Abstract
We explore the impact of technology on the strength of friendship ties. Data come from about two millions ties that members of CouchSurfing—an international hospitality organization whose goal is to promote travelling and friendship between its members—developed between 2003 and 2011 as well as original and secondary ethnographic data. The community, and the data available about its members, grew exponentially during our period of analysis, yet friendships between users tended to be stronger in the early years of CouchSurfing, when the online reputation system was still developing and the whole network was enmeshed in considerable uncertainty. We argue that this case illustrates a process of disenchantment created by technology, where technology increases the ease with which we form friendships around common cultural interests and, at the same time, diminishes the bonding power of these experiences.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bialski, P.: Intimate Tourism. Solilang, London (2009)
Bourdieu, P.: The Forms of Capital. In: Swedberg, R., Granovetter, M. (eds.) The Sociology of Economic Life, pp. 96–111. Westview Press, Boulder (1986)
Cheshire, C.: Online Trust, Trustworthiness, Ot Assurance? Daedalus 50, 49–58 (2011)
Coleman, J.S.: Social Structure and a Theory of Action. In: Blau, P. (ed.) Approaches to the Study of Social Structure, pp. 76–93. Free Press, New York (1975)
Cook, C., Hardin, R., Levi, M.: Cooperation Without Trust. Russell Sage Foundation, New York (2007)
DiMaggio, P.: Classification in Art. American Sociological Review 52, 440–455 (1987)
DiMaggio, P., Hargittai, E., Neuman, W.R., Robinson, J.P.: Social Implications of the Internet. Annual Review of Sociology 27, 307–336 (2001)
Erickson, B.: Culture, Class, and Connections. American Journal of Sociology 102, 217–252 (1996)
Feld, S.L.: The Focused Organization of Social Ties. American Journal of Sociology 86, 1015–1035 (1981)
Fiore, A., Cheshire, C.: The Role of Trust in Online Relationship Formation. In: Latusek, D., Gerbasi, A. (eds.) Trust and Technology in a Ubiquitous Modern Environment: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives, pp. 55–70. IGI Global, PA (2010)
Kairam, S., Daniel, W., Jure, L.: The Life and Death of Online Groups. In: ADM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, WSDM (2012)
Kollock, P.: The Emergence of Exchange Structures. American Journal of Sociology 100(2), 313–345 (1994)
Lauterbach, D., Truong, H., Shah, T., Adamic, L.: Surfing a Web of Trust: Reputation and Reciprocity on CouchSurfing.com. In: International Conference on Computational Science and Engineering (CSE 2009), vol. 4, pp. 346–353 (2009)
Lizardo, O.: How Cultural Tastes Shape Personal Networks. American Sociological Review 71, 778–807 (2006)
Long, E.: Book Clubs: Women and the Uses of Reading in Everyday Life. Chicago University Press, Chicago (2003)
Marx, P.: You’re Welcome. Couch-Surfing the Globe. The New Yorker (2012)
Moln, L.D., Takahashi, N., Peterson, G.: Risk and Trust in Social Exchange. The American Journal of Sociology 105(5), 1396–1427 (2000)
Molz, J.G., Gibson, S.: Mobilizing Hospitality. Ashgate Publishing Co., Burlington (2007)
Randall, C.: Theoretical Sociology. Harcourt, Brace, and Janovitch, San Francisco (1988)
Salganik, M.J., Dodds, P.S., Watts, D.J.: Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market. Science 311, 854–856 (2006)
Simmel, G.: The Sociology of Georg Simmel. The Free Press, Glencoe (1950) edited by K.H. Wolff
Yamagishi, T., Cook, K.S., Watabe, M.: Uncertainty, Trust and Commitment Formation in the United States and Japan. American Journal of Sociology (104), 165–194 (1998)
Yamagishi, T., Yamagishi, M.: Trust and Commitment in the United States and Japan. Motivation and Emotion 18(2), 129–164 (1994)
Zigos, J.: CouchSurfing’s Sex Secret, Business Insider (2013), http://www.businessinsider.com/couchsurfing-the-best-hook-up-app-2013-12
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Parigi, P., State, B. (2014). Disenchanting the World: The Impact of Technology on Relationships. In: Aiello, L.M., McFarland, D. (eds) Social Informatics. SocInfo 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8851. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13734-6_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13734-6_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-13733-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-13734-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)