Fra onlinefællesskaber til onlinenetværk: Facebook som augmentering af den sociale virkelighed [From online communities to online networks: Facebook as an augmentation of social reality]

Abstract

This article discusses the Facebook phenomenon, using it as an example of how the most dominant social use of the Internet today is network-based rather than community-based. In the early years of the Internet, online communities were popular fora for meeting new people with related interests or opinions. Today, the dominant social use is to create and maintain relationships with your existing social network. It is also demonstrated that the success of Facebook, is dependent, among other factors, upon the fulfilment of five social functions for the users: self-presentation, friendship, object sharing, publication, and having a “sixth sense”. Thus, Facebook contributes to an enhancement of existing social relationships offline, what I call an augmentation of social reality.