I have been working on social media for a long time
Saturday, March 15th, 2008Since at least 2000. I found a paper I wrote as an undergrad titled “Ethnography and Virtual Communities”. And wow my writing has improved in eight years. 
Here’s a sample from the paper:
Historically, sociologists have used ethnography “to balance detailed documentation of events with insights into the meaning of those events” (Crabtree). They have noted that there are three basic environments where people interact: where they work, where they live, and the place where they go for companionship. This place that they go for companionship, “the place of idle talk and banter with acquaintances and friends, is often where the sense of membership in a community is achieved and experienced” (Thomsen). Since the traditional places that people would go to experience this idle talk, such as barber shops, pubs or cafes, are essentially gone, “it should not be surprising that millions of people throughout the world turn to the Internet to recreate and reestablish the third sphere of conviviality” (Thomsen).
The references are Steven R. Thomsen, “Ethnomethodology and Study of Online Communities: Exploring the Cyber Streets, 22 April 1998 and Andy Crabtree, The Contribution of Ethnomethodology-Informed Ethnography to the Process of Designing Digital Libraries, May 1988.
I have been interested in this for a long time I guess.
