Thesis Title: Subtitle

Final Thoughts

Since its inception, Facebook has been plagued by predictions of its demise; but still it persists. Facebook has clearly managed to tap into some kind of cultural zeitgeist which has made it, and continues to make it more compelling than many of its predecessors. The feeling of being connected in a visible, tangible way is one of the things that makes Facebook so compelling. This is achieved not just by articulated social relationships, but also by the ability to create a shared social space constructed not just through friending practices, but the organisation of offline social interactions. One of the reasons Facebook is so attractive to users may be closely linked to the pressures of late modernity. As technology has enabled the separation of space from time by allowing continuation of relationships with others beyond face-to-face interaction, the cost of maintaining geographically diverse connections has increased. Arguably, relationships based on proximity are easier to maintain than those that are not. This simultaneous stretching and compression of social relations is well documented in the literature with theorists such as Lash (2002), Urry (2000) and Giddens (1999) all identifying this as a key feature of late modernity. While theoretically this position is accepted, there is little known about the impact of this on lived experience. That is, how individuals manage the stretching, displacement and compression of their social relationships. As identified by Giddens (1990) the dispersion of personal networks and increased social mobility is not a linear development, but acknowledges that space and time can be reconnected through social activity. Facebook, as a key site of social activity for the participants in this research, is compelling because of its ability to maintain social bonds altered and diminished by late modernity.

This demonstrates the capacity of humans to demonstrate agency in the face of the “destructive creativity” (Bauman 2000: 28) of modernity that destabilises or disembeds previous forms of social organisation. Giddens (1990) argues that modernity has fundamentally changed the way we experience intimacy. Modern life has diminished the

traditional communal character of day to day existence, and replaced it with impersonal and specialised relationships and systems. This is seen as a detrimental to personal relationships within modern societies (Giddens 1990). However, participants in the present research have created a place, which is undoubted linked to the institutions that still structure our daily lives such as educational institutions. Additionally, this space calls to mind previous forms of close and intimate living with others. This is in contrasts to the individualisation thesis, in which it is argued that individuals are disembedded from their old, communal (pre-modern) forms of life, into ones in which they must assemble their own life paths and attendant identities. This thesis has demonstrated that participants still value intimate relationships such as friendships and will use the affordances of late modernity (such as Facebook) to ensure that these relationships remain persistent over time.