1. Small talk in the Digital Age:
Making Sense of Phatic Posts
Making Sense of Microposts
#MSM2012, #WWW2012. April 16, 2012
Danica Radovanovic, Massimo
Ragnedda
Danica Radovanovic: Licence CC Attribution BY-NC-ND 3.0
Flickr a.star

3. Phatic communication is “a type of speech in
which ties of union are created by a mere
exchange of words” and its purpose is to
establish and maintain the social bonds of the
interlocutors (Malinowski, 1923)

4. Phatic, small talk = linguistic ping
• establishing and maintaining connection with others
• a social, communicative, and validation/recognition function
• indexical information for social categorization
• negotiating the relationship (relative status,roles,and
affectivity)
• reinforcing social structure (Philip Riley)
• keep harmony and balance in the community
Flickr: fritzi

5. Phatic posts

6. Flickr t heirhistory
‘’Watching Titanic. Bored’’

7. aizuchi

10. (Steve, 58): We are poking all the time. For a long
time. It means someone likes you or someone
remembered you and wanted to say ‘’Hi’’
(Philip, 26): “Someone is thinking of you. By poking
they are letting you know.
Poke is like a substitute for touch’’
Radovanovic, D. (2012), Qualitative study, semi-structured
interviews

11. social grooming
Flickr: webmink

15. Educational element

16. Connected presence
Flickr andymatthews

17. Flickr: Tom Coates

18. THANK YOU!
For more information:
twitter @danicar
danica@danicar.org
http://www.danicar.org