Affinity Online. Mizuko Ito
Jenkins 1992; Jenkins et al. 2009) and consider the unique forms of social bonding that young people encounter in online affinity networks. The practices we describe are situated within a trend that internet researchers have identified for people to increasingly leverage mobile and online technology to build more intentional and specialized networks (Lenhart et al. 2015; Matsuda 2005; Rainie and Wellman 2012).
Depending on the interest, the glue that holds online affinity networks together varies widely. Competition and tournaments are the shared purpose that drives the StarCraft affinity network. For young people who knit and create levels in LittleBigPlanet, creative challenges are a focal point for the community. Bollywood dancers orchestrate performances, and Nerdfighters mobilize around social causes. While united by a shared content world, infrastructure, and affinity, successful online affinity networks are spaces of constant renewal. Moderators and community leaders describe a process of constant adaptation in order to continue to respond to an ever-changing network and sustain engagement. What are the cultural content, shared activities, and infrastructures that hold these networks together, and how do they adapt through time?
In addition to describing the infrastructure, culture, and shared practices that hold an online affinity network together, this chapter also considers the role that networks that are learning centered can play in young people’s discovering new interests and deepening existing ones. The chapter locates the online affinity networks we studied as a particular kind of influence in young people’s lives, one that enables them to connect to specialized knowledge and relationships that are not present in their homes and local organizations. Young people take to online affinity networks when they want to embrace interests and affiliations that parents and teachers think are a waste of time and that are stigmatized by their local peer groups. One Direction and professional wrestling fans describe how online fandoms offered a safe space for them to geek out on interests that many in their local communities looked down on, and StarCraft players hid their obsession with the game from their parents. Even in cases such as knitting, in which the interest has a positive or neutral valence in the family or with local peers, young people describe the online affinity networks as a place where they were able to connect with people who really “get” them and understand the passion they bring to their interest.
Peer Status and Social Capital
Online affinity networks are a context where young people can form social relationships and networks that differ from those they find in their schools, sports, and local communities. Chapter 3 takes up questions of how status and reputation are negotiated in online affinity networks, and the forms of social capital that young people gain from affinity-based relationships they develop in these networks. Online affinity networks that are learning centered give young people a context to be recognized for creative production, specialized knowledge, and commitments to a community or cause. These pursuits can also be sequestered from their everyday identities in school and in families, which can give them a safe space of experimentation and expression, supported by peers who really “get it” and have a shared appreciation for their commitments. Because they rely on open online infrastructures, online affinity networks can have low barriers to entry, and those we examined embrace a welcoming and inclusive ethos. At the same time, when they are focused on high-quality work and performance, they develop social processes for recognizing achievement and contributions to the community that create status distinctions. How do learning-oriented online affinity networks mark achievement, contributions, and status in the network? What kinds of social support and benefits come with young people’s gaining status in these networks?
The relationships that young people develop in online affinity networks can be strong and intimate because of the shared affinity and camaraderie of these settings. At the same time, they also have qualities of what Mario Small has described as “compartmentalized intimates”—relationships that are strong but tied to very specific activities and affiliations (Small 2009). The knowledge, skills, status, and social capital that young people develop in online affinity networks are highly valued within the interest group, but they often do not connect and translate beyond those who are in this network. It is akin to what Sarah Thornton has described as “subcultural capital” in describing the indie music clubbing scene (Thornton 1996). Being set off from mainstream culture and organizations creates a strong sense of belonging and unique markers of status, which simultaneously creates boundaries that inhibit connection to social and cultural capital outside of the affinity network. Our cases have varying degrees of tension with the cultural and social status markers of adult and mainstream institutions, but they are all characterized by robust internal markers of reputation, achievement, and status.
Opportunity: Connecting Back to the Wider World
After examining the characteristics of peer status and reputation, the book then takes the final step in the journey through the connected learning model. How and when do the learning and social capital developed in online affinity networks connect and translate to academic, civic, and career opportunities? In many ways, the strength of the bonding and learning that happen in online affinity networks is grounded in their relative independence from the status hierarchies that characterize local peer networks and the more goal-directed learning and achievement of résumé building for school and career. At the same time, we observed instances of young people’s leveraging the learning and relationships developed in their online affinity networks in the wider world.
These connections were most seamlessly developed for groups centered on a “connected civics” model, in which the interest and affinity are already centered on real-world activism and civic action (Ito et al. 2015). In other cases, young people applied skills they developed—such as mathematical reasoning or writing—to in-school settings. We also found examples of young people’s parlaying their online activities into immediate economic benefits—such as selling knitting patterns online—as well as longer-term career pathways—such as choosing to pursue vocational training related to the interest area.
These examples point to the ways in which we can frame educational supports in terms of brokering and connection building rather than the more conventional notion of “transfer.” The ability of young people to make these connections from affinity networks to opportunity were not simply about the individual’s “applying” or “generalizing” knowledge and skills but rested on very specific relational, infrastructural, and organizational supports such as a close relationship to a teacher, a school offering, or civic action related to an interest.
In the final chapter of the book, we explicitly explore the implications of our research for educational practice and the design of programs and technology. While online affinity networks may not be explicitly designed to support connected learning, they provide a rich set of lessons for those seeking to leverage the emerging affordances of the online world in the service of learning that is engaged, equitable, and meaningful.
CASE 1.1
The Wrestling Boards
Crystle Martin
The wrestlers wait with bated breath for the unveiling of the match card, which tells players whom they will be wrestling that week.1 As soon as the match card is released by the booker, who manages the fantasy wrestling federation, the wrestlers gleefully spring into action—creating feuds with the wrestler or wrestlers they are paired with that week. Throughout the course of the week, the wrestlers build and perfect their feuds—creating written, audio, or video promos about how they are going to win their match against the opposing wrestler (see figure C.1.1.). At the end of a given week, the booker calls a halt to the feuding, and the anticipation grows as three writers launch into a frenzied weekend of activity, in which they churn out up to 85 pages of text. These stories are released to the wrestlers, who devour every moment—from the time the first wrestler hits the ramp to the last move of the last match with a winner being declared—and every scrap of text between. The wrestlers enjoy every moment of the narrative of the match that grew out of their carefully crafted and raucous feuds. The wrestlers discuss the match and share praise and criticism with the writers, and then the whole process begins again with a new match card and new feuds.