
• These inequalities both reflect aspects of wider social
differentiation and have the potential to exacerbate them
• Surveys describe and interpret inequalities in Internet
access and use, and map the changing picture
– Oxford Internet Survey http://oxis.oii.ox.ac.uk/
– Pew Internet and American Life Project
http://www.pewinternet.org/
– World Internet Statistics http://www.internetworldstats.com/
– Alexa –information on individual web site audiences
http://www.alexa.com/
Discussing headlice on
mumsnet
Qualitative research explores social differentiation by
looking at the dynamics of online spaces and the
emergence of new forms of expertise online
•Mumsnet: advice “by parents and for parents”
• A site where many taboo issues of parenting are
openly discussed
• Demographic is older, more predominantly female
and more educated on average than the
general Internet population (and hence, also a
biased sample of the population as a whole)
• A distinctive set of values and practices (online
community?)

4. 09/06/2014
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Discussing headlice on
mumsnet
• Treatment positioned as a requirement of
responsible parenthood
• Emotional register of disgust
• Risks associated with “chemicals”
• Notions of parenthood as involving limitless labour
on behalf of one’s child, positioning treatment
by combing as a preferred option
• Healthcare professionals positioned not as experts,
but as sources of free treatment products
Discussing headlice on
mumsnet
• A distinctive social setting where, unusually,
detailed discussion of headlice is sanctioned.
• Everyday knowledge is inseparable from salient
identities and contexts of expression
• A new form of expertise – according to Eysenbach
(2008), apomediation rather than
intermediation
• Credibility judgments made according to different
criteria from traditional expertise
• New forms of expertise and expression online,
feeding into social differentiation between
digital haves and have-nots
Understanding the role of social
media in contemporary society
• A substantive topic in its own right – the Internet as
reflective of social change, as a site for experience of
change, and as a facilitator of change
• A site for exploring key sociological topics, exploring
dynamics of social differentiation, socialization, identity,
deviance, social capital…
• A resource for study of interpersonal dynamics, identity
and community formation, credibility, authenticity and
expertise
References
Boyd, D. (2007). Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of
networked publics in teenage social life. MacArthur foundation
series on digital learning–Youth, identity, and digital media volume,
119-142. http://sjudmc.net/lyons/civicmedia1/wp-
content/uploads/2013/09/boyd-Why-teens-heart-social-media.pdf
Eysenbach, G. (2008). Medicine 2.0: Social Networking, Collaboration,
Participation, Apomediation, and Openness. Journal of Medical
Internet Research, 10(3), e22.
http://www.jmir.org/2008/3/e22/?ref=nf
Hine, C. (2012). Headlice eradication as everyday engagement with
science: An analysis of online parenting discussions. Public
Understanding of Science, 0963662512453419.
http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/763796/