Introduction
Since the technological revolution started in the 1960s, the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) are digitization, network communication, and interactivity. These technologies can change human relations by proposing, new spaces for interaction and other possibilities. Santos (2006) states that new techniques create new spaces and vice versa. However, it is not possible to think of them in a disconnected way from those who create them. There is a mutual dialogic implication between subjects and objects, which, is fundamental for the self-organization and transformation of individuals and groups according to the author. The popularization of the Internet since the 1990s has intensified the connection between people.
The social media emerging in digital spaces began to integrate this process, making the construction of knowledge in the network more plural and contributing to establishing a multiplatform, multifaceted, convergent society. This increases the importance of employing them as a research tool, as well as requires an improvement of management and technological mediation, aiming to understand the effects of innovations in this field.
Therefore, this scenario stimulates new questionings and movements in science. From this understanding to comprehend and outline paths and strategies for a plural and complex society, it is necessary to dialogically involve several fields of knowledge in an interdisciplinary effort. This research group proposal is not only to observe the incorporation of new media devices and languages in society but what factors favor it and how they help to demarcate a new production of meanings in the perceptions and representations of the world.
Theoretical background
Although the Brazilian reality is quite heterogeneous in terms of connection and quality of internet access, Brazilians have included computers, tablets, and smartphones in the list of essential consumer goods, regardless of social class. These tools allowed the expansion of social networks to digital environments through various platforms, making it possible to perform a variety of tasks from home. Some examples are shopping, making payments and bank transfers, meeting friends, participating in cultural events, and starting affectionate relationships among others.
The acceleration of the ways of living directly affects social interaction models, also promotes a transformation of the intimacy of social actors (GIDDENS, 1995), as the construction of identities becomes increasingly more reflexive. Living in a society marked by constant technological advancement implies moving through contexts of uncertainty, in which some of the ways found to stabilize the meanings given to everyday life is by searching for information and intense communications.
To investigate this global phenomenon, this research group starts from two assumptions. First, it considers that physical and digital spaces are integrated through the everyday experiences of social actors (MILLER, 2016; BOYD, 2014). Second, the speed involved in contemporary societies has made the communication society emerge, in which traditional structures are resignified through the high reflexivity of the actors. This high reflexivity, in turn, is influenced by social interactions that are inserted in a spiral of interdependent interactions, in which social and psychological factors constitute the action of social actors (BLUMMER, 1977).
According to Hine (2015), the Internet is not only embedded in society but incorporated into daily human activities in a way that there is no separation between physical and digital spaces, i.e., one is an extension of the other. Habermas (2003) points out that the emergence of physical spaces allows social actors to make their ideas public. The public sphere always has a judging audience, and this judgment’s object is publicized. Thus, physical spaces or “public sphere” would be an area in social life where individuals expose subjects of general interest for discussion, debates, criticisms, controversial opinions, aiming at a possible consensus.
To understand how social actors make sense of new technologies, create bonds, and carry out their everyday practices, interdisciplinary research is guided by participant observation. To look closely and from the inside (MAGNANI, 2002) of the web of interactions (GEERTZ, 2008) produced in these spaces, researchers, are also in the process of building and transforming their views while simultaneously building the object of study. Thiollent (2011) explains that, in participatory research, the researcher can also assume the investigated role, in addition to seeking horizontal communication between the members of a group. This dialogue is an important data collection tool, and the main objective of the study is not to solve a specific problem, but to broaden the discussion about social dynamics so that solutions can be jointly thought out and implemented.
In this context, Morin (2003) argues that the complexity of human relations places us before the need for interdisciplinary approaches. To break up the studies of the universe into specific areas would be to contribute to the isolation and consequent fragmentation of knowledge. This is not coherent with the game of order and disorder that constitutes society and eliminates clear boundaries between individuals and groups and of these about the systems of which they are part.
In this scenario of approximation and cooperation in constructing knowledge, the concept of social capital proposed by Putnam (1996) is also considered. Social capital is defined as characteristics of social organization that, based on trust, favor coordinated actions, aim to increase the efficiency of society. Thus, this happens in the following sense: since social capital is cumulative, i.e., it is built socially and historically and grows as it is used, the trust established in specific groups is extended to a community scope, which encourages collective participation and contributes to strengthening democracy. This goal is also shared by this research group.
To establish the field of investigation, we take as reference the dialog with authors mentioned above as well as others concerned with pertinent themes, that might be also incorporated according to the needs identified in the field.
Justification
Inspired by the polymedia proposed by Daniel Miller (2019), we see social media as relational places where people interact and coexist, promoting the integration between physical and digital spaces through their uses of technologies and sharing of experiences on digital social networks.
Barnes and Bott, two classic authors considered pioneers in these studies, position social network as a category of analysis that can be worked with several conceptual frameworks. For the authors, it is the ethnographic character that makes the concept work (BARNES, 1964; BOTT, 1976) and not a formal theory that establishes a universal law. This means that an ethnographic approach constitutes the basis for investigating interactions that support and organize such networks in the physical and digital spaces. Given the widespread use of social media and its impact on a wide range of social phenomena, this group understands that it is possible to explore, expand, and promote research on social media from Brazilian agents inserted in different contexts, reflecting and interweaving these studies and several disciplines through interdisciplinary and interparadigmatic dialogues. Thus, the research motivation is to map and expand research on social media, bringing together different approaches, from theoretical to empirical explorations.
Goals
Social Media Studies Research Group aims at:
− Build interdisciplinary networks of researchers in the field of Social Media Studies to conduct research focused on the reality permeated by Brazilian actors, and to develop other academic activities for the improvement of this field;
− Foster and conduct high-quality research and develop new ideas in the field of social media;
− Create a pleasant, cooperative, and democratic work environment for the group members,giving all participants the possibility to carry out their research, acquire and share
knowledge.
Periodicity
The Social Media Studies Research Group will hold at least one meeting a month, in which the group members will discuss: topics and status of the research, publication planning, event calendar, and participation in conferences, congresses, and other subjects.
Network strategy
The Social Media Studies Research Group currently has a staff of 5 members:
Claudia Pires de Castro: Head of the Research
References
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