Social Media

Although many different views of social media coexist in the field of information systems (IS), such the- ories are usually not introduced in a consistent framework based on philosophical foundations. This introduces the dimensions of lifeworld and consideration of others. The concept of lifeworld includes Descartes’ rationality and Heidegger’s historicity, and consideration of others is based on instru- mentalism and Heidegger’s ‘‘being-with.” These philosophical foundations elaborate a framework where different archetypal theories applied to social media may be compared: Goffman’s presentation of self, Bourdieu’s social capital, Sartre’s existential project, and Heidegger’s ‘‘shared-world.”

While Goffman has become a frequent reference in social media, the three other references are innovative in IS research. The concepts of these four theories of social media are compared with empirical findings in IS literature. While some of these concepts match the empirical findings, some other concepts have not yet been inves- tigated in the use of social media, suggesting future research directions.

The features extrapolated from the theories that do not match current findings are Goffman’s strategic interaction (game theory), Bourdieu’s reproduction of social capital and reproduction of social structure (‘‘habitus”), Sartre’s gaze of others that contributes to our identity, and Heidegger’s being-in-the-world. Such a gap may be understood by the fact that most of these concepts were simply not included as observable phenomena in the studies, and therefore may have been neglected because of a methodological theoretical lens.

Bourdieu’s theory of social capital is nearly in an opposite situation, compared with Goffman. While Goffman’s presentation of self was written for a work environment, Bourdieu introduces social capital along with cultural capital and symbolic capital in realms other than economics. For example, social capital is discussed for diverse groups in the social world such as a family, class, tribe, school, party, clan or club. The point is that although these kinds of capitals are distinct from economic capital, they are all convertible in the long run into economic capital. Bourdieu’s theory of social capital has been discussed for two decades in management; however, its application to the work environment in IS has been limited to a few studies and occurs even less in enterprise social network research.

Along with this contextual inquiry, another contingency should be discussed here: the intention of social media uses. Elaborating on Boyd , three intentions may be distinguished: open, semiopen, and closed intention of use. For example, an open intention of social media use may correspond to micro-blogs because postings are mostly open to anyone; that is, anyone can read a post and re-post it, and anyone can connect to anyone without permission. On the other hand, a semi-open intention of use may be found when we protect our micro-blog account. Finally, a closed intention of use may be found in SNS such as WeChat or Facebook. Indeed, these SNS require users to limit the audience of their posts. To be connected, a person needs the other’s agreement first. Although closed-use intention may be more relevant to a personal environment, open-use intention may correspond to a work environment. However, this distinction is challenged by companies that tend to encourage their employees to discuss not only work matters but also personal matters with colleagues using SNS, in order to enhance cooperation .