This document summarizes research from the SNSItalia.it project which studied how social networks like Facebook impact intimacy and the boundary between private and public for Italian users. The research included 120 in-depth interviews with Facebook users across Italy and analyzed data from some users' Facebook apps. It identifies a concept of "Networked Intimacy" where intimacy takes place in networked public spaces through ephemeral groups that reshape public/private boundaries. Networked Intimacy is shaped by platform features like likes and tags. The research questions how intimacy and private/public boundaries are redefined through social technologies.

1. snsitalia.it
Networked Intimacy
Friendship and intimacy in Facebook Italian users
Manolo Farci
Giovanni Boccia Artieri
Fabio Giglietto
Luca Rossi
University of Urbino Carlo Bo

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• Aims at investigating the impact of SNSs on the blurring
boundary between private and public in the context of
Italian society;
• Funded as a project of national interest by the Italian
Ministry of Education (2011-2013);
• First large-scale qualitative research project on SNSs in
Italy;
• 5 Italian Universities involved;
• Unprecedented integration between qualitative and
quantitative data (Facebook App retrieving tool, Twitter
API 1.1 Patch + New Web Interface for
YourTwapperKeeper).
About SNSItalia.it

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120 in-depth interviews with Facebook users;
Subjects selected to represent by age and gender the Italian
population on Facebook (based on figures available in the
advertising platform) and were equally distributed between
north, south and center Italy;
Facebook App voluntarily installed by 58 subjects;
Data from Facebook App used to identify clusters of subjects
and as meta-data to complement qualitative analysis.
Methodology

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How intimacy of Italian people
is shaped by social technologies?
How is the distinction between private
and public redefined?
Research questions

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Beyond narcisistic &
confessional approaches
(Antony Giddens 1992)
People become self-reflexive regarding the health and
authenticity of their identities.
(Eva Illouz 2007)
Emotions are named and classified, fixed in place, outside
the body.
(Zygmunt Bauman 2007)
The exteriorization and objectification of intimacies produce a
specific kind of object, namely, the commodity

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Beyond narcisistic &
confessional approaches
(Christine Rosen 2007)
Intimacy has been transformed from an interpersonal
aspect of friendships into a tool for gathering attention
(Sherry Turkle 2011)
Users expose their intimacies with the hope this will
produce social fruit and self-validation

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Networked Intimacy
Networked Intimacy is a performed
relationship of togetherness taking place in a
networked public space.
Networked intimacy creates ephemeral
intimate groups that recursively reshape the
distinction between private and public.

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“
”
Sometimes I write cryptic messages because
I don’t want them to be understood. I mean I
want to say it but I don’t want to make it
public.
[…] With my friends we share songs’ lyrics or
books’ quotes and we tag each others
A.29f

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Networked Intimacy
Exclusion
Motivation
Social Steganography
Networked Intimacy

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“
”
A friend of mine gave me a present of a Pac
Man Mug that change the colour when filled
with an hot beverage […] She’s in London
now and I can’t talk to her […] so I posted a
photo of the mug on Facebook. That photo
worth a thousand words, everything was in it
“thank you”, “I miss you” “I’m thinking about
you”
M.22f

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“
”
With my boyfriend we share mainly short
messages[…] when he started his own
business I wrote “I’m proud of you”. It was
something that I wanted to share with other
people and with my best friend. That was to
stress our relationship […] I use Facebook to
state that our relatioship doesn’t need
Facebook
S. 21f

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Networked Intimacy
Exclusion
Inclusion
Motivation
Social Steganography
Networked Intimacy
…………………………….

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Networked Intimacy
Networked Intimacy is shaped by the
technological affordances of the platform
(and viceversa): likes, tagging, comments.

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Networked Intimacy:
ephemeral groups vs statements of intimacy

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From Public Intimacy
to Networked Intimacy
is that something new?

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Conclusions & discussion
Networked Intimacy ephemeral nature is
hard to be implemented with traditional
approaches (MySpace Best friends list, G+ circles)
Networked intimacy practices might lead both
to bridging and bonding behaviours