hobby-based social networking sites

On the Readings

I believe the Twitter disaster in the NPR article by Weeks reflects the dichotomy between "the often conflicting desires for autonomy and connection" that Galston mentions. The mother in the Weeks article wanted to have some sort of connection to others during her trials of motherhood, so she used Twitter, but she also wanted to have enough autonomy that a non-serious remark made in a fit of anger wouldn't send the police to her door. This is also an example of the surveillance Albrechtslund speaks of, although the majority of what he discusses involves positive forms of surveillance that let you know what your friends are doing without those long, reviled Christmas cards.

LaRose et al concluded that the internet can provide information and connection through emails that can help depression, but issues like computer malfunctions can make it worse. They do not mention issues like cyberbullying, which could make depression worse.

As an arts education advocate, the Hague blog struck a chord with me. We, as a society, are so obsessed with meaningful (= monetary) production that we barely give ourselves time to rest, myself included.

Investigative Question
My main investigative question comes from Bigge and Rosen's discussions - are hobby-based social networking sites purely devoted to narcissism and market (business) surveillance? I picked last.fm to explore, but there are others, such fashion-based sites PoupeeGirl and Chictopia.

I've been a member of last.fm for a long time, but I've been mostly a lurker other than the software's silent tracking of every track I listen to in iTunes and an unknown person friending me every once in a while. Last.fm itself claims to be a "music service that learns what [music] you love", but the fact that it allows you to friend other users and join groups, some personalization, and playlist creation among other features leads me to put it under the "social computing" umbrella. I would call it a music-based social networking site.

Screenshot of my last.fm homepage

So after looking interacting with the site a little more, do I find it a place of market surveillance and a reflection of individual narcissism?

Sometimes, but mostly not. Like most activities both online and off, you can take the narcissism aspect of membership in a social networking site to the extent that you want to. I've seen flame wars on other message boards about someone tagging a new track incorrectly. (This is important because last.fm recognizes tracks automatically and the first metadata placed on a new track sticks.)


Recently, I put a note on a wiki page indicating that the artist information for this live track was incorrect.

Last.fm has a friending mechanism, but is not quite the center of existence as in Facebook or MySpace - the music is. Rosen's article claims that today's social networking sites organize themselves around the person, but I would disagree, as the home and start pages of last.fm both are about music.

Screenshot of the last.fm main page

There is a community aspect, however, and last.fm certainly is committed to Rosen's "self-exposure", with every intricacy of your music listening exposed. (You can delete tracks you're embarrassed about, if you're really concerned.) With every other user's page that you visit, you get a "compatibility rating" based on the music that both you and the other person have listened to.

Example of compatibility rating
This could allow you to make new friends, as well as joining groups with others. There is undoubtedly Albrechtslund's kind of surveillance, where you can see what your friends are listening to. You can also see what kind of music people you've never met before like, and recommend new music to them.

The site advertises itself as a place to "stream free music", and there certainly is a good amount of free streaming music available from various record labels - both public and private. There is also the commercial presence that Bigge discusses, with links to purchase tracks and albums from Amazon and iTunes and announcements of nearby concerts. These could be helpful, however, depending on how one looks at the issue. Many independent bands offer their music for streaming through last.fm along with the major labels.

The potential relaxing creative factor in hobby-based social networking sites such as last.fm is that they are not "something everyone does" like MySpace and Facebook and do not require the "forced volunteerism" that Bigge mentions - they are something a user participates in because the user is an aficionado. Last.fm, and other hobby based social networking sites, seem to be isolated from the real world as sites like MySpace and Facebook are not, since they do not require the use of one's real name (Facebook and MySpace do not technically require this, but it is expected) and may therefore not attract levels of narcissism and surveillance that "pure" social networking sites have.