Oxford, Ofcom and Social Networks

I recently had the opportunity to sit on a panel at a Social Networking Conference organised by Oxford University's Internet Institute and Ofcom. According to Ofcom’s report on social networking almost one in five use these sites to introduce themselves to people they don’t know.

Although it must be said that social networking is helping to increase the accessibility and normality of online dating, it is a very different proposition to a bespoke matchmaking service. Social networking sites are designed to be exactly that – places for your existing social group to communicate easily and cheaply. They just aren’t geared up as a way to introduce yourself to strangers. With this in mind, its perhaps unsurprising that the research also suggests almost half of users have private profiles to ensure their information can only be viewed by existing friends.

In preparation for the conference I read a book by Yochai Benkler called The Wealth of Networks that discusses the use of networks and reaffirms the thinking above. His research shows that for the majority of people social networks predominantly serve as a reinforcement for 'strong ties' (people we have close relationships with) and not for creating realtionships based on 'weak ties'.