[CITASA] How many Friends online = one offline?
Academic riend asks "how many internet friends = one f2f friend". He's
getting grief f2f and naches with his internet relationships.
Reliable answers, anyone? Either ethnographic, quant.
I told him that it is hard to disentangle becuase most online
relationships are also in-person.
But like many of us, he is involved in organizing conferences etc online
with people he rarely sees.
Barry Wellman
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director
Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388
University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963
Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
I would argue that its a false comparison. Regardless of online and
offline, I do believe that the assumption that a social relationship of
any one type can be equated with the sum of other types is indefensible.
By extension, I believe the same can be said about relationships
confined to online interaction where self presentation can be largely
controlled, compared to f2f relationships where this is more difficult,
if not impossible in the long term. So again, I am left thinking of
false comparisons...how many online-only "dates" == one f2f date? It is
seductive to think of one as an additive component of the other because
the framing is the same (eg. a date), but we would have to throw out
everything we know about context, self-presentation, value, affect, etc.
in order to make such a comparison work. Any attempt to quantify the
'value' of relationships through online-only communication as components
that are assumed to sum to the equivalent of a f2f friend would have
to trivialize the meaning of 'value' to the point where the comparison
would be meaningless.
I do think that one can compare specifically defined outcomes of
different types of relationships in online/offline relationships (eg.,
how many online friends do I need to get the same quality/quantity of
recommendations for where to buy a home, compared to my f2f friends)?
In this case, there is no assumption of relationship equivalence (in a
pure sense, not in the structural networking sense). Rather, the valued
outcome has an assumed meaning and we can think of any range of
relationship types as components that can contribute to this defined
outcome. Perhaps this is what your friend was hoping to quantify?
-Coye
--
Coye Cheshire
Associate Professor
School of Information
University of California, Berkeley
http://ischool.berkeley.edu/~coye
coye@ischool.berkeley.edu
On 10/16/2011 4:06 PM, Barry Wellman wrote:
Academic riend asks "how many internet friends = one f2f friend". He's
getting grief f2f and naches with his internet relationships.
Reliable answers, anyone? Either ethnographic, quant.
That is a funny question... = (equal) in what way???
Time and energy used to maintain the tie?
What is he trying to figure out -- X online ties take about the same maintenance as Y F2F ties?
I agree with your initial hunch many/most "online ties" can/will have F2F phases of varying length.
Valdis Krebs
http://orgnet.com
http://thenetworkthinkers.com
On Oct 16, 2011, at 7:06 PM, Barry Wellman wrote:
Academic riend asks "how many internet friends = one f2f friend". He's getting grief f2f and naches with his internet relationships.
Reliable answers, anyone? Either ethnographic, quant.
I told him that it is hard to disentangle becuase most online relationships are also in-person.
But like many of us, he is involved in organizing conferences etc online with people he rarely sees.
Barry Wellman
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director
Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388
University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963
Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
CITASA mailing list
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Just answering for myself there is no relationship. Facebook I try to limit
to "people I know" meaning I know you face to face. F2f = Online minus some
who are not online. E-mail list friends in health support really if they
send friendly e-mails they are online friends(?). This does not seem to be
quantifiable other than by some time limit based on my time behind my home
computer.
Peter Timusk B.Math statistics. BA legal studies
Legal studies of the Information Age
Vice President Computers for Communites
School work blog http://notebook.webpagex.org
Some papers www.webpagex.org
-----Original Message-----
From: citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org]
On Behalf Of Barry Wellman
Sent: October-16-11 7:06 PM
To: communication and information technology section asa; aoir list
Subject: [CITASA] How many Friends online = one offline?
Academic riend asks "how many internet friends = one f2f friend". He's
getting grief f2f and naches with his internet relationships.
Reliable answers, anyone? Either ethnographic, quant.
I told him that it is hard to disentangle becuase most online relationships
are also in-person.
But like many of us, he is involved in organizing conferences etc online
with people he rarely sees.
Barry Wellman
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director
Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388
University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963
Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
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