Abstract

This paper discusses the possibility and advantages of activity design in online social networks. Activity
design in social networks aims at creating collaborative activities in social network communities rather than mere
sharing of information. We have looked in to problem of individualism in social networks and lack of collaboration
in communities. Comparing the characteristics of real world communities to the virtual communities they lack
proper activity as real world communities have. Social networks are analyzed as a medium comprising of both
actors and interface and it supports a socio-technical approach in design of networks. The interface allows people
to act up on it in a certain way, which creates effects and needs, which evolves the interface again. We have tried
to look in to the possibility of intervening at the activity part in the evolution of social networks.
Keywords: New Media, Online Social Networks, Communities

Activity Design in Online Social Networks

Vishnu M S
Guide : Dr. Mihir Bhole
PGDPD 2012
New Media Design
Course Coordinator : Dr. Jignesh Khakhar
11-02-2014

Introduction
This paper is about the importance of activity design in social networks adhering to the current problems of individualism and personal networks formation in social media. It involves the analysis of real world and virtual communities and along with the evolution of social network as a medium. Social networks have grown so fast, and is
influencing our culture and history in so many ways and activity design aims at routing the network to a better goal.

Social Networks in the real world

The formation of social networks dates back to the Stone Age where people gathered together and shared

their information. Apicella et al. [2012] observes The Hadza community functions much like ancient hunter-gatherer groups did, by cooperating and sharing resources like food and child care. Hadza society is organized into
camps, which are taken up and abandoned regularly; the makeup of each camp also changes often, with individuals
leaving one camp to join another.Hadza is a group of hunters gatherers in Tanzania who are isolated from modern
influences. Researchers have found out that many of the features of modern social networks hold true for hazda.
The whole social structure and culture of human beings is evolving around the practices that they had since ancient
times. Communities were formed by space time relations between actors which involved face to face conversations
and direct exchange of ideas. The relations were dense and closely knit with collaboration, resulted in the evolution
of mankind. They were pinned to certain geographies and shared archetypes, shared icons, rituals and leaders were
created. Manmade tool, art, languages etc. accelerated their formation and became their identity. Later on print
media has led to the evolution of nation states and capitalism in communities. We have also seen the formation of
communities of interest in the real world where people gather to attain a certain goal or have certain ideologies.

Towards being Virtual.

Mediated sharing of information paved the way to the formation of virtual communities like mail ex-

change groups formed by Royal Society of London. Later on development in online computer networks has made
a multidirectional flow of information rather than a unidirectional system which we had for mass media. Anderson [1983] says The most important thing about language is its capacity for generating imagines communities,
building in effect particular solidarities. The flow of multidirectional information has led to the creation of virtual
communities over social networks. First Digital mediated network was created as Bulletin Board System where
people where connected through data over phone lines with other users in 1978. In 1997, sixdegrees.com came up
with the network which allows profile creation and friends listing which was the birth of cyborg. Facebook was
launched in 2004, connected group of Harvard students. Facebook in its number of profiles is more populated than
most of the countries in the world and it ranks third among it after India and China.
Social networks have grown very fast with the development in technology in last decade. It has helped people to
express themselves, to understand other cultures and in sharing knowledge of all kinds. It has enabled people to access emergency resources and donate money in crises. We have also seen social media in action in 2011 when civil
unrest spread through it in Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria which lead to Arab spring. Later on it also caused political
polarization as debates takes place online rather than in moderated communities. Besides of all the advantages of
social media it also has disadvantages and concerns that critically affect the society. The power of social media is
immense but the way we use it makes the difference.

Characteristics of Online Social Network [OSN] Communities.

OSN communities are formed within the social networks by groups of people. Each user can created a

community as they like and can add people in to it. These communities formed are of two types.
Communities of Shared Geography

Geographic virtual communities are communities formed by people based on their actual physical loca-

tion. They may share a common geography as in like members of an institution of an actual community. These
are very complex in structure as they are the virtual representations of actual communities in the real world. They
actually possess a shared past which may reflect up in these communities and it works in externalizing the content
of the real community itself.
Communities of Shared Interest

Communities of Interest are formed by people who are in to certain kind of interests or share same ideolo-

gies. They may see the online community as a place to share their ideas. It may also be driven by certain ideologies
as in case of open source communities. These communities have played a major role in the development of field
of knowledge in computer science as the shared information on these communities coincides with the activity of
programming.

