The British general interest science weekly, NewScientist, has a special report in the September 18 edition on social networking. In several feature articles, an interview with MIT's Sherry Turkle, and a short fiction by sci-fi star Bruce Sterling, the magazine looks at the implications of not only social networking, but also cell phones and other new media.

According to American science writer Amanda Gefter in an opinion piece for the report:

Friendster, one of the pioneers of online social networking, now has more than 30 million members. Bebo, launched only last July, has 25 million members and is the number one social networking site in the UK. Then there is the mother of all networking sites, MySpace. Purchased last July by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for $580 million, MySpace has just registered its 100 millionth member. In July it was ranked number one website among US internet users, receiving more hits in a one-week period than even Google.

That's a lot of (highly exposed) members!

What might the implications be, societally? In the issue, Turkle, who has long asked complex questions about technology in straightforward ways, assesses the downside in an interview with Liz Else. Says Turkle:

The self that grows up with multitasking and rapid response measures success
by calls made, emails answered, messages responded to. In this buzz of activity,
there may be losses that we are not ready to sustain. We insist that our world
is increasingly complex, yet we have created a communications culture that has
decreased the time available for us to sit and think, uninterrupted. Teens
growing up with always-on communication are primed to receive a quick message to
which they are expected to give a rapid response. They may never know another
way. Their experience raises a question for us all: are we leaving enough time
to take one's time?

Similar questions are raised by USC electrical engineer Bart Kosko, an expert on fuzzy logic and neural networks, in his new book Noise. Some multitasking--listening to music and reading or writing--can actually help improve performance. But too much dampens it. Kosko wonders how much noise is too much?

Turkle goes on to raise interesting points about the relationship between self-expression and social action--and the long shadow between the two.

In another piece in this issue, reporter Alison George looks at the ways in which the web cryopreserves perhaps too much:

What can be done to prevent what [Alessandro] Acquisti and [Ralph] Gross [of Carnegie Mellon University] call "an eternal memory of our indiscretions"?

George proceeds to quote students who contend that those of their peers intending on careers outside the corporation or academe are less concerned about what they post on Facebook or MySpace than those who intend to enter "professional" realms. (Of course, this represents a presupposition by 18 year olds that they have accurate crystal balls: "I did not inhale.")

Bruce Sterling weighs in with a short fiction, the gist of which is:

My Dad - he's still alive, apparently - he sent me an email from China and
said I ought to "recruit" Debbie into my "social group dynamics of online
identity production". My Dad always talks like that. I haven't seen Dad
face-to-face in six years. Look: I am a 17-year-old male, okay? I don't want to
send Debbie any hotlinks and digital video. I want to take Debbie out! Maybe we
could take some clothes off! But there isn't any "out" for me and Debbie. There
isn't any "off", either.

Is there a standalone ASCII character for "testosterone" or "estrogen"? There oughta be.

NewScientist even, as it usually does, makes a nod to the techno wizards who made this all possible, in this case, Ted Nelson, whose take on the whole schmeer is sorrowful. Sez Ted (and I'll give him the last word):

[Social networking sites] are all about real estate. You set out your stall, stake out a
territory. The whole World Wide Web is about a sense of ownership, starting from
those company web addresses. But what I envisioned and built is about sharing
media and acknowledging sources, without walls or boundaries.