My final thoughts on Social Software Affordances…

• What is ’social’ about social software?
It connects people together.

• How is the notion of community being redefined by social software?
Distances between people, both temporal and spatial, are becoming less of a factor.

• What aspects of our humanity stand to gain or suffer as a result of our use of and reliance on social software?
While the intimacy and richness of face to face interactions may suffer if we come to rely too heavily on online interactions, those same online interactions afford people human connections that were never before possible.

• How is social agency shared between humans and (computer) code in social software?
The code connects computer to computer, but this is meaningless without people in front of those computers who want to use the code to connect, communicate.

• What are the social repercussions of unequal access to social software?
The divide will grow, beyond class and income, expanding into basic social rights.

• What are the pedagogical implications of social software for education?
With multiple modes of communication, we all have a voice and no one is solely a teacher or a student… we are both.

• Can social software be an effective tool for individual and social change?
Yes, but before any real social change can occur, we must understand fully how the technology we use affects us individually and as a society.