This thesis explores how social networking sites are changing the way individuals socialize in everyday life, and how users mediate this social media. The hypothesis explored is that Facebook user’s perception of risk, when using the site, is related to how they frame the technology. Drawing on conceptual and theoretical tools from science studies and the sociologies of friendship, risk and surveillance, interview data is collected and analysed in order to identify the dynamics that structure Facebook use. It is concluded not only that, as hypothesized, participant’s awareness and perception of risk is based upon their framing of the social networking technology, but also that the framing processes arise from the technosocial hybrid nature of Facebook. That is to say, it is not exclusively based on technological possibility or on existing social practices but instead by a constant balance between the two.

This diploma thesis is focused on description and objective analysis of social networks on internet. History of internet social networks, basic principles they work on and psychological aspects are shown in this thesis. One of the parts of my work is dedicated to monetization methods and techniques of social networks in context of internet. An objective view on problems of virtual societies provides an abstract of the methods of their resolving. There is no in any case an ambition for this thesis to be the greatest social networking analysis, but it proviedes well structured summary of a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge, which could certainly serve as valuable base for further deeper research. The most beneficial added valut of this thesis is a comprehensive insight on social networks from different points of view: theoretical, psychological and practical. Theoretical knowledge from psychology and sociology sciences are enriched with examples from real life. This thesis brings an outline of modern trends, which makes possible to predict future development.

This study examines the manifold ways in which fifteen women of Mexican heritage actively participated in the secular, spiritual, and social spheres to improve conditions for themselves and their community in Douglas, Arizona during the first half of the twentieth century. Using interviews, newspapers, US census reports, ephemera, and secondary sources, it highlights the women's agency and the various ways they employed critical and innovative approaches to break through the economic, personal, and structural borders imposed by a corporate and industrial smelter town created by Phelps-Dodge and Company and the Calumet and Arizona Company. In this dissertation I ask, and seek to answer questions such as: why did these women of Mexican heritage choose to settle in Douglas; why did those who were born there remain; and what did this newly established town offer the women in this study that perhaps more established cities in the southwestern United States did not? Because Mexicanas are invisible in the archives and in the historical chronicles of Douglas Arizona, this dissertation employs an interdisciplinary methodology designed to highlight their actions and their contributions to their communities, city, and nation. Influenced by Chicana theorist Gloria Anzaldua, I seek to recover history, and what she refers to as la facultad, by relying on the words of the women and their families to offer answers and insight. Despite the challenges of living in the borderlands in a time of limited access to economic and social resources, these women's contributions to history confirm that Mexicanas were not passive subalterns.

Online social networking sites continue to grow as a medium of consumption, acting as a changing force for interpersonal communication and media interaction. It is important to understand how and why each demographic segment is using these sites. Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the U.S., with older adults representing a substantial portion of the site’s growth. Previous studies have investigated the use of Facebook among college students and young adults; however, older age demographics are a fairly new segment to the online social networking landscape that has not yet been investigated. Through a large-scale online survey, this study represents the first empirical investigation of Facebook members age 35 and older. Findings provide a baseline of knowledge for understanding time spent, frequent activities and gratifications obtained by this audience on Facebook. Results indicate adults 35 and older allocate a substantial amount of time to the site and use it most often for communication with people in their network. While many activities on the site were found to be similar between older and younger audiences, adults 35 and older in this study reported more passive activities of surveillance rather than participation. Factor analysis yielded five gratification factors for Facebook of which three were salient against the 35 and older audience: interpersonal habitual entertainment, passing time and self-expression. Exploratory open-ended questions also revealed some additional unique possible motives to be considered in future research among this audience.

The ethnographic study utilized the research techniques of observations, content analysis, and semi-structured interviews with tween participants (i.e., 9 through 13 year-old youth) during an 8-week literary blog project. Twenty-six participants created individual blog pages within a member-only classroom blog site that allowed for online communication between members. the blog project incorporated social networking applications with which youth frequently engage. the research questions ensured data regarding what facets participants found appealing and motivating during the project was collected. the questions allowed for determining if participants utilized peer blogs for reading material selection or repurposed the blogs to discuss other topics. Components of self-determination theory and engagement theory underlay the project design and aided in identifying motivational aspects of the data. Frequency tables outlined the identified patterns and structures of participants’ online activity. Participants found the ability to change the colors of their blog backgrounds and to design their individual blogs and the giving and receiving of feedback to be the two most appealing features of the project. Participants chose books from peer suggestions in the online world but also selected materials from recommendations they received in face-to-face interactions with their peers, their teacher, and the school librarian. Little evidence of repurposing the blog for social topics was observed. Participants engaged in discussions predominantly based around the books they were currently reading or had read. Implications for incorporating social networking applications within the classroom environment are discussed.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the students’ perspective on their use of Facebook to further their studies. There were three research questions: (1) To what extent do students use Facebook to further their studies? (2) In what ways do students use Facebook to further their studies? (3) What do students believe are the ways that Facebook can be used by colleges and universities to help students with their studies? There were three major themes relating to usage of Facebook: non-academic usage, curricular, and co-curricular. Most of the students indicated they used Facebook to stay in touch with people they already knew. With regard to academic usage, the answers given related mostly to professors’ offers of support, collaborations with projects and assignments, and cheating on exams. There were mixed responses about whether students wanted professors to make use of Facebook in classes and how, with many indicating that they wanted to keep Facebook separate from their curricular activities. Students that were in the education fields were more than willing to use Facebook to help them in their studies than students in other majors.