Online Social Network Communities can have little space and asynchronous time relations. Communities

of practice in the real world is changed to communities of interests. It taught people to block others from there on
space which is not possible in the real world. As Wellman [2001] says Communities are far-flung, loosely-bound,
sparsely-knit and fragmentaryRather than fitting into the same group as those around them, each person has his/
her own personal community. The proliferation of this personal community network has started far before the
advent of online social networks. The cohesiveness of relations in space was affected vastly by automobiles. But
acceleration beyond a certain point, when it occurs by means of the automobile and the plane, creates decentralism
in the midst of the older central ism. This is the origin of the urban chaos of our time The wheel, pushed beyond a
certain intensity of movement, no longer centralizes [McLuhan 1964] It has created metropolis that are localized
chaotic and lacking its identity due to excessive movement of nodes between them.

We have become the data traversing data landscapes, assimilating and reproducing it. We publish our

actions to others who are in the continuous stream of information enclosed in walls not relay connected to us but
informed about us. We can become so seduced by the ease of connecting with others online that we begin to think
that these relationships are more intense, more committed and more complete than they really are [Jain 2010].
Virtual networks can represent the real world to some extend but, they lack activities by the actors within them, due
to the specific structure of the medium itself. Activities play an important role in fostering the relations between
people in the real world.

They lack proper shared history and the permeance is far high as compared to real world communities.

People are still in the odowan age in social networks as they have just started to explore the tools in social networks. The current media ecosystem builds up on the notions of individualism and capitalism tends to weaken
the relations in social networks in to mere transactional relationships rather that bringing in actual outcome in the
society.

Node Relations in Mediated Social Networks

A short study was conducted as a part of this paper to check the connectivity among people in networks

and the functioning of real communities. People are in contact with an average of 4 people out of 100 friends in
their account. Seventy percent of them have gained less than 10 friends from communities. 92 percent of the total
number use communities to share information that they like.

Design interventions in social networks focuses mainly on the design of the interface after finding out the

usage patterns in social networks. But in OSNs the users become the medium in itself, it gives them the space to
share or do whatever they like, which evolves the medium itself. User centric approach in design has forced social
network towards being what the individualistic mob wants. Social networks follow a mob cult where the content
is decided by the mob. Advertisement, memes and social capital etc are the buzz words of today.

Sherry Tuckle on her TED talk 2012 says Technology appeals to us most where we are most vulnerable,

we are lonely, but we are afraid of intimacy and from social networks to sociable robots we are designing technologies that gives us the illusion of companionship with our the demands of friendship. People started sacrificing
conversations for connections by sharing photos and post each other. The mob is new to the virtual interface which
made them even more individualistic by its nature. Our society lives up on the ideals of individualism which praises the state of being a successful individual in terms of money and achievements.

The value that people give to their corporeal extensions of these networks has also become very high

these days. We always fear about being lonely and we like to have people who will listen to us. Social networks
give user the power to have a lot of people listening to them. The facebook application ifidiefirst allows you to post
something for your friends after you die and their advertisement says world fame is waiting ...what will you leave
behind ??. This lights op on the notions of having fame in virtual world even after you corporeal body is no more,
the value that people give to their virtual bodies.

We are in a world we ourselves becomes news feeds to our friends disseminating information each other.It

allows people to add a lot of friends and research have shown that we are able to handle only a community of 150
at a time [Dunbar, 1992]. Technological determinism can lead us to problems as they are not always the solutions
to actual problems of being lonely and they affect us a lot psychologically.
It is also made up on the notions of competitions were people actually tend to get more shares and likes. Social
capital has no become a big word in OSNs. People connect with each others but collaboration seldom happens in
social networks. Cyber bullying and rumor warfare is also a major problem in social networks were people tend to
tease other in OSNs. We can solve these out because we are actually so dependent on the medium and it shapes us
the way it wants. We should shape the technology rather than technology shaping us.

