My PhD Blog

This weekend the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende published an article about children and young people’s use of social network sites and how much knowledge parents have about their children’s online activities. The article is based on the survey I have conducted together with with The Danish Media Council for Children and Young People. It uses some empirical examples from our study and the overall message is that parents should go online with their kids.

You can read the article here (unfortunately only in Danish). I like the cartoon that goes along with the article

As some of you might know, I have started taking pictures of “offline walls” (aka graffiti). Especially, when I am out giving talks all over Denmark and have a lot of waiting time in public spaces such as train or bus stations.

As I have mentioned before, it seems that the online way of communicating has affected the offline. Symbols that most often belong to Arto profiles or Facebook walls can now be found on actual, physical walls.

Yesterday I was in Assens and had some time to kill in the local bus station waiting room. Here, I found a message saying “I love you” along with two drawings that capture both the online (<3) and the offline symbol of a heart: (the highlights and the blurring of the last name have been made by me):

I have many similar examples of online symbols or references being used in the physical public space. I find this interesting in relation to my PhD project, as it says something about how the boundaries of online and offline communication and relationships are blurred - and how the virtual space is represented IRL and vice versa.

On this specific wall I also found references to Arto profiles. It’s all about being OnLife <3

My paper in the Danish journal DF Revy is now published. The paper defines “the digital library users of the future” by describing how today’s youngsters use the internet and social networking sites when communicating and socialising.

You can download the paper (unfortunately, only in Danish) here.

Today : - ) (the smiley) can celebrate its 25th birthday. On account of that I want to share a little story about a related symbol, the heart: <3.

<3 is a symbol that especially youth use when they are communicating online. I have seen many examples on Arto where youngsters use the symbol when they are writing praising messages about each other, e.g. like this message from one 16-year old girl to another:

(more…)

This Friday I am attending and speaking at an interesting conference called “Ung 2.0″ (”Youth 2.0″) about youth, culture and the library. The conference aims at defining what preoccupies young people today and how the libraries can accommodate the youngsters in the future. I am giving a presentation on youth and virtual communities (social networking sites) based on my research. Read more about the conference here (only in Danish).

Also, I have been writing an article about “the digital library users of the future” for the Danish journal DF Revy. (I will remember to post a link when it comes out.)

Furthermore, I have been giving interviews on how libraries can seek inspiration in social networking sites. And I am speaking at another conference dealing with the very same subject at The Royal School of Library and Information Science in Copenhagen later this month.

It is nice to see that libraries are really embracing the world of Web 2.0, social software and new media and trying to design for a new generation of library users.

I want to thank all of you who e-mailed me about my article ‘35 Perspectives on Online Social Networking‘ and also those who commented on the article at Social Computing Magazine or Slashdot. I found many of the comments to be really interesting and adding further perspectives to the discussion.

I can see from the comments that many people find that I focus too much on youth in the article. In this regard I would like to stress that my research is on young people’s use of social networking sites and therefore the article is only concerned with that. Actually, the list presented should be viewed as a list of ‘35 Perspectives on Youngsters and Online Social Networking’ reflecting the many different ‘voices’ we are currently experiencing in Denmark when it comes to online social networking and youth.

As mentioned earlier the list is mostly based on my own experiences with the subject in Denmark where the concept of ’social networking’ is just now starting to spread to the whole population. I find that up until now we have been going through a ‘moral panic phase’ where (the majority of) the older generation - the digital immigrants to use Prensky’s terms - have been worried about the use of SNS by the younger generation, the digital natives. But I think that social networking sites are starting to get a grip on the general public and when that happens it will be interesting to explore what (new) perspectives will emerge…

My new paper “Kærlighed og venskab på Arto.dk” (”Love and friendship on Arto.dk”) is now available online. The paper is part of the newest issue of the Danish journal “Ungdomsforskning” on young people’s different rooms or spaces. I recommend the other articles in the issue which are all very interesting.

You can download my article here.
Or read the whole issue of “Ungdomsforskning” here.

I just wanted to share some preliminary findings from the online questionnaires that I am working on with The Danish Media Council for Children and Young People. In the questionnaire aimed at children and young people between the age of 12 and 18 we ask them what the best message they have received at a social networking site is.

The majority of the youngsters say that a guest book message with the words “I love you” is the very best message they have ever received. Such messages most often come from close “real life” friends or boy- or girlfriends.

This is very much in accordance with the results from my Arto-study where I identified a strong love discourse between “offline” friends. By the way, I have an article about that very subject coming up in the Danish journal “Ungdomsforskning“. The article is called “Love and friendship at Arto.dk” and I will remember to write a post once it gets out.

A new Danish website, “Speak4You.dk“, offers teenagers to help them break up with their boyfriends or girlfriends. The youngsters “only” have to pay 125 Danish kroner in order to have the website send out a letter with the gloomy message. In an article in Politiken the creator explains that many young people have a hard time saying things as the are and using the website would be a better alternative to break up with someone through a sms message.

The website also offers to send out letters with apologies, secrets or love letters, but the creator predicts that the “break-up-service” will be the most popular… With 125 DKR a letter, I doubt it.

Read the article (in Danish) here.

Last year I read a post on Michael Zimmer’s blog about a new social networking service called Fake Your Space that offers purchase of fake and hot friends for MySpace profiles in order to seem popular. Yesterday the Danish online magazine Computerworld.dk spotted the website and wrote an article about it. Today I was interviewed by the Danish radio P3 (P3 Nyheder) and the newspaper dato about what I think of the service and why friends are so important on social networking sites.

First of all, I think that the profiles the site offers are so clearly fake and model like that other users would probably be sceptical of the users who have bought the fakers and listed them as friends. Also, other people’s friend lists are often used to find new friends. What happens when someone tries to add one of the fakers to their own profile? (more…)