[Air-l] Friendster

[Ingbert Floyd]

The social networking software is not my area of expertise, and
neither is culture, but I am interested in how various aspects of
software afford certain behaviors, but do not afford others.  One of
the things I find fascinating is how social software like myspace have
facilitated a culture of casual hook-ups among some teenagers. 
Obviously, it's an interaction between certain teen cultures and the
affordances of the software, but I was wondering if anybody has
studied (1) how this online aspect of those cultures developed, (2)
what purpose these behaviors serve in the culture: What needs of the
teenagers are met? Is it simply because it allows them an opportunity
to have sex?  Why don't they just have casual sex with their F2F
friends?  Why does the software need to mediate the behavior?  Does
somehow not having a relationship make it easier to have sex?  Or is
that a mythology that contributes to facilitating such behavior? Does
this have something to do with stealing power from their
parents/adults in general, in that they are trying to behave like
adults when society is still treating them like children (can't drive
until 16 or 17, can't smoke, can't drink, have curfiews, most don't
have to work to support themselves, only have to work to afford
luxuries, etc.)? (3) what is it about the software that affords the
creation of these types of casual relationships?  why is it different
than "normal" F2F relationships that kids develop?  or is it so
different? (4) is there a culture of practicing safe sex, or is the
culture a potential STD disaster? (this is less research related and
more a concern for the health of our youth question).

Anyway, anthing people can point me to to read about this would be appreciated.

Ingbert Floyd
PhD Student
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign