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Public Displays of Connection Public displays of connection J Donath and d boyd Participants in social network sites create self-descriptive profiles that include their links to other members, creating a visible network of connections — the ostensible purpose of these sites is to use this network to make friends, dates, and business connections. In this paper we explore the social implications of the public display of one’s social network. Why do people display their social connections in everyday life, and why do they do so in these networking sites? What do people learn about another’s identity through the signal of network display? How does this display facilitate connections, and how does it change the costs and benefits of making and brokering such connections compared to traditional means? The paper includes several design recommendations for future networking sites. 1. Introduction Since then, use of the Internet has greatly expanded and today ‘Orkut [1] is an on-line community that connects people it is much more likely that one’s friends and the people one through a network of trusted friends’ would like to befriend are present in cyberspace. People are accustomed to thinking of the on-line world as a social space. Today, networking sites are suddenly extremely popular. ‘Find the people you need through the people you trust’ — LinkedIn [2]. Social networks — our connections with other people — have many important functions. They are sources of emotional and ‘Access people you want to reach through people you financial support, and of information about jobs, other people, know and trust. Spoke Network helps you cultivate a and the world at large. The types of social networks that strong personal network by keeping you in touch with develop in different communities have a profound effect on your relationships’ — Spoke [3]. the way people work, the opportunities they have, and the structure of their daily life [5, 6]. There are societies in which ‘Friendster Beta [4]: The new way to meet people. network ties reflect a rigid hierarchy and close kinship Friendster is an on-line community that connects people relationships, and others in which they reflect a mobile culture through networks of friends for dating or making new structured around work and school. Today, we are seeing the friends’. advent of social networks formed in cyberspace. People meet in on-line forums and through on-line dating services; they Social networking sites, in which participants create a self- keep in touch with an unprecedentedly large number of people descriptive profile and make links to other members, have via electronic media. recently become quite popular. ‘Networking’ is the ostensible purpose of these sites — using one’s chain of connections to make new friends, dates, business partners, etc. Underlying all people are accustomed to the networking sites are a core set of assumptions — that there is a need for people to make more connections, that thinking of the on-line world using a network of existing connections is the best way to do so, and that making this easy to do is a great benefit. as a social space The first dedicated on-line networking site was sixdegrees.com, In today’s society, access to information is a key element of which, like today’s social networking sites, helped people status and power and communication is instant, ubiquitous connect to an extended network of friends of friends and and mobile. The social networking sites we will be discussing beyond. Sixdegrees.com folded after four years in operation. in this paper are a product of this emerging culture. They BT Technology Journal • Vol 22 No 4 • October 2004 71 Public displays of connection function both as environments in which these new ties are 2. What does the display of connections formed and as depictions of these networks in the display of mean? individual connections. In the physical world, people display their connections in many ways. They have parties in which they introduce friends who Social networking sites are on-line environments in which they think would like — or impress — each other [10, 11]. people create a self-descriptive profile and then make links to They drop the names of high status acquaintances casually in other people they know on the site, creating a network of their conversation. They decorate their refrigerator with personal connections. Participants in social networking sites photos. Simply appearing in public with one’s acquaintances is are usually identified by their real names and often include a display of connection. These displays serve various photographs; their network of connections is displayed as an purposes. The high status name-dropping may be a deliberate integral piece of their self-presentation. ploy to impress the listener of the speaker’s importance or ability to effect some action. The refrigerator display may be The public display of connections is one of the most salient prompted by the good feeling engendered by memories of features of the social sites. The focus of this paper is on the pleasant times with friends [12]. The introductions may be social implications of this display. Why do people display their done as a favour, as a way of gaining social capital, or as a way social connections in everyday life — and why do they do so in of uniting compatible but disconnected circles [10]. these networking sites? What do people learn about another’s identity through the signal of network display? How does this display facilitate connections, and how does it change the social status, political costs and benefits of making and brokering such connections as opposed to doing so via traditional means? beliefs, musical taste, etc, The profile and network of links are the fundamental features may be inferred from the of these sites, but the specific instantiation varies from site to company one keeps site. The examples and observations in this paper are drawn from several contemporary services, including Friendster [4], Orkut [1], Tribe.net [7], Ryze [8] and LinkedIn [2]. These sites Seeing someone within the context of their connections undergo frequent redesign and new ones appear often; thus, provides the viewer with information about them. Social while we have grounded our analysis on observation [9], we try status, political beliefs, musical taste, etc, may be inferred to speak generally about approaches to design. from the company one keeps. Furthermore, knowing that someone is connected to people one already knows and trusts Most networking sites share a similar model of interpersonal is one of the most basic ways of establishing trust with a new links — they are mutual, public, unnuanced, and relationship [13, 14]. The reliability of the inferences drawn decontextualised: from these displays varies. The social climber who is continuously dropping the names of famous friends may be • links are mutual: if A shows B as a connection, then B has taking advantage of the listener’s inability to verify the stories also agreed to show A as a connection, to create an impressive but imaginary resumé. An intimate dinner party in which the guests are clearly familiar with the • the links are public: they are permanently on display for host tells much more about the host’s social circle than does a others to see — here, the sites do differ, e.g. LinkedIn giant loft party where the attendees are only vaguely aware of allows you to see only the connections made by your the evening’s provenance. The friends depicted in photos on immediate links, and only if they allow it, whereas Orkut the refrigerator are likely to be just that — but there does exist allows users to explore freely, and others limit network a market in faux family photos and other material meant to viewings to a still more broad class of friends of friends of create the impression of aspired to life and history [15]. How friends, important is the reliability of the information gleaned from the display of connections depends on what one is planning to do • the links are unnuanced: there is no distinction made with it. If one is simply being entertained by a celebrity-laced between a close relative and a near stranger one chatted story, suspension of disbelief is harmless. Yet, if one is being with idly on-line one night, recruited for an investment scheme the desirability of which is • the links are decontextualised: there is no way of showing based on claims of association with the rich and famous, a only a portion of one’s network to some people — some deeper analysis would be sensible. sites do allow users to adjust the closeness by degree of the people who are to be allowed to see their A useful way of analysing the reliability of displays of connections, and within that degree everyone can see all connections is to think of them in the framework of signalling connections (there is no ability to segregate one’s links), theory. This theory, developed in both biology [16—18] and and similarly for one’s profile, and a few sites allow economics [19, 20], describes the relationship between a limiting parts of the profile to closer connections, but signal and the underlying quality it represents. Most of the again connection degree is the only distinction made. qualities we are interested in about other people — Is this person nice? Trustworthy? Can she do this job? Can he be The features of the links in the displays of connection — that relied on in an emergency? Would she be a good parent? — are public, mutual, unnuanced, and decontextualised — are not directly observable. Instead, we rely on signals, which shape the culture that is evolving on these sites.
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