Understanding social network sites: lessons from MySpace

Abstract

MySpace.com is an online social network site (SNS) where users build a 'profile page' to communicate with millions of other users all over the globe. MySpace users customise their profile page with words, photographs, pictures, music, biographical information and other visual/textual icons. There are a number of unique practices that are inherent to these new online social spaces that extend from the need to maintain a personal profile. For example, many users will regularly update their profiles with new visual or textual information (a practice that will be identified as 'profile changing'). However, over the last few years MySpace has experienced a decline in terms of the numbers of users that visit the site. This article takes a historical look at the use of MySpace in order to explore some wider issues in online communication practices.Through an empirical analysis of 100 open-access MySpace profiles, this paper will examine the use of SNSs in relation to issues of self, community and wastefulness. This work also addresses the ongoing need to blur the boundaries of visual/textual, online/offline, reality/representation and social/psychological in the way we understand the relationship between human experience and technology. KEY WORDS Mediated

Exploring online fitness culture and young females

“…Significantly, much of this data has focused on analyses of traditional media and its subsequent effects. While there is an emerging understanding of the need to investigate the implications of SNSs, Goodings (2012), suggests that more attention needs to be paid to research looking at the combination of the textual and visual. Furthermore, Vaterlaus et al, (2015) suggest future research to explore the influence of social media on young adult health behaviours.…”

“…Furthermore, the view of online fitness culture as a platform for strategies of biopedagogy, and the increasing development of online fitness culture as a tool for self-regulation of the body are highlighted. The present study is motivated by the relative lack of research on the relationship between SNSs and health, more specifically as an aid to gathering health information by textual and visual means (Goodings, 2012).…”

Language in the Wild—Living the Carnival in Social Media

“…In addition to setting up research studies on students' textual productions in social media to enable insights into their living language, Goodings [30] argues that, so far, little attention has been paid to visual dimensions when exploring social media. Even more stressed is the lack of research scrutinizing how the textual and visual are interrelated.…”

Eu no facebook: percepções de usuários sobre imagens pessoais partilhadas na rede

“…Estudiosos têm observado que o conjunto de transformações tecnológicas na vida contemporânea e, em particular, nos sites de redes sociais, tem efeito sobre a própria construção da identidade pessoal, favorecendo especialmente os modos visuais de representação de si (Zhao, Grasmuck & Martin, 2008;House, 2009;Van Dijck, 2008;Hum et al, 2011;Schafie, Nayan & Osman, 2012;Goodings, 2012). O indivíduo passa a apresentar-se aos outros principalmente por meio de fotografias e vídeos intensamente compartilhados nas redes sociais.…”

“…Aplicada ao estudo do self on-line, essa visão entende que as pessoas estrategicamente se apresentam nas redes sociais de um modo compreensível para outros membros da comunidade virtual. Os indivíduos tentam, conscientemente ou não, dar uma resposta ao contexto interativo, ajustando continuamente informações referentes à sua pessoa, conforme as reações de seus interlocutores (Goodings, 2012;Ribeiro & Braga, 2012).…”