The fallacy is to think that social networks are just made up of people. They’re not; social networks consist of people who are connected by a shared object. That’s why many sociologists, especially activity theorists, actor-network theorists and post-ANT people prefer to talk about ‘socio-material networks’, or just ‘activities’ or ‘practices’ (as I do) instead of social networks.—Jyri Engestrom
zengestrom.com: Why some social network services work and others don’t Or: the case for object-centered sociality (via csessums) (via tba)
This is related, in my mind, to Hugh MacLeod’s idea of the Social Object.
