Can social network sites enable political action

Social network sites (SNS) like MySpace and Facebook have re-organised the web, but to what ends? Fantasies about political action dance in the air while activists dream that this structure will allow people to speak truth to power. Yet, these daydreams are shattered through even a cursory look at what practices are actually taking place. Typical SNS users are more invested in adding glitter to pages and SuperPoking their ‘friends’ than engaging in any form of civically driven collective action. How did this happen? Technology’s majestical lustre makes it easy to fool people into believing that technology’s structure determines practice. It seems like such a simple conclusion – video games will make us violent, the Internet will make us more informed, and social network sites will make us politically activated, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, this techno-determinist doctrine does not actually hold up to interrogation. As science and technology scholars have argued, technology can best be understood through its social construction. Technologies are shaped by society and reflect society’s values back at us, albeit a bit refracted. If we accept that technologies mirror and magnify everyday culture, what do social network sites say about society? While we may wish that they shine a positive light, the most insidious practices on SNS highlight how status-obsessed and narcissistic we as a society are. We may wish to blame the technology for creating self-absorbed people, but it is probably more likely that egoists love social network sites because these services support their desire to exhibit oneself for the purposes of mass validation. By demonising the technology, we fail to fully grok the not-so-subtle message that society values beauty, exhibitionism, and self-aggrandisement and that social network sites provide opportunities for anyone to showcase themselves as pseudo-celebrities. Although these performances may not be ‘real’ because anyone can self-construct to put their best foot forward, they are certainly less scripted than reality TV. It may not be possible to get as much mindshare as Britney Spears, but social network sites certainly provide a platform for attention-seeking populations to do their thing. While such a critique surely evokes profiles of women revealing skin in provocative poses, the most active egoists on social network sites are musicians, politicians, marketers, and other populations who desperately want the attention of the masses. By and large, when politicians and activists