Social network sites
provide simple,
inexpensive ways to
organize members,
arrange meetings,
spread information,
and gauge opinion.
As more systems
emerge, there will be
greater capacity for

sites might influence public and community life through the combined forces of mobility and place awareness. As mobile phones increasingly include GPS services, users can create hyper-local, ad hoc networks. The recent release of the iPhone 3G included connections to location-based SNSs, which alert users to nearby friends, blurring the line between online and offline interaction. Adding proximity information to one’s digital presence may provide additional connection opportunities that would otherwise be missed.

groups to organize and
participate in collective
action, a hallmark of
civil society.

January + February 2009

[ 5] Sunstein, C. Republic.com. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.

For instance, you may not be a vegan or a Republican or a Montessori teacher, but knowing this information about a stranger can facilitate initial interaction by providing potential topics of conversation. Among acquaintances, identity information helps to develop common ground. We are often scolded about the dangers of giving up personal information, but it is also important to consider the reasons why individuals communicate identity information and the positive social outcomes that might result.

In the future, social network

Mobilizing Action

Social network sites can assist in coordinating and mobilizing social action. Organizations, political figures, advocacy groups, regional associations, and other types of groups have various ways of using such sites: through their own profiles, site groups, or standalone networks. While a certain critical mass of users is needed for a network to have value, it’s clear there is room for a diverse ecology of sites. Focused social network sites, with populations ranging from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand, can coexist with massive global services like Myspace and Facebook. Focused site services enable people to create a tailored network, based on a variety of interests and offline associations. For instance, MyChurch unites Christian churches and Care2 addresses environmental activists.

These group- and interest-focused sites encourage people to act together in new and interesting ways. Word can

quickly circulate about events or planned activities, extending to each person’s network in a viral manner. In some of our own work, we’ve helped rural teens create a social network within and across their respective 4H clubs, which they use to coordinate activity (such as trading animals), share information, and build relationships.

Research on social movements often focuses on the costs of coordination: the effort and expense required to reach a distributed group, provide timely information, and motivate collective action. Social network sites provide simple, inexpensive ways to organize members, arrange meetings, spread information, and gauge opinion. For example, MeetUp helped volunteers organize grassroots political activities during the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign. Similarly, Change.org, a social network site for activists, has been used to organize boycotts and protests quickly and efficiently. As more systems emerge, there will be greater capacity for groups to organize and participate in collective action, a hallmark of civil society.

Beyond coordinating community organizations, social network sites can also play a role in more casual types of civil activity. A concern raised by Cass Sunstein is that Internet use will allow people to increasingly exclude viewpoints that conflict with their own, creating a bubble of information in which individuals are exposed only to data that reinforces their current opinions [ 5]. Social network sites allow users to state their political affiliations or become