Fragmentation of identity through structural holes in email contacts
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Fragmentation of identity through structural holes
in email contacts
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas(Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab)
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Research QuestionsHow does social network structure
impact individual construction of identity?
How is this behavior made explicit online?
How can this be observed within the context of email?
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Construction of Individual Identity
Interrelated ideas of identity– Social identity: public presentation of self– Internal identity: private view of self
Fragmentation vs. Multi-Faceted Identity– Fragmentation: conflicting internal identity– Multi-faceted: coherent internal identity,
fragmented social identity
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Managing Faceted SelvesDifferentiated presentation changed according to
context– How? Fashion, language, location/context, people – Why? Privacy, social appropriateness, reputation
differentiation– Who? Dependent on self-monitoring habits,
marginalization, fear of retributionFragmented social network (e.g., work, clubs,
family, …) – Separate social circles provide for segmentation of
presentation
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Identity onlineConfusion of context
– Ease of moving between multiple contexts
– Data aggregated across “locations”Email address serves as context
– Allows for privacy and faceted behavior
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Relating Network Structure
Structural holes & bridges (Burt)– Maximize & control information flow
Simmelian ties (Krackhardt)– In public settings, personally
constraining by restricting appropriate behavior – aggregate of all associations
Control of network structure– Minimize uncontrolled personal
information flow
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Structuring social networks via email
Recognizing the power of multiple recipients– Copy/paste phenomenon to appear
personal or contextual– Slight content alternations for context– Making others aware of audience
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Ego-Centric VisualizationVisualization tool to observe social
networks embedded in email– Focused on structure
Analyzed “Mike’s” email habits– 5 years worth of complete data– Maintains multiple email addresses for
different contexts– (Dis)advantages of using one person’s
behaviors
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Introducing MikeSocial characteristics:
– 24-year old, gay-identified, white male– Born in northern CA, attended Yale (art &
computer science)– Friends & jobs in: Boston, SF, Chicago, NYC– Uses many forms of media to stay connected
Mike’s primary social communities:– Family, high school friends– Undergraduate friends – Gay men in/outside Boston, in NYC– Boston, Texas, California work colleagues
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Mike’s dataset80,941 messages
– 1.03 average recipients per msg15,537 unique people
– 7,250 people w/ 2,618 knowledge ties (excluding listservs)
– 662,078 ties between all respondents (using only messages with <50 recipients; otherwise, 11.7 million)
– 226 trusted ties; 23 reciprocal
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Defining ConnectivityKnowledge ties
– If A sends a message to B, A ‘knows’ B– B does not necessarily know A
Awareness ties– If B receives a message from A -> B is ‘aware’ of A– If B and C both receive a message from A -> B and C
are ‘aware’ of each otherTrusted ties
– If A sends a message to B and blind carbon copies (BCC’s) D -> A ‘knows’ and ‘trusts’ D
– (D has the ability to respond and reveal that A included people without B’s awareness)
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations: Overview
Goal is to allow one to quickly see how Mike’s network is connected and view structural holes
- Methodology- Spring/Wire explanation- View of entire world- Close-up views of network
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations: Methodology
Basic spring/node algorithm used to place nodes in optimal location
- annealing algorithms don’t work with 15,000 nodes
Colors are used to indicate the relationship to the person- based on which of Mike’s email address the person uses
- most common address used
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations: Spring/Node (1/2)
Basic spring algorithm used to place nodes
-Ties act as springs, pulling connected nodes closer together
-Nodes act like magnets and repel each other
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations: Spring/Node (2/2)
All nodes start out at random location, spring algorithm is run several hundred iterations
This (eventually) results in connected nodes being nearby and non-connected being far away
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualization: Entire World (1/2)
Color key for all images
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
![Page 21: Fragmentation of identity through structural holes in email contacts](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022081604/56816811550346895ddd9f85/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
![Page 24: Fragmentation of identity through structural holes in email contacts](https://reader036.fdocuments.in/reader036/viewer/2022081604/56816811550346895ddd9f85/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Social ImplicationsUsing one person’s email, we can
observe the social networks of hundreds of people - what are the implications of this?
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Thoughts moving forwardMore detailed analysis
– Use visualizations to have ethnographic conversation with Mike
Extend to multiple users– Visual comparison valuable
Allow for interactivity– More detailed analysis of ego-centric graphs
Learn more from social network analysts
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danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/SocialFragments/