Welcome to the network :)

Some links on Youth Work and Social Networking at http://del.icio.us/tags/ywsn

And do feel free to start a forum thread about anything dissertation related...

yer, came through this from a collegue in communications - has been quite good to read some stuff on here. Especially as we are currently setting up a social media website to engage residents in discussions much like facebook and bebo etc.

Lifes good at present - been away in barcalona and am off on hols to Majorca, Purta Polenca on the weekend for a couple of weeks - all thought of study gone out of the window now...

Hows things with you?

just about to write mine up on SNS and youth work. But as Tim says below, there are lots of links etc on the delicious tag he mentions below.

However 2 books I've just come across might be useful:
Wired Youth The Social World of Adolescence in the Information Age
· By Gustavo S. Mesch, and Ilan Talmud.


The debate on the social impact of information and communication technologies is particularly important for the study of adolescent life, because in their close association with friends and peers, adolescents develop life expectations, school aspirations, world views, and behaviors. Wired Youth investigates the driving forces of social interaction, such as shared interests and adolescents’ need of diversification of their social circle, and shows how online activities are closely associated with offline social behavior.
"Are teens really different in the Age of the Internet? What's going on beneath the buds of their smartphones and under the fingers of their keyboards? This book uses sound, empirically-based methods to show how life on the internet and life in real life are intertwined." - Barry Wellman, University of Toronto, Canada

and Social Networks in Youth and Adolescence By John Cotterell.

· Series Edited by John Coleman.

Part of the Adolescence and Society Series series

This thoroughly revised new edition looks at the nature of social networks, their changing configurations, and the forces of influence they unleash in shaping the life experiences of young people between the ages of 12 and 25 years.
Its not so much about SNS but quite revelant