Spring Break
Guest lecturer discusses social networking
Zohaib Ahmad
Issue date: 2/20/09 Section: News
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Hodkinson, senior lecturer of the department of Sociology at the University of Surrey, focused on the private space on the Internet such as MySpace and Facebook and how it connected to one's identity.
"I'd like [college students] to think about the notion of private space. There are elements of private space where people have control who looks and who can't," Hodkinson said.
"This shows, especially for undergraduates, a new way of looking at practices online, a new look on communities online, new information on how sociologists work on online cultures," Mary Ebeling, of the department of Culture and Communication at Drexel, said.
Hodkinson explains this notion with the metaphor of the bedroom.
"You can compare it to the bedroom; it has boundaries and you can control who comes in."
As Hodkinson explained, it is this sense of control that makes a place private.
"In spite of the number of people who can see your Facebook, there is a sense of private, sense of individual. It is territory we own," Hodkinson said.
Hodkinson talked about how both the bedroom and private space on the Internet allows for wall decoration - to make sense on one's own identity.
"Personal spaces are particularly important in a world that constantly changes," Hodkinson said.
As said by Hodkinson, many youths between the stages of child and adult look for an identity.
"We're fickle and we're constantly trying to find new things to attach ourselves to," Hodkinson said.
According to Hodkinson, the Internet, like a bedroom, allows for one to take all these things and bring them into one place.
The department of Culture and Communication invited Hodkinson to Drexel for the MySpace lecture.
"I knew about his online work on youth subculture," Ebeling said.
According to Ebeling, the department of Culture and Communication is focusing on youth subculture and thought Paul's lecture was relevant to that idea.
"Online is a big field in sociology: trying to understand from a sociological point of view what it all means," Ebeling said.
According to Hodkinson, more and more people are using these online spaces.
"A lot of [college students] use this space, and I want to get them to think critically of what they are doing," Hodkinson said.
Hodkinson's earlier studies include relationships between media and different youth formations such as the Goth scene.
"When doing the study on Goths, the Goth scene was starting to use the Internet. I had to focus on that," Hodkinson said.
Hodkinson described the Internet as cementing the Goths by giving them all the resources to be a Goth, such as telling them which clubs to go to.
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