Fragmentation of identity
through structural holes
in email contacts
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas
(Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab)
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Research Questions
How does social network structure
impact individual construction of
identity?
How is this behavior made explicit
online?
How can this be observed within the
context of email?
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Construction of Individual
Identity
Interrelated ideas of identity
– Social identity: public presentation of self
– Internal identity: private view of self
Fragmentation vs. Multi-Faceted Identity
– Fragmentation: conflicting internal identity
– Multi-faceted: coherent internal identity,
fragmented social identity
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Managing Faceted Selves
Differentiated presentation changed according to
context
– How? Fashion, language, location/context, people
– Why? Privacy, social appropriateness, reputation
differentiation
– Who? Dependent on self-monitoring habits,
marginalization, fear of retribution
Fragmented social network (e.g., work, clubs,
family, …)
– Separate social circles provide for segmentation of
presentation
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Identity online
Confusion of context
– Ease of moving between multiple
contexts
– Data aggregated across “locations”
Email address serves as context
– Allows for privacy and faceted behavior
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Relating Network
Structure
Structural holes & bridges (Burt)
– Maximize & control information flow
Simmelian ties (Krackhardt)
– In public settings, personally
constraining by restricting appropriate
behavior – aggregate of all associations
Control of network structure
– Minimize uncontrolled personal
information flow
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Structuring social
networks via email
Recognizing the power of multiple
recipients
– Copy/paste phenomenon to appear
personal or contextual
– Slight content alternations for context
– Making others aware of audience
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Ego-Centric Visualization
Visualization tool to observe social
networks embedded in email
– Focused on structure
Analyzed “Mike’s” email habits
– 5 years worth of complete data
– Maintains multiple email addresses for
different contexts
– (Dis)advantages of using one person’s
behaviors
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Introducing Mike
Social characteristics:
– 24-year old, gay-identified, white male
– Born in northern CA, attended Yale (art &
computer science)
– Friends & jobs in: Boston, SF, Chicago, NYC
– Uses many forms of media to stay connected
Mike’s primary social communities:
–
–
–
–
Family, high school friends
Undergraduate friends
Gay men in/outside Boston, in NYC
Boston, Texas, California work colleagues
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Mike’s dataset
80,941 messages
– 1.03 average recipients per msg
15,537 unique people
– 7,250 people w/ 2,618 knowledge ties
(excluding listservs)
– 662,078 ties between all respondents (using
only messages with <50 recipients; otherwise,
11.7 million)
– 226 trusted ties; 23 reciprocal
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Defining Connectivity
Knowledge ties
– If A sends a message to B, A ‘knows’ B
– B does not necessarily know A
Awareness ties
– If B receives a message from A -> B is ‘aware’ of A
– If B and C both receive a message from A -> B and
C are ‘aware’ of each other
Trusted ties
– If A sends a message to B and blind carbon copies
(BCC’s) D -> A ‘knows’ and ‘trusts’ D
– (D has the ability to respond and reveal that A
included people without B’s awareness)
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations: Overview
Goal is to allow one to quickly see how
Mike’s network is connected and view
structural holes
-
Methodology
Spring/Wire explanation
View of entire world
Close-up views of network
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations: Methodology
Basic spring/node algorithm used to place
nodes in optimal location
- annealing algorithms don’t work with 15,000
nodes
Colors are used to indicate the
relationship to the person
- based on which of Mike’s email address the
person uses
- most common address used
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations: Spring/Node (1/2)
Basic spring algorithm used to place
nodes
-Ties act as springs, pulling connected
nodes closer together
-Nodes act like magnets and repel
each other
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualizations: Spring/Node (2/2)
All nodes start out at random
location, spring algorithm is run
several hundred iterations
This (eventually) results in
connected nodes being nearby and
non-connected being far away
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Visualization: Entire World (1/2)
Color key for
all images
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Social Implications
Using one person’s email, we can
observe the social networks of
hundreds of people - what are the
implications of this?
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
Thoughts moving forward
More detailed analysis
– Use visualizations to have ethnographic
conversation with Mike
Extend to multiple users
– Visual comparison valuable
Allow for interactivity
– More detailed analysis of ego-centric graphs
Learn more from social network analysts
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002
http://smg.media.mit.edu/projects/SocialFragments/
danah boyd, Jeff Potter, Fernanda Viegas . Sociable Media, MIT Media Lab . Sunbelt . 17 February 2002