Thoughts on the essay.... week 9 s*park :)

For the essay I have chosen...

How do social media change our understanding of individual identity, with regard to the kinds of people we have in our social networks?

When I read through the essay topics, this question really jumped off the page at me. Mostly because I have a keen interest in sociology and I engaged with many of the themes I will need to engage with in this essay in a course I completed last semester called 'Youth in society'.

I intend on getting in touch with a lecturer from last semester 'Brady Robards' who completed a PhD on how young people on the Gold Coast use social network sites (like MySpace and Facebook). Perfect!!! Im sure he will be a wealth of information for my essay..and he will definitely be able to steer me in the direction of some authors on the subject.

Ive started my research online also by reading a few journal articles.. I find it easier to find literature on this topic online rather than in books because the whole social media realm is such a new concept. I have chosen to focus my essay on how in particular 'Youth' are affected by social media as I feel this is where it has it's greatest impact and consquence on individual identity.

Ive found one awesome article already called 'Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites' by Esther Hargittai which analyses how people's demographics, background and the social surroundings relate to the social networking site they choose and how it impacts on them.

References:
Journal Articles

Boyd, D. M. and Ellison, N. B. (2008), Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13: 210–230. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x

Sexing the Internet:
Reflections on the Role of Identification in Online Communities
http://www.danah.org/papers/SexingTheInternet.conference.pdf

Social networking sites and teens
http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2007/PIP_SNS_Data_Memo_Jan_2007.pdf.pdf