Social Networks as a medium

Social network when considered as a medium involves both the actual code of network with its interface

and the people in it. People act up on medium which creates effects and needs. We design the medium according
to needs of the people. For example, People started posting birthday wishes on to Facebook wall of friends. This
later on evolved the interface to bring in birthday alerts and interface to post birthday wished directly to the wall
of the people from sidebar menu. Here the activity was posting of birthday wishes to the wall and this activity was
identified as a need by the designers and the reshaped the interface so that it easily facilitates the activity.

Interface

Activities

Needs

Effects

Activity Stress in social networks

Affordance in Human Computer Interaction was a term appropriated by Don Norman in his book The

Design of Everyday Things in 1988 which says that interface has certain cues which helps the people act up on it.
He also speaks about constraints which restricts the user in doing certain tasks. And to Gibson [1977] who coined
the term affordance refer to actionable properties between medium and the actor.

Social networks are also designed with its on constraints and affordances to act up on it in a certain way.

Here the interface follows the mob as the new rules are set according to the needs. These rules allow the user to
use the networks only in a certain way which limits the type of activities that can be done with the medium. We
have this activity stress in all kinds of mediums but they can be pushed back when subjected open explorations.
However, OSN structure is changing constantly and is being more open so that activities can be designed by people
within.

Social and technological determinism vs Actor Network Theory

Social determinism is a belief in the central nature of people in the decision-making process technology can be
seen as flexible to meet the needs of relevant social groups (Pannabeker, 1991). Social determinism on the other
way argues that the development of technology is on the basis of social aspects among people.
Technological determinism argues that all outcomes of the development of the technology and society can be
attributed to technology itself. It was coined by an American sociologist Thorstein Veblen .The notions of transhumanism and ideas of singularity by Raymond Kurzweil all follows this idea of technological determinism.
Actor Network Theory comes in with the socio technical aspects of development. It is described as a material
semiotic method and was developed by Michel Callon and Bruno Latour, the sociologist John Law, and others. it
treats human and non-human agents as equal since separation between those elements is difficult.

Activity Design in Social Networks.

Activity design in social networks aims at creating collaborative activities in social network communities

rather than mere sharing of information. Activities created within the networks through sharing of information can
lead to the emancipation of knowledge and better connectivity among people within the networks.

Activities can be a about doing real world activities by using the social networks as medium having online

workshops. This has happened in case of computer science as the practice coincides with the share information
in case of computer codes. We have seen the open source movements and cyber punk culture which emancipated
the knowledge of computer science to a larger extent through these online practice and collaboration. The one set
of Do It Yourself [DIV] movement has set the other streams of knowledge also in the same direction and social
networks can be a real facilitator if proper activities are designed for each of them. Groups of interest should be
converted to communities of practice where people should share information towards certain goals rather than
mere sharing of information.

We being the actors in social networks know the medium as we are constantly engaged with it. Indian

jugaad involved local intelligence which creates new mediums. It involves good research as people are involved
constantly in the making of new things. We should tap the local intelligence among people in social network so
as to design rules shared history practices within the network. Activities can be also about having a culture within
the system just as we follow certain rituals in the real world. These rituals bring people together and bind them to
a greater extend.

Read And Pass On [RAPO] groups formed in Facebook is a good example of activity design done over

social network. The members of the group share the books they have with each other through the community after
reading. They will have the entries of the book also within the group from which all members can request for and
send books.

Conclusion
Our social networks are in the primary stage of its evolution where people just abide by the rules of the medium.
Reiterating the history of mankind, he has evolved by pushing the medium through activities. In case of social
networks the medium becomes our culture and we can redesign our culture through activities within the network.
Technology has advanced so fast and the way the interface evolves also changes. In future we will have the interface as in the real world and then focus should be shifted to activity design for the communities within the interface. We should have practices shared history and intimate bonding within the interface.

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Acknowledgement

I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help
of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.
I am highly indebted to Dr. Mihir Bhole for his guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the paper & also for their support in completing the paper.
I would like to express my gratitude towards Dr. Jignesh Khakhar and Prayas Ahbinav for their co-operation and
encouragement which help me in completion of this paper.
My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleague in developing the project and people who have willingly
helped me out with their abilities.