ABSTRACT
Mobile social networks are services or applications that allow people to articulate their social connections and share information with one another. This chapter discusses some of the early findings on how these services influence social interaction in public spaces. Lee Humphreys discusses two key changes since her early research on mobile social networks. First is the increased prevalence of locational data as a result of smartphones and application (app)-based services, and the attention paid to location and place factors into how we use media. Second is the prominence of the mobile phone as the primary device through which social media are accessed and used, thus blurring the degree to which services are mobile social networks as opposed to a social network site on a mobile. Humphreys proposes that mobile media and social media should no longer be understood as distinct categories. She explains that not only do social media platforms often include locative capabilities, but they are also more often accessed via mobile devices, making mobile access to social media the new norm. The sentiment that academic conceptualizations of mobile media must constantly adapt to appropriately reflect common practice arises as a core theme that carries throughout this chapter. Humphreys also focuses on the ways mobile social networks construct different social contexts and opportunities for communication while considering how these technologies shape human interaction. Her lecture covers multiple trends and perspectives in this growing subject area. The Q&A that follows Humphreys’s lecture reifies the significance of place in
mobile social networks research. Humphreys opens by addressing some of the fears and concerns that users of mobile social media commonly assert. She discusses safety and the intricacies of privacy as these concepts pertain to location and data sharing. She also examines online anonymity and how it intersects with other issues
like discrimination and harassment, using examples from popular platforms like Twitter, Tinder, Grindr and Yik Yak. Humphreys contrasts the problematic aspects of locative mobile social media by explaining the boons of location sharing as it enacts identity construction and potential for self-archiving. She also spends time in this section considering how spaces and places can be transformed by mobile social networks to become parochial spaces (Humphreys, 2010), and as I add in the conclusion: hybrid spaces (de Souza e Silva, 2006), playful spaces (de Souza e Silva & Sutko, 2008), and more. Ultimately, Humphreys emphasizes the materiality of mobile media, and the
importance of recognizing which technologies and usage trends are truly new and which are simply remediations of past technologies and practices. In this vein, the chapter closes with suggestions for opportunities regarding new research on mobile social networks.
