Online Social Networks, Again

Imagine are a creative marketing agency based in the centre of Dublin. In the current edition of the Imagine newsletter, there's a useful reference to a New York Times article about Facebook and it's impact on social interaction. Apparently social scientists have a name for incessant online contact; "they call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye." An extract from the article (below) mentions some data-collection tools that people might find interesting.

One of the most popular new tools is Twitter, a ... messaging service that allows its ... users to broadcast to their friends haiku-length updates — limited to 140 characters... — on what they’re doing. There are other services for reporting where you’re traveling (Dopplr)... And there are even tools that give your location. When the new iPhone, with built-in tracking, was introduced in July, one million people began using Loopt, a piece of software that automatically tells all your friends exactly where you are.