Last evening was the third meeting of my Technologies of Friendship class. While I’ve been meaning to blog about the class each week, this post will have to serve as a catch-up. We’re actually not that far behind – this was actually only the second teaching class due to Labor Day and the fact our class meets on Monday.
Our first teaching class was designed as an overview of the material. We read three articles exploring the social impacts of the Internet, the issues surrounding computer-mediated-communication, and the management of relationships with mediating technology. To accompany the lecture (slides here) we completed two exercises. The first was a name generator exercise that invited students to reflect on the various types of connections they keep through technology. The key component of the generator was comparing categories – i.e. why did some friends end up in multiple bins, exploring those stories. The next exercise was a reflection on social capital and medium, students were asked to think about the types of support they derive from differing mediated relationships.
The second teaching class (lecture slides) began an exploration of historical perspectives. Our readings explored the history of two communication technologies – the telegraph and the telephone. We explored the invention, marketing, uses and social framing of the tools, as well as the tools’ evolution of use. Accepted uses, cultural impacts and the role of gender in technology use were also explored. We then compared this to the development and marketing of the Internet. We will continue this theme next week, exploring some of the early tools of Internet communication.
If you wish to follow along, you can follow items we’re bookmarking, prompt readings for the class, and of course check the website on Monday nights for lecture notes and slides.
Fred Stutzman is a doctoral student, researcher and teaching fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science. He studies how people use social media.
