The Social Networking Site: technicality or sociality?

社交网络作为Web2.0时代的一项技术应用,被一些舆论认为是推动社会变革的重要乃至根本力量,而在学理上,现有研究也更多集中在其对人们个体心理与需求影响的分析。本文认为这种技术一个体的研究取向忽视了社交网络作为技术应用所受到的结构约束,也无法体现出"使用"的公共参与特质。本文通过一项跨国微观数据的多水平分析,分别从技术特征和社会属性二个方面分析了社交网络使用的社会情境。研究结果表明,社交网络的使用既与数字能力、移动通讯等技术要素相关,同时又嵌入在社会网络中并受到线下公共参与结构的塑造,从而导致了社交网络环境里信息和参与的复杂性。因此,经验证据并不支持相关研究中个体倾向和技术决定论的论断,本文主张应从社会与技术的互构性角度对这种新型互联网工具进行分析。

As a technological application in the web 2.0 age, the social networking site (SNS) is viewed by public opinion as an important, or a radical, force to catalyze social change. Meanwhile, academic explanations largely focus upon its influence on motives and demands of individual users. However, this paper suggests that this technology-individual oriented approach has neglected structural constraints on SNS as a technology application on the one hand, and on the other, nor can it reflect its characteristic of public participation. In this paper, based on an analysis of a set of cross-national data via the multilevel logistic model, we examine the social context characterized by both technological and social forces in SNS usage. The results show that SNS usage is entangled with technological elements such as digital literacy or mobile device on the one hand, and on the other, it is also embedded in social networks whilst being shaped by the structure of public participation. These factors lead to complexity of information and participation in SNS usage. Our empirical evidence does not support the argument of technological determinism; conversely, it suggests that this new internet instrument should be examined from a perspective of interaction between technicality and sociality-

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