In a response to the brief primer on social capital given by the Saguaro Seminar, it is interesting how social capital can relate to parts of our life that you would not think. Mostly one thinks of social capital as just related to technology and the internet, however the everday interactions that you build with people, such as joining student clubs, going to church activities, and engaging in volunteer events develops a type of social capital that we now see incorporated into internet sites such as facebook and linkedin, where these sites bring together groups of a common interest to build even further social capital.
Also, in Clive Thompson's article, it is great to understand social networking from some kind of empirical study such as the one he conducted. If one can study a company or the 100 MIT students he studied and accurately predict the outcomes of future social interactions with a comparable sample size, there's no limit on how much social networking can yield to societal outcomes. The big issue with these kinds of studies, however, remains the privacy concern. Do we really want people monitoring our social interactions, even if it is at the benefit of others?
Minus the Wonk
14 years ago
I don't mind so much people monitoring my social networks as opposed to my private individual networks. Why do I say this? The word "Social" plays a significant role in this. The fact that it is social network that I choose to join, makes me expect some sort of public intervention. Also if studying these social networks will benefit others in their everyday interactions with the rest of the world then I'm all for that.
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