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June 11, 2008
Social networks: the sociolinguistic fabric of our lives
All SHU bloggers, pardon me for invading this territory with a post intended for my IUP colleagues. My seminar to lead for class tomorrow is on the topic of social networks in sociolinguistics, and I could think of no better place to post my presentation notes than on my blog!
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So what are social networks?
Social networks in plain English
That video is genius. Wonderful. A big "thank you" to CommonCraft for that one. I couldn't have said that better myself... but I'll expand.
Before I move on: let's remember that, although the Internet has adopted and metamorphosed the term, social networks do not require a computer... even though the Internet-based kind offer great examples.
We're all part of social networks from the time we're born because our families serve as initial primary functioning networks. As we grow up, we become members of many networks simultaneously and our networks vary as we move through our lives. Childhood networks, however, have a greater effect on our linguistic patterns than do our adult networks (Meyerhoff 2006, p.195).
Think of some of your childhood networks: Girl Scouts? Boy Scouts? Swimming, gymnastics, art, dance, karate classes? Play groups? Others?How do you think those helped to define your speech?
Meyerhoff (2006) explains that every social network we are involved with has an impact on our linguistic behavior, but the question of how is what is most intriguing for sociolinguists (and one I would love to look into more deeply myself!).
Social networks are patterns of association or interaction. There are many ways to define them:
I like to think of those as broad and deep, personally. It helps me visualize it a little more (even though "deep" has quite the opposite connotation of "vertical," in my mind... "vertical" always makes me think upward, but that's a topic for another day).
We also have macro (large-scale) and micro (inter-personal) networks. And in these, we also have dense and loose networks.
And of course we have multiplex and uniplex:
One type of social network is a community of practice. Of course, there isn't just one general type...
So many ways to define our every day interactions! Each provides a different description, though, and is helpful in assessing what magnitude and what kinds of interaction are taking place, and what goals these social networks have (consider how we use language every day--most likely it's with someone in a social network you belong to!).
Some people say that our world is shrinking because travel and technology allow us to make things closer to ourselves (literally or metaphysically) *Ex. Six Degrees of Separation
Clearly the Internet facilitates this "small world" concept. Facebook is no exception.
Social networks will continue to grow and change as we do (and long after we do!). Evidently there are a myriad of ways to analyze these networks (mathematically, scientifically, socioscientifically, sociolinguistically, etc.). Our own interactions light paths to our potential as a species.The best we can do to learn more is to help ourselves and dive in with every question we can...
What do social networks facilitate/limit linguistically?
How is individualization promoted/prevented?
How does electronic Internet-based social networking change our linguistic competencies, metacognitive awareness of our language use, and our process of self-identification?
That and so much more, my friends... So much more.
Posted by KarissaKilgore at June 11, 2008 10:16 PM
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Comments
I love the CommonCraft retro aesthetic.
No need to apologize about inviting new readers... a blog is a blog. I'm happy to see what you're doing elsewhere.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at June 13, 2008 9:33 AM
Yeah, the video is awesome. I was so excited about it. The site is awesome, but I hadn't checked it for awhile. While searching for other media to include in my presentation I stumbled back to it.
Not sure I'll have new readers, per se, but at least folks in my class know I'm out here! (And they also now know that I collect sugarpackets--a very important part of knowing me in general :) haha.)
Posted by: Karissa at June 13, 2008 3:19 PM