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Object-centered sociality

Online social network (OSN) platforms like Orkut, Friendster, Yahoo 360, etc. reputedly don't "work," though I can't think of one that's crashed and burned. However most people I know who join OSNs drift away more or less quickly. There's that initial surge of connection as you find or invite many people you know, but once you've done that there's often no compelling reason to stick around. There are exceptions, though, like Flickr, where the social network isn't an end in itself, but a means to another end, sharing and discussing photos.

In a private conversation, Ton Zjilstra pointed to a relevant post by Jyri Engeström on the case for object-centered sociality

the term 'social networking' makes little sense if we leave out the objects that mediate the ties between people. Think about the object as the reason why people affiliate with each specific other and not just anyone. For instance, if the object is a job, it will connect me to one set of people whereas a date will link me to a radically different group. This is common sense but unfortunately it's not included in the image of the network diagram that most people imagine when they hear the term 'social network.' The fallacy is to think that social networks are just made up of people. They're not; social networks consist of people who are connected by a shared object. That's why many sociologists, especially activity theorists, actor-network theorists and post-ANT people prefer to talk about 'socio-material networks', or just 'activities' or 'practices' (as I do) instead of social networks.

jon posted this at 10:48 AM
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