The Ambient Intimacy
How Do We Tell Our Life Stories Together Apart?
Michał Wanke

Ambient Intimacy? Definition
being able to keep in touch with people
with a level of regularity and intimacy
without time and space constraints
without direct engagement in interaction
Leisa Reichelt
continual partial friendship - David Weinberger
continuous partial attention- Linda Stone

How does it work? Tools
ambient intimacy tools:
micro-blogs
social networking sites
media sharing sites
scrobblers
IM/statuses
blogs
mobile access

The content
„what are you doing?” - everyday life
facts, places, comments, states of mind, feelings,
significant others, important events
regular
instant
continuous
“what's happened in your life?” - major events

Who is doing it?
digital divide
instrumental internet (Tufekci, 2008)
performing tasks
information seeking
expressive internet
self-expression
creativity
online/”real life” buddies
from online communities to personal networks,
“PC internet” – “keitai internet” (Tomita, 2005)

What is going on?
social phenomena:
identity construction
social (co)presence
weak ties
indirection (communication)

Telling Identities
reflexive identity / impression management
generalized other, self-log
control
narrative identity – (everyday) life story
daily updates
biographical milestones
self disclosure
privacy concerns, audience management
re-embodiment

Social (Co)Presence
telecocoon (Habuchi, 2005) - “zone of intimacy
maintained not restricted by time and space”
relations in public
distributed presence (Turkle 1996) / hyper-connected
(Wellman, 2001)
“RL” in the virtual space
photos
biographic information
off-line buddies
location based media
panopticon

The Strength of The Weak Ties
intimate stranger (Tomita, 2005) – high
anonymity & intimacy
media multiplexity (Haythornthwaite, 2005)
together apart (Bauman)

Indirect Communication
orchestral communication
self-broadcasting
social performance
phatic expressions

Social Implicatinos
shift from “online communities” to forms of
sociability
new type of social ties?
research possibilities
conversation analysis
biographical method

Thanks
How Do We Tell Our Life Stories Together Apart?
Michał Wanke