Social Computing Magazine has published an interesting article on by Malene Charlotte Larson  noting that  "There are many different perspectives to put on online social networking and it is important to know where one is coming from when talking about social networking and youth. The perspective(s) one has will be very different whether one is a parent with a teenage daughter on MySpace, a marketing executive interested in the target group “14 to 20,” a journalist looking for the next big news story on young people and new media, a youngster using a social networking site as part of everyday life or a researcher investigating how young people are using social networking sites. "

 Larson gives thirty-five perspectives on online social networking (not all of which she agrees with, but all ones she has run into in the course of her research) and then she goes on to suggest 6 overarching categories that encompass these views (note that some of the perspectives fit into more than one category but as Larson points out it is important to know where one is coming from when talking about online social networking and youth.)

Larsonis a PhD student in Denmark (and the study is based mainly on the use of social networks by Danish Youth) but one thing is clear, and no doubt is universal across international boundries, and that is that  the exact nature of the phenomenon is still very difficult to pin down.

Wow..... I haven't come across the word 'discourse' for too long....

I miss uni!!

Meanwhile, altho I have analysed social networks thru many of those different perspectives, I found it odd that 33 out of the 35 perspectives are focused on 'young people'.  I think that's a bit skewed

Indeed....

Larson notes that "the list is based on my own experiences with Danish social networking sites for youngsters between the age of 12 and 18" so it wouldn't be too suprising if her perspectives only covered this ground.

This of course means it will be even harder to pin down the exact nature of the phenomenon as 'understanding' will be a moving target as usage expands to older age groups which may require different perspectives  as you suggest, Dekrazee1, (note that Facebook is bringing in an older population and gaining fast on Myspace in total usage as a resullt). 

Further, the early usage of the technology might not be the use that wins in the end... (ie all existing perspectives might be wrong!) for the people using the technology will end up telling the technology providers how they will (not just want) use it.

For example in Europe the major source of profit for telcos has been SMS text messaging... which became THE way to communicate (or even if voice was to be used, it became common to text first to 'be sure it was ok to interrupt!).  In the telco's mind the technology was developed and targeted at a very specific need... to tell customers that they had waiting voice mail! This is now the secondary usage. 

We see people trying to reinvent SMS over on the web with Twitter et al... but I doubt that  it will live a long life as a 'broadcast' SMS  (ah but then I'm not young anymore) .... I do think  it could evolve into something else, perhaps a global alert system or ??? What ever the person/company that stumbles on the right perspective will take off while the others flounder towards obscurity.