Learn to listen online by lurking silently on one social network

Today’s practice:  Practice your listening skills by choosing one social network where you’ll pay active attention, but not actually contribute. My friend Jason Mogus likes to say that we teach what we need to learn. I have long taken this as the single...

11 best practices for managing your social network memberships

Between the WordPress.com hack, the Honda Canada hack and the Playstation hack, I feel like my favorite online identities have been seriously compromised. Nor am I the only one: the recent attack on PBS servers has also created potential identity risks for PBS...

Wanted: LadyJoiners

My life is basically a series of social network and web app sign-ups, with a few friends, colleagues and tasks stuffed into the interstitial moments. So the arrival this week of Path — what some people might consider YAFSN (Yet Another F*ing Social Network)...

Defining the impact of social media on social capital

What are your online friendships worth to the community you live in? That’s the practical question that is implicitly raised by Jon Hickman’s interesting and slightly perplexing post on Social capital & social media. Hickman writes: …as academics...

Patrolling the boundaries in social networking

Rob Jewitt, a lecturer in Media Studies at the University of Sunderland, writes about the university’s recently introduced social networking site for students. Embedded in his description of the site’s features are some interesting reflections on the kinds...

Social networks say good-bye to difficult but crucial interactions

Todd Essig has a thoughtful post about how social networks have affected the process of saying good-bye in our culture. Now that the hospital where he works is closing, he anticipated more than the usual end-of-school-year good-byes. Instead, he’s seen less: as...