It is argued that entrepreneurship directly contributes to both employment generation and economic growth. Entrepreneurship is said to be subject to a very specific process which includes opportunity recognition, resource allocation, innovation and networking. Networking specifically, is an important part of the entrepreneurial process as it is used to assist entrepreneurs to capitalise on opportunities, allocate resources, find ways to innovate and combat ambiguity. With the advent of Web 2.0 and online social networking platforms the way in which people exchange information and network has changed significantly and has spawned a new social culture on a global level. The purpose of this study is to examine the value that online social networking adds to the entrepreneurial process, specifically focussing on the South African landscape. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

<p>Within the United States, infertility diagnoses are becoming increasingly commonplace, yet treatment often remains shrouded in stigma and silence. Consequently, for the women going through it, infertility is an isolating experience. Infertility is frequently conceived through notions of medicalization, which prompts a disembodied, scientific, ‘never give up’ discourse that often leaves women feeling disempowered and further alone. This study considers how individual narratives of infertility contributes to the organizing of a social identity of infertility, one which abuts and diverges from medicalized notions. In adopting theories related to narrative organizing, tenuous identity/identification, resilience, and social support this project engages a feminist-interpretivist framework. In doing so, this study draws upon a three-phase methodological engagement of (1) online ethnographic observations and auto-ethnographic reflections, (2) in-depth interviewing of participants narratives and networks related to (in)fertility, and (3) text mining and semantic network analysis of public discourses related to (in)fertility.</p><p>Findings from this project reveal how infertility is discursively-materiality organized to both embrace and disengage from medicalized logics. First, analysis of personal and organizational narratives illustrate how infertility is construed through competing tensions of loss, empowerment, and support. Second, identities were shown to be communicated as potentially tenuous, liminal, and/or challenged during the process of infertility as women cope with an ambiguous future; however, so too can identities be considered a source of strength and hope. Third, through conceptualizing resilience as a communicatively constructed process, this study showcases the embodied nature of resilience as it ebbs and flows throughout treatment. And fourth, in analyzing social and semantic networks this project interrogates individual and organizational discourses, building a more holistic, yet still thoroughly partial, understanding of effective supportive communication during treatment. Through this process, this study reveals how online support groups re-center the women’s body and emotions as central to the (in)fertility experience, while noting the disembodiment that occurs within health clinics. This study advances knowledge on emergent, embodied organizing and the communicative construction of resilience through considering the intrapersonal and embodied aspects of resilience. Through conceptualizing embodied organizing and embodied resilience, this project advances theories of antenarrative, emergent organizing, and self-persuasive rhetoric. Methodologically, this study contributes to qualitative inquiry by linking crystallization methodologies with network science. Additionally, this project offers recommendations for family members, friends, and medical professionals on how to promote resilience within women receiving infertility treatment.<b> </b></p><p><b> </b></p><div><br></div>

The educational role of the worldwide web has been cast in a new light by the emergence of so-called ‘web 2.0’ technologies and, in particular, ‘social software’ where users are connected to and collaborate with each other in a variety of group interactions (Shirky 2003). Current research indicates that social networking has the potential to bring individuals together into new relationships and friendships, into new communicative flows, and even perhaps into communities of their choosing. Can social networking tools, integrated into the requirements and learning objectives of a course, offer some benefits towards meeting the needs of students? The average Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis student experience can vary greatly when compared to campus life at a traditional, four-year residency college or university because the student body is comprised of an assorted group of learners: commuting students, older adult students, online students, on-campus students, and first-generation college students. These students come from a range of diverse backgrounds. Using N100: Introduction to Digital Media Principles as my primary case study, I assess the implementation and development of social media tools, specifically the use of a closed Ning network, in this diverse college classroom environment. This paper evaluates the use of social networking tools to enhance student learning and improve student engagement as well as comparing social networking software to other types of learning managements systems such as Indiana University’s Oncourse CL.

Thesis advisor: Stephen Pfohl / This research project looks at components of gender socialization for cisgender college students. Expanding on pre-existing research, I consider traditional agents of socialization and argue that social media should be newly considered as a primary agent of socialization. To do this, I interviewed 12 cisgender college students (aged 19-23). The traditional routes of socialization and social media were both found to be important gender socialization factors. Interestingly, social media was found to have two contradicting functions. It served to counter traditional ideas of gender through its role providing education and exposure to diverse identities. At the same time, though, participants also reported normative ideas on the types of posts that different genders were expected to publish, feeling pressure to meet these standards. As social media only continues to become more pervasive, this provides an important avenue for research on the role that it has played in a population that has been on these websites for nearly a decade. